working moms in the south Archives

Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Corporate Auditor in Texas

03/28/2018 by Guest Poster 20 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 New Mexico with her husband and two daughters and works as a corporate auditor. 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: Lives in New Mexico, works in Texas
Job: Corporate auditor, 45–60 hours/week
Age: 37
Home Situation:

I live in a 4,000-square-foot home with my husband (family medicine), our two daughters (ages 8 and 4), and our dog.

Childcare Situation:

Our children attend an after school program twice per week, and Grandma picks them up from school three days per week (and taxis them to after school activities).

School tuition: approx. $6,000 per child per year. After school program: varies, depends on our use (payment is on a per-hour basis). Grandma is compensated for gas and given a credit card for expenses incurred on behalf of the kids — she uses this to buy the kids dinner, snacks, pay for events, purchase supplies they may need, etc.

A Week in My Life

Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Federal Government Attorney

02/22/2018 by Guest Poster 12 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 a small Southern city with her husband and son and works as an attorney for the federal government. 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 a small city in the South; work in a nearby small town.
Job: Attorney for the federal government
Age: 30
Home Situation: I live in a 3-bedroom house halfway between downtown of the city we live in and the small town I work in. I live with my husband, whose main job is staying home with our 3-year-old son, C.
Childcare Situation: My husband watches our son full time. We have family come watch C about 2–3 hours per week on Mondays when our work schedules overlap.

A Week in My Life

Week in the Life of a Working Mom: In-House Counsel in Texas

01/11/2018 by Guest Poster 22 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader Sarah, who lives in Dallas, TX, with her husband and son and works as an in-house counsel. 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: Sarah
Location: Lives in Plano, works in Dallas
Job: In-house counsel
Age: 40
Home Situation:

I live in a 2-story, 5-bedroom, 3-bath, 3,000-square-foot home with a nice size backyard and pool (hooray for the suburbs!) with my husband (38-year-old architect), our son (4-year-old with autism and speech delay) and our three pomeranians. My son has his own room. We use the other bedrooms (besides the master) for guests/in-laws and our home office/gym. We hope to be able to convert one of the guest rooms into a nursery in the near future!

Childcare Situation:

Right now, my son goes to a special needs preschool from 8:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. He rides the bus to and from school. After school, the bus drops him off at daycare, where he receives applied behavioral analysis therapy (ABA) until I pick him up after work around 6:00 p.m. In the fall, my son will go to kindergarten [Sarah wrote this in 2017], but the daycare will be out of the school-bus zone, so we are hiring an after-school nanny. His ABA therapist will also work with him at home. We pay $535/month for daycare. The nanny will be $1,000/month.

A Week in My Life

Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Dietitian and Assistant Manager in Florida

11/30/2017 by Guest Poster 12 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader E, who lives in Florida with her husband and son and works as a registered dietitian and assistant manager. 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: E
Location: Live in a medium-sized town in South Florida.
Job: Registered dietitian and assistant manager in an office setting
Age: 34
Home Situation: I live in a family-friendly neighborhood with my husband, K, and our 2.5-year-old son (almost 3!), P. We have a 1,500-square-foot house with a yard. No pets. I am holding out for cat. Everyone else wants a dog. (Note: E says her son has since turned 3.)

Childcare Situation:

We both work full time, so my son goes to a home daycare during the week ($200/week). He has been going there since he was 6 months old. I took him to work with me for 3 months after my maternity leave. Although I loved having him with me, it was also very stressful, so we decided to switch to a home daycare since we wanted something a little more “homey” for him. He has now been there for over 2 years. He is happy, so we are too. Neither one of our parents live nearby, so aside from that he is always with us! That is with the exception of a date night here or there.

We were intrigued about how E brought her son to work for a few months, and we wanted to hear more about it:

It was my boss’s idea for me bring the baby to the office! We had an empty office a couple of doors down from mine, so we turned that into the baby room. … My coworkers were happy to hold him if I was in a meeting or had to take a phone call. Ultimately though, babies will be babies :) and the unpredictability of when he would sleep (and not sleep) became stressful. At that point he was also becoming more mobile, so we decided to switch to our home daycare. I am so grateful that I was able to bring him with me, even if just for that short amount of time. I heard a podcast episode recently from The Longest Shortest Time that dealt with this topic, and they featured a company who encourages their employees to bring their babies to work. I think what they have worked out is great, and I hope that more companies can offer this as an option.

A Week in My Life

A Week in the Life of a Working Mom: State Government Attorney in the South

09/28/2017 by Guest Poster 21 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader Emily S., who lives in a medium-sized town in the South with her husband and daughter and works as a state government 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: Emily S.
Location: Live in the suburbs and work in the city in a medium-sized town in the South.
Job: State government attorney
Age: 33
Home Situation: I live in a 3-bedroom house with my husband (34-year-old self-employed consultant/writer), our 2-year-old daughter, and our dog. We have a nice backyard and plenty of play space. (Since submitting her Week in the Life, Emily has given birth to her second daughter, who is now four weeks old! Congratulations, Emily!)
Childcare Situation: Church daycare full day, 3 days a week ($150/week); stay at home with Dad or Grandma 2 days a week.

A Week in the Life of a Working Mom: An IT Portfolio Manager Mom in Houston

09/14/2017 by Guest Poster 17 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader Kristine, who lives in Houston with her husband and two kids and works as an IT portfolio manager. 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, coldhearted, 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: Kristine
Lives: In not-quite-the-burbs west Houston. Work in Downtown.
Job: IT Portfolio Manager for an Oil & Gas Supermajor
Age: 33, almost 34
Home Situation:

I live in a 2,200-square-foot, 1960s ranch-style home (3-bedroom, 2-bathroom) with my spouse and our two kids. My husband is also almost 34 years old (we are high school sweethearts), and he works at a smaller multi-national oil company where he is a Team Leader. Child #1 is a girl, is almost 3, has multiple severe food allergies, already wears glasses, and whose personality is my mini-me. Child #2 is 16 months younger, is an 18-month-old boy, has some food intolerances, and is otherwise a pretty typical boy who loves his momma.

Childcare Situation: My mom watches them Monday to Thursday. My husband and I work 80 hours within 9 days so we alternate Fridays off.