Here’s a great post from a new source of “professional women’s balance” guidance and war stories…The Fulcrumpoint
As I’ve worked my way through all of the women/mom acronyms, I think that I’ve covered all bases….I’ve been a DINK (dual income no kids) a COHM (Career Outside the Home Mom), a SAHM (Stay at Home Mom), a WAHM (Work at Home Mom), and a CAHM (Career At Home Mom). Trying to live that perfect Mom, Wife, Work, Life balance, I think I’m getting pretty close with my current status as a CAHM. I’ll try to sum up my perspective of each one:
DINK: As the name implies, plenty of disposable income to spend on things that related to ‘me’ (and my husband), plenty of time to go to the movies, go to restaurants, lay around the house on a Saturday, go on vacation, etc. But, if I’m really honest, we always felt like something was missing, and we spent a lot of time talking about and planning for children (how many, what would name them, how much fun they would be….)
COHM: Guilt. This basically sums up my experience with continuing to work while raising children. I had guilt about leaving my newborn with a nanny, I had guilt about always having to leave the office before everyone else, I had guilt about my work colleagues having to adjust their schedule to accommodate my ‘new mom’ schedule.
Even with a reduced work week (which really meant that my former full-time schedule of 60 hours a week was reduced to a ‘part-time’ schedule of 40…), I couldn’t make this work. My house was a disaster, my toddler ran and jumped in the nanny’s lap when she saw me come home from work, and I really felt like I wasn’t contributing at work as I had during my ‘pre-kid’ days. With baby #2 on the way and the realization that the only way for me to advance at work would be to completely outsource 100% of my personal life, I quit.
Read more about professional work-life balance for women and moms…
