What Does It Mean to Be a Working Mom?

Parenthood is one of the most life-changing experiences but what does it actually mean to be a working mom? Co-hosts Hannah Robinson and Melissa Honan talk about some of the challenges of being a working mom and share some tips on how to have a better work-life balance as well as how to feel proud being a mother.

[1:16] Hannah isn’t a working mom but Melissa is – she has two kids, ages 4 and 2. She doesn’t consider herself a good parent to use as a case-study for the fact that she’s pretty free-range.

[5:33] Melissa shares that it isn’t easy being a working mom and having good balance between work and motherhood, and that she did most of the things wrong, when it comes to work-life balance.

[10:07] Hannah believes that a lot of mothers can relate to Melissa’s story.

[12:21] Melissa discusses having lost the ability to continue with a thought outside of a 60-second window. If she happens to get distracted by her children, whatever she was thinking about is gone, and it will come back to her a few hours later.

[14:51] According to Melissa, sometimes, mothers lose sight of who they are as a person and they may simply think of themselves in terms of being their children’s mom, their husband’s wife, etc. Some mothers in this situation find their way back to a ‘I’m Melissa Honan’ kind of moment through work.

[15:49] Hannah praises Melissa for always putting her family first, and for letting her clients know that ‘my kids and my family come first’.

[17:59] Melissa believes that the best place to start practicing forgiveness is by forgiving yourself.

[20:38] For Hannah, more moms should remember that they don’t know what they don’t know and that, sometimes, the best way to learn is by being “in the trenches”. You never stop learning.

[22:11] Melissa shares the Nora Roberts glass ball theory. The idea is that you have your personal life, you have your work life, but you don’t have to choose between one or the other. You’re juggling many different “balls,” some are glass and some are plastic. If you drop a plastic ball, it’s just going to bounce, while a glass ball is going to shatter.

[23:36] For the Nora Roberts glass ball theory, if it’s between dropping a glass or a plastic ball, you need to choose the plastic ball. Sometimes, it’s going to be your personal life, while some other times it’s going to be your work life. Missing little moments in your kids life or not calling back a sales prospect are examples of plastic balls.

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