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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Comments

Katherine

Thanks so much for sharing your journey! I think the first step in solving these problems for everyone in our society is to be open and honest about the tradeoffs we've made. I also took a step out of the fast lane for parenthood, but I feel lucky that my income has grown even as I have scaled back my ambition. Not a TON but at least enough to keep up with the cost of living and my increased experience and expertise.

I like to think that I value my time more now, since every hour I spend working is an hour I can't spend with my children or spouse. That is more precious than when I was single and the hour I didn't work was an hour I could spend watching Melrose Place or watching punk rock bands in the East Village. (Certainly fun pursuits, but not quite as enriching to my overall well-being.) So I demand more compensation for every work hour -- or maybe a better way to say it is I am able to decline under-paid work because the alternative (family!) is so appealing.

Stacy

Two dogs! Two dogs! Wow! We just get by with two parents and two kids!

I really like your pragmatic take on all this, and your construct of a third category of moms (and let's not forget dads)who have or are trying to have "parts" of it all rather than trying to "have it all." As I've said before, right here on CurrentMom, it is possible to have a a fulfilling career, a loving marriage or partnership, and a close relationship with your kids as long as you recognize that you will need to make some compromises and adjustments(especially for your kids!) and that nothing will ever be truly "perfect."

Even with the trade-offs, I truly believe that its better to have to work at balancing the various parts of your life rather than simply to live in one dimension. It's easier, perhaps, to just go full throttle at work or motherhood but somehow neither would be right for me.

Now I'm off to cram in hours of work before I pick my son up from his beloved tae kwon do camp, which (even with after care) ends too early for working parents!

Deborah the writer

It is fascinating how you contrived to fully unfold the subject which you have selected for this peculiar entry of yours. By the way did you turn to some alike blog posts as an inspiration to fully show the entire picture that you published in your article?

Emily Kuvin

Thanks for your comments! Deborah, I did not look at any other posts for this. These are purely my own reflections.

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