working moms with kids in daycare Archives

Week in the Life of a Working Mom: In-House at a Large Corporation

04/19/2018 by Guest Poster 26 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader Em, who lives in a small Midwestern city with her husband and son and works as in-house counsel for a corporation. 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: Em
Location: A small city in the Midwest
Job: In-house attorney for a corporation
Age: 31
Hours worked in a typical week: 35–44
Home Situation: I live in a 2,500-square-foot house with my husband (32-year-old project manager for a construction company), our son T (2-year-old), our two dogs (and occasional foster dogs), and our pet rabbit.
Childcare Situation: Daycare center 40 hours a week, $900/month

A Week in My Life

Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Biglaw Partner in the Midwest

12/18/2017 by Guest Poster 37 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader R, who lives in the Midwest with her husband and three kids and works as a partner in Biglaw. 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: R
Location: Work in midsize city in Midwest; live in suburb of that city
Job: BigLaw litigation partner
Age: 40
Home Situation:

I live in a 3-bedroom house in the suburbs with my husband (41-year-old architect), our kids (9-year-old boy/girl twins and a 3-year-old girl), and our elderly dog. The older two share a room, but we are casually looking for a bigger house. (Note: R says that since she wrote her Week in the Life, things have changed a bit: “Our dog is no longer with us, my husband is going back to work full time and leaning in a bit more, and we are preparing for a move to another city.”)

Childcare Situation:

The older two are in school; husband works part time and gets them on and off the bus every day. The youngest is in daycare; I do drop-off and my husband does pickup. At this point, we are on the cheap end—$225/week for daycare. During the summers, it’s more because we pay for camps and childcare for the older two as well.

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

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

A Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Business Analyst in the Midwest

10/12/2017 by Guest Poster 18 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader M, who lives in the Midwest with her husband and son and works as a business 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: M
Location: Lives in a smaller university town in the Midwest, works in the next bigger city.
Job: Business analyst at a healthcare company
Age: 34
Home Situation: I live in a 2-bedroom apartment with my husband (36-year-old professor) and our son (1.5 years old). We immigrated three years ago from Europe when my husband accepted his position here. I did my MBA at the local university (had my baby in second year). All our family still lives in Europe.
Childcare Situation: University daycare full time (available 7:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.; we usually use it from 8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.), about $1,000 a month. Very rarely, a babysitter.

Picture credit: Shutterstock/fotofeel.

A Week in My Life

A Week in the Life of a Working Mom: Finance at a Fortune 500 Company

08/24/2017 by Guest Poster 37 Comments

For this week’s installment of our Week in the Life of a Working Mom series, I’m happy to introduce CorporetteMoms reader R, who lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and two young children and works in finance for a Fortune 500 company. 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: R
Lives: Chicago suburbs
Job: Finance
Age: 36
Home Situation: Typical suburban 2,500-square-foot house with my husband (airline pilot), kids (daughter, age 4; and son, age 1.5), and 60-lb. dog.
Childcare Situation: Daycare, $600/week

Stock photo credit: Shutterstock / sirtravelalot.