1.“I feel everything more deeply. Every action I take, I think of her first. That's a big change for me. That —and no sleep.”
2.“There’s something really empowering about going,‘Hell, I can do this! I can do this all!’ That’s the wonderful thing about mothers, you can because you must, and you just do.”
3.“I want her to know something that I feel is important. I love work. I love her and I love work, and I want her to know work’s a good thing. It’s not something you’re dragged off to.”
4.“You cannot do everything at once, so find people you trust to help you. And don’t be afraid to say no.”
5.“The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly—indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.”
6.“This struggle is real. The juggle is real. That’s why everyone should hire working mothers. They are put in crazy situations all the time and are forced to problem-solve. They are some of my most resourceful employees.”
7.“For me, being a mother made me a better professional, because coming home every night to my girls reminded me what I was working for. And being a professional made me a better mother, because by pursuing my dreams, I was modeling for my girls how to pursue their dreams.”
8.“You are not a bad mom because you go to work each day. Similarly, you are not a failure because you left your career altogether. Choices regarding work and family are personal—there is no one-size-fits-all method. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.”
9.“I think every working mom probably feels the same thing: You go through big chunks of time where you’re just thinking,‘This is impossible—oh, this is impossible.’ And then you just keep going and keep going, and you sort of do the impossible.”
10.“If I’m pursuing my goals, my kids are seeing me at my best. I am filled up, I am happy, I am not feeling empty, depleted, and therefore resentful about the fact that I’m missing out. I don’t want them to feel like I’ve sacrificed, I don’t want them to feel that burden. I always remember that a happy working woman is a happy mother.”
11.“When I first became a mother I suffered from serious‘half-ass’ shame. I felt like I was mediocre at everything. I felt so stretched and so distracted (and exhausted). I said‘yes’ way too often in an effort to prove that I could do it all. I’ve worked so hard over the past decade to move from‘What will people think’ to‘I am enough.’”