A couple weeks ago I attended The Sun magazine writing workshop at the Esalen Institute. It was heaven if your idea of heaven is writing and talking about writing all day at the foggy edge of a sea cliff, with some natural hot tubs and a yurt thrown in for good measure. On the last […]
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Until I had kids, I was pretty happy with my brain. It got good grades in school, held its own in an argument, memorized lines in plays, and the year I lived in Chile, it learned Spanish. It was capable of empathy, which made it easy for me to make friends. It could fall in […]
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I recently got an email from a blog reader who said she had been obsessively reading and re-reading my first post, and all the comments that followed it. I wanted to include an excerpt of her email here, but wasn’t able to get in touch with her to get permission. (If you’re out there, my […]
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I work in a technology-related field, and I am consistently disappointed by how the same technology that is supposed to liberate us often ends up enslaving us. Smart phones, lap tops, and social media have made it “possible” for many of us to work all the time. Gee, thanks. So today, I’m logging into my […]
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Several of my friends have been talking about a story that appeared earlier this month in New York Magazine called “All Joy and No Fun: Why Parents Hate Parenting.” Do parents hate parenting? According to the story, studies show that Parents are as happy or less happy than their non-parent counterparts everywhere except Denmark. Mothers […]
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If you’re looking for inspiration how to get off that treadmill and live a slow, rich life, check out the talk my friend Andy is giving on Tuesday at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club.
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Have you ever felt you had to hide the fact that you have kids when you’re at work? I’ve been thinking about a comment Lily left on the blog about a week ago. Lily works in academia, where it sounds like it’s an open secret that being a parent is a professional liability. She wrote […]
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When it was time for me to leave, Ruby ran up to her teacher and said, “Mrs. Thomas, can my mom stay until snack?”
“Sure…but I don’t know if she has time. She might have to get to work.” Very diplomatic, that Mrs. Thomas.
“Oh, she doesn’t have to go to work,” Ruby beamed mischievously. “My mommy doesn’t have a job!”
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My ability to be an effective leader at work has grown exponentially from the experience of being a mother. So why do mothers make only 68% of what men earn? And forgetting about the disgraceful pay inequity for a moment, why is it that we feel so horribly guilty when we skulk out of the office at 4:30 (Egad! You leave so early?) to pick up our kids from daycare, or when we have to work from home because the school called and our daughter has head lice (again!). Why can’t we feel proud that we’re doing both things, despite the compromises on our time?
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