Giving credit where credit is due
I have held all the titles at some point: Stay-At-Home-Mom, Work-From-Home-Mom, Working Mom, Hot Mess Mom… I am and always will be the Hot Mess Mom.
Example: my 5-year-old son Jude has been terribly sick with a respiratory infection for the last 3 weeks. He was finally well enough to go to school on Friday. But I kept him home because I forgot to help him make a leprechaun trap to share with his class. #truestory.
This stage of my life of being a working mom is taxing. On me, my kids, my husband, our nanny and every au pair we have had over the last year and a half.
I get asked often, “how do you do it all?”
Well, the answer is I don’t do it all. It’s impossible. I’ve tried. I failed miserably.
As my first entry in to the Mother’s Thoughts section of this blog, I am giving credit where credit is due. As a 29-year-old mom of 3 under 5 pursuing the launch of an enterprise software company, nothing is done without the immense work of a multiplayer team effort.
My husband Alex works about 60-80 hours a week with overtime to make up for the fact I am no longer making any money. And on his days off, like today, he takes the kids out of the house for several hours so I can keep working with no interruptions. It pays to have a supportive spouse, and there is no one more supportive than Alex.
We have had a nanny or au pair helping with our home and kids ever since officially pursuing this venture in July of 2017. They have absolutely been worth the expense and without them, there is absolutely no way I could ever have even come this far. They deserve just as much credit as I do if this thing takes off. So thank you to these ladies who have cared for my children over the last 2 years. Thank you for loving them, treating them like your own, and making me feel secure as a mom. You are the real MVP’s: Halie, Amanda, Anni, and Dulce.
Supportive parents. Thank God my parents support me and believe in me. If they didn’t believe I could do this, I would have never attempted. They both take my calls every other day and listen to me vent about the newest challenge and offer up solutions. They’re my real advisors.
Supportive friends. Encouragement and belief in me from my friends helps me soldier on, and gives me the boost I need to believe in myself.
And of course my kids. I would never have even attempted this if I didn’t have my kids as a motivator to provide a better life for them where Alex and I are more present more often.
All in all, surrounding yourself with the right people is critical to your success. Credit for your accomplishments really is due to the people who uplift and support you through it.
And the next time someone looks like SuperMom to you, she probably has different circumstances helping her appear that way (raising my hand).