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Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Trial Lawyer in Georgia

09/06/2018 by 21 Comments

trial lawyer work life balance georgia momFor this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader Meredith, who lives in Georgia with her husband and four sons and was working as a trial lawyer when she shared her week with us. Our usual caveat applies: Please remember that this is is a real person who has feelings and isn’t gaining anything from this, unlike your usual friendly (soul-deadened, thick-skinned, cold-hearted, money-grubbing) blogger — so please be kind with any comments. Thank you! – Kat

If you’d like to be featured (anonymously or otherwise), please fill out this form! You can see all posts in this series here.

First, Some Basics About This Working Mom…

Name: Meredith
Location: Live in Smyrna, Georgia; work in small personal injury firm in Atlanta (Here’s an update from Meredith: “Since writing this Week in the Life, I’ve opened my own law firm for more flexibility in balancing work/life demands.work life balance trial lawyer in Georgia“) 
Job: trial lawyer
Age: 36
Home Situation: Four kids; stay-at-home dad who homeschools the older two 
Childcare Situation: Preschool three days a week for 3-year-old during school year ($2,500); homeschool co-op ($4,000)

A Week in My Life

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Week in the Life of a Working Mom: An Engineer in Texas

08/09/2018 by 14 Comments

engineer work-life balanceFor this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader Jeffiner, who lives in Texas with her husband and daughter and works as an engineer. Our usual caveat applies: Please remember that this is is a real person who has feelings and isn’t gaining anything from this, unlike your usual friendly (soul-deadened, thick-skinned, cold-hearted, money-grubbing) blogger — so please be kind with any comments. Thank you! – Kat

If you’d like to be featured (anonymously or otherwise), please fill out this form! You can see all posts in this series here.

First, Some Basics About This Working Mom…

Name: Jeffiner
Location: Texas
Job: Engineer
Age: 37
Home Situation:  

I live in a 1,700-square-foot house with a large yard. My husband is 36 and is an engineer at the same company where I work. We have one daughter who is 2.5, and I’m expecting baby number two in March. We have one indoor cat, three outdoor cats, and a couple of chickens in the backyard. (Here’s an update from Jeffiner: “Since writing up my week, I unfortunately suffered a miscarriage. My husband and I are currently TTC again.”) 

Childcare Situation:

Full-time daycare, at a national chain — $206.10 per week, including a 10% company discount.engineer work-life balance in Texas working mom

A Week in My Life

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Week in the Life of a Working Mom: A Manager-Analyst in TX

07/12/2018 by 32 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader S, who lives in Texas with her husband and foster child and works as a project manager/data analyst. Our usual caveat applies: Please remember that this is is a real person who has feelings and isn’t gaining anything from this, unlike your usual friendly (soul-deadened, thick-skinned, cold-hearted, money-grubbing) blogger — so please be kind with any comments. Thank you! – Kat

If you’d like to be featured (anonymously or otherwise), please fill out this form! You can see all posts in this series here.

First, Some Basics About This Working Mom…

Name: S
Location: Live in Houston but outside the loop, relatively short commute: 20–45 min. each way
Job: I’m a hybrid between a project manager and a data analyst. I work in the oil industry.
Age: 31
Home Situation: I live in a 1,500-square-foot house with my DH (financial analyst, 31), FB (foster baby, 14 weeks), and dog (retired, 9 years) [Here’s an update from S, since it’s been a while since she submitted her Week in the Life: “Foster baby is now 15 months, walking, testing boundaries, but is still very sweet.”]

Childcare Situation: Daycare 40 hours per week, $850/month. DH and I have mostly flexible schedules. Our families live over 250 miles away. Friends babysit sometimes.

S added a little more about her experience fostering a child: 

The foster process has been a challenge; he is now 15 months and still no adoption date is in sight. The system is definitely broken, but our case has been unusually quiet and easy (if long) and foster baby is so sweet. We would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

A Week in My Life

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Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Family Law Attorney in Minnesota

06/21/2018 by 32 Comments

family law attorney work-life balance For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader C, who lives in Minnesota with her husband and three kids and works as a family law attorney. Our usual caveat applies: Please remember that this is is a real person who has feelings and isn’t gaining anything from this, unlike your usual friendly (soul-deadened, thick-skinned, cold-hearted, money-grubbing) blogger — so please be kind with any comments. Thank you! – Kat

If you’d like to be featured (anonymously or otherwise), please fill out this form! You can see all posts in this series here.

First, Some Basics About This Working Mom…

Name: C
Location: live and work in outer-ring Twin Cities suburb
Job: family law attorney for small town firm
Age: 34
Home Situation: 

My husband is a middle school guidance counselor in the town we live in, who just completed his administration license to become a principal and is currently writing his dissertation to complete his doctorate in educational leadership. We have three kids, a 5-year-old boy who is starting kindergarten in the fall, a 3-year-old girl who is starting preschool in the fall, and a 5-month-old boy. We live in the same neighborhood as my family — my mom and dad, sisters and their husbands and children, my brother and his children, two grandmothers, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins and their children. We are a very close family that support each other endlessly. My father has been an attorney in town for 36 years and my mom is a newly retired autism specialist for a local school district, who is now busier than ever consulting for school districts across the state.

Childcare Situation: 

During the summer, my children stay home with my husband (yay school hours!) and during the school year, I bring them to my older sister’s house at 8:00 a.m. and my husband picks them up at 5:00 p.m. I work from home on Fridays year round and keep the kids home with me to save on childcare costs. We pay about $1,600 per month for four days of childcare a week, then another $150 per month for private preschool.

A Week in My Life

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Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Contract Negotiator in the Midwest

05/31/2018 by 14 Comments

contract negotiator work-life balance working momFor this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader Lala, who lives in the Midwest with her husband and two sons and works as a contract negotiator. Our usual caveat applies: Please remember that this is is a real person who has feelings and isn’t gaining anything from this, unlike your usual friendly (soul-deadened, thick-skinned, cold-hearted, money-grubbing) blogger — so please be kind with any comments. Thank you! – Kat

If you’d like to be featured (anonymously or otherwise), please fill out this form! You can see all posts in this series here.

First, Some Basics About This Working Mom…

Name: Lala
Location: MCOL town in the Midwest
Job: contract negotiator at a large company
Age: 31
Home Situation: I live in a 1,800-square-foot, 3-bedroom/2-bath house with my husband (35-year-old programmer), our sons P (3 yrs. 11 mos.) and J (1 yr. 8 mos.contract negotiator work-life balance - image of a working mom negotiating contracts for a midwestern city), and our large dog. The kids share a room.
Childcare Situation: full-time daycare center, $2,300 per month

A Week in My Life

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Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Business Manager in Boston

05/17/2018 by 25 Comments

business manager in tech in boston shares her work-life balance as a working momFor this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader K, who lives in the Boston suburbs with her husband and son and works as a business manager in tech. Our usual caveat applies: Please remember that this is is a real person who has feelings and isn’t gaining anything from this, unlike your usual friendly (soul-deadened, thick-skinned, cold-hearted, money-grubbing) blogger — so please be kind with any comments. Thank you! – Kat

If you’d like to be featured (anonymously or otherwise), please fill out this form! You can see all posts in this series here.

First, Some Basics About This Working Mom…

Name: K
Location: Lives and works in a Boston suburb
Job: Business manager in tech
Age: 32
Hours worked in a typical week: 35–44
Home Situation: I live in a 2,500-square-foot house with my husband (engineer in biotech); our 9-month old son, C; and our cat.
Childcare Situation: $1,200/month. We have a unicorn childcare situation: a licensed, in-home provider in our neighborhood who watches C and two other babies his same age. It is essentially a nanny share, but at a fraction of the cost.

We asked K about how she arrived at her “unicorn” arrangement for childcare: 

Mostly by luck, sorry to say, there is no magic secret. We toured several big-name centers, one independent center, and two in-home providers — in our area there is no shortage. I do recommend checking with your state’s child care licensing agency when looking for in-home providers, because many do not advertise. That’s how we found ours, but it was purely luck that all her kids were “graduating” to pre-K and she was starting with two other babies C’s age. And because of mandated ratios, she can’t take any more kids right now. We also got lucky that we click really well with the other families and the kids all have similar temperaments.

A Week in My Life

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