Wins, Woes, and Maternity Leave
Your parenting stories and a reader question
This week, three more brave parents share their wins and woes with us — plus a question about the end of maternity leave.
If you haven’t shared a story with us yet, we’d love to hear from you! Submit yours here.
And remember: you are doing a great job, even when it doesn’t feel like it.
Salad Days
My 2.5-year-old is completely obsessed with dinosaurs (thank you, PBS’s Dinosaur Train and the old classic The Land Before Time!). He loves to talk about herbivores, meat eaters, etc. and often pretends to be a dino at mealtimes … which means he wants to eat leaves he can get. Now he absolutely loves salads (“more leaves, please!”), which just makes me so happy.
Stepping Up
—True, but ouch
Not a parenting struggle so much as a new step-parenting milestone reached: the first time to get the line “You’re not my real mom! I just want my REAL mom!” in four years. Totally true, kid, and I agree — but it was nicer when we didn’t say it out loud.
Cheap Thrills
—Emily
Today, our five-month-old happily kicked the wall behind our bed for 20 minutes. EASY! FREE!
Now it’s time for all of you to chime in. A reader writes:
My maternity leave is ending next week. I’m really struggling with missing time with my daughter but also continuing my career that I worked so hard to achieve.
First, cheers for our reader. Second, what helped you? Leave a comment below.
Be intentional about expanding your circle of working moms. Many of my friends cut back or quit their jobs after kids, which of course is a valid choice, but seeing them take their kids to the zoo in the middle of a workday was SO hard. I still love and spend time with those friends, but I’ve also cultivated more friendships with those who go through the same working mom struggles. It makes the whole thing feel normal, which helps with the guilt.
Also, one day soon your sweet cuddly baby will be a toddler and I PROMISE some days you will practically throw them into their classrooms :)
I loved being home with my kiddos when I was on maternity leave but I know I was never meant to be a stay at home mom. I too have worked hard to build my career and enjoy the intellectual challenge of my work. I think the biggest thing that helped me when I was going back to work was to remind myself that I was going to be a better mom to my kids if I was working. I would be happier than if I had left my job to stay home with them. Additionally, daycare (or "school" as we refer to it because it makes me feel better) was going to allow my children way more interaction and stimulation than I could possibly give them at home. So while I did feel extremely guilty the first few days and weeks after I went back to work, I know that in the long run going back to work is/was the best option for me and my family.