Like many moms out there, I’m a working mom.  Well, all moms work, so I guess I mean I also have a job that pays me! Outside of my The Harried Mom duties, I work full time outside the home.  It’s a career I’ve spent almost 20 years building, one that I think I’m good at and enjoy-most of the time.  For me, there was no question as to whether I would go back to work after having my kids.  Growing up I’d always been told that I could have it all: husband, family & career.  Well, I finally did have it all, but now how the heck was I going to manage it?

When I returned to work after my first child, everything felt like a race.  Running to get him to daycare, running to catch the train to get to work, running to the new mother’s room to pump, running out of work to catch the train and get my son from daycare…you get the idea.  I was literally running myself ragged to be “the perfect working mom,” a mix of Lois Lane career gal with a splash of Mrs. Cleaver and a dash of Martha Stewart homemaker, all rolled into one.  It had me doubting myself as a mother, wife and career woman.

I thought I was alone and a failure-until I started talking to other moms in the exact same boat I was in.  Once I shared with and listened to other career-minded moms, I was finally able to put things into perspective and get a picture of what work/life balance meant to me.

For me, that meant working with my boss to create a flexible work schedule so I can pick the kidlets up from Pre-K/daycare, make dinner and still have some quality time with them before they go to bed (FYI – my husband has his own work/life balance that he’s figured out, taking over mornings, making breakfast and spending time with the kidlets before heading out for the day!).  I try not to “sweat the small stuff” and instead focus on what my kids and husband really need-which is me. I’ve learned no matter what, the laundry will eventually get washed and the groceries will somehow magically appear in my kitchen!

Best of all, talking to other working moms has definitely kept me from turning into “Mommie Dearest!” What it comes down to is that we, as moms, are our own best resources.  It’s all about us sharing what we know.

I took part as a panelist in a Tweet chat with Mom Corps NYC for working parents.  The chat will focused on resources, inspiration and networking for working parents and will be the first of an evolving conversation series for NYC area working moms.

Click here for a recap of the chat.

The And Now For A Balancing Act by The Harried Mom, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.