working moms in the northeast Archives

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

05/17/2018 by Guest Poster 25 Comments

For 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

Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Doctor in NYC

03/15/2018 by Guest Poster 39 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader G, who lives in Westchester County with her husband and four kids (and an au pair) and works in NYC as a private practice physician. 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: G
Location: Live in Westchester County and work in NYC
Job: private practice physician
Age: 40
Home Situation: Live in a 2,500-square-foot townhouse with my husband (52, BigLaw partner) our kids (son, 10, with ADD and dyslexia; daughter, 7; son, 4; and son, 20 months), and our au pair. The three boys share a room.
Childcare Situation: Au pair plus a part-time sitter for a total of 61 hours per week. $460 per week in stipend and pay, plus about $9,000 in au pair fees and about $10,000 for nursery school for the two little guys.

Stock photo via Shutterstock / pathdoc.

A Week in My Life

Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Accountant in New Jersey

11/16/2017 by Guest Poster 9 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader Laurie, who lives in suburban New Jersey with her husband and two kids and works as an accountant. 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: Laurie
Location: Live and work in medium-sized town in the suburbs of New Jersey
Job: Accountant for world’s largest cosmetics company
Age: 34
Home Situation:

1112-square-foot apartment with my husband (35-year-old graphic designer at a small internet company — I am the breadwinner) and our kids (daughter will turn 5 at the end of this month; son is 2 years old). The kids share a room.

We were in the process of buying a new home, the offer was accepted, and we just completed inspections. Fast-forward one week, I was completely blindsided with news of a big layoff in the accounting department. We had plans to put our home on the market the next day. We had to pull the plug on everything, and it was very hard to swallow this… We had a five-year plan for living in the condo, and now it’s been nine years.

Childcare Situation: Daycare full-time, five days a week (approx 7:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m.), $30K a year! :(

A Week in My Life

Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Finance in Pennsylvania

11/09/2017 by Guest Poster 16 Comments

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 suburban Pennsylvania with her husband and two kids and works in finance at a nonprofit. 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 suburban Pennsylvania
Job: Finance at a nonprofit
Age: 30
Home Situation:

I live in a 3000(ish)-square-foot, 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom single family home with my husband, toddler son, and dog. Our second son is due in a few months. (Note: Since submitting her Week in the Life, C and her family have welcomed their baby!) My husband and I both work full-time. He typically works a second-shift schedule but is in a role where his schedule and work demands can change with little notice.

Childcare Situation:

My son is home with my husband in the morning. Husband takes Son to Grandma’s house in the afternoon when he’s on his way to work. I usually go see Son at lunchtime, as Grandma is close to my work. It is an awesome arrangement that helped me ease the transition back to work while trying to keep up with nursing. I stopped nursing a month after returning to work, even with that amazing arrangement! Grandma takes Son back to our house after lunch. Son will nap for 2+ hours at our house in his crib but will only nap for a maximum of 30 minutes at Grandma’s house. Grandma will also finish any simple household tasks that we start but don’t finish such as folding laundry or putting away dishes. It is a unicorn and very appreciated arrangement.

Stock picture credit: Shutterstock / By Andrey_Popov.

A Week in My Life

A Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Income Partner in Boston

10/26/2017 by Guest Poster 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 “Diana Barry,” who lives in the Boston area with her husband and three kids and works as an income partner. 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: Diana Barry (not her real name)
Location: Work in Boston, live nearby
Job: Income partner in a medium-sized firm
Age: 38
Home Situation: Live with DH (techie) and 3 kids in a 6,000-square foot house in a far-out suburb
Childcare Situation: About $35K/year for nanny, $5K for preschool

Note: Diana’s week in the life is from this summer.