I am a woman and an M.B.A. Married with a 3 year old. Before I married I was pretty morbidly afraid of being a stay-home wife let alone a stay-home mom. The absence of tangible deadlines and pressures... the utter invisibility of making another human being. They very thought of it had me hyperventilate. Of course, life has to make sure you face your worst fears. Take away my identity as this smart-person who could handle-any-workload and add a baby to the mix you can picture the mess I was in 2012.
Im still a mess, but I see a method to it now. Respect is a big word, but I wonder why I didn't respect family-dom much before I had a kid. Let's talk about management - everyone asks me whether I miss being associated with management and deadlines. I think hard and have this to say - I've never had to use it more. Beginning from nutritional planning to playgroup settings to assessing growth landmarks - the mom(ager) is literally charting the creation of a new person. So yes - our bonus is a new word he uses, our raise is an extra hour to ourselves and our peer review is when your family sees that the kid is actually in one piece and not completely damaged!
Unlike other deadlines, if I miss a deadline - I have consequences other than some shame or lost money. Im either dealing with a cranky, irritable 30 pound mass or have a destroyed house to restore. If I make a poor move, Im looking at a super-embarrassing tantrum at the grocery store.
I never used daycare and he now heads to preschool 3 hours a day. Turns out I can still string sentences together and read a management report. If you detect note of indignation - you are spot on. I'm amazed at how women who take a break to raise their children are thought of having undergone a brain-freeze or something. Somewhere in the squeezed-in blogs as a kid sleeps, the insane plans to use the outdoors no-matter-what and the tactical decisions made while cookery, my mind has morphed into an alertness I haven't seen before. Sleep deprivation, food deprivation and social deprivation converts moms into mom-agers - a bad*** version of their former selves which literally cares little for judgment and is much quicker to respond than the average peer without children. And it doesn't end there; below is one of the many articles Im seeing pop up all over mainstream news media talking about the new gen of mom-agers:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3055634/second-shift/5-parenting-skills-that-make-you-a-better-at-your-job
The point is - you can be a really good manager even if you are a mom. Especially if you are a mom. And if you are reading this as a woman - I hope it helps you make the choice (as people always present it to you ) of being either a mom or a manager.
Im still a mess, but I see a method to it now. Respect is a big word, but I wonder why I didn't respect family-dom much before I had a kid. Let's talk about management - everyone asks me whether I miss being associated with management and deadlines. I think hard and have this to say - I've never had to use it more. Beginning from nutritional planning to playgroup settings to assessing growth landmarks - the mom(ager) is literally charting the creation of a new person. So yes - our bonus is a new word he uses, our raise is an extra hour to ourselves and our peer review is when your family sees that the kid is actually in one piece and not completely damaged!
Unlike other deadlines, if I miss a deadline - I have consequences other than some shame or lost money. Im either dealing with a cranky, irritable 30 pound mass or have a destroyed house to restore. If I make a poor move, Im looking at a super-embarrassing tantrum at the grocery store.
I never used daycare and he now heads to preschool 3 hours a day. Turns out I can still string sentences together and read a management report. If you detect note of indignation - you are spot on. I'm amazed at how women who take a break to raise their children are thought of having undergone a brain-freeze or something. Somewhere in the squeezed-in blogs as a kid sleeps, the insane plans to use the outdoors no-matter-what and the tactical decisions made while cookery, my mind has morphed into an alertness I haven't seen before. Sleep deprivation, food deprivation and social deprivation converts moms into mom-agers - a bad*** version of their former selves which literally cares little for judgment and is much quicker to respond than the average peer without children. And it doesn't end there; below is one of the many articles Im seeing pop up all over mainstream news media talking about the new gen of mom-agers:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3055634/second-shift/5-parenting-skills-that-make-you-a-better-at-your-job
The point is - you can be a really good manager even if you are a mom. Especially if you are a mom. And if you are reading this as a woman - I hope it helps you make the choice (as people always present it to you ) of being either a mom or a manager.
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