You’d think that back to school would mean a big sigh of relief. As we’ve written before, a summer strategy is needed for those yawning weeks when the usual childcare arrangements (generally known as school) suddenly disappear and parents across the land scramble to keep the kids safe and occupied. While it certainly solves a lot of problems to have the kids back in school, those first weeks can present…
My dining room table was dirty when I woke up this morning. Some of it was kid debris – a plastic box full of crayons, half-finished drawings, books, birthday cards. Some of it was food debris – crumbs from last night’s dinner. It was dirty when I woke up because it was dirty when I went to bed. If you just read that paragraph and thought “Oh honey, you are…
Many women lament their inability to create boundaries around their time so they can accomplish what matters most to them. If you find yourself saying, “I have to …” with a sigh for a lot of your calendar items, that’s sure sign that you are spending time in a way that doesn’t bring you joy. Sure, we all have plenty of things we have to do, but many of us have…
I was recently interviewed for a podcast and at the end I was asked a series of rapid-fire questions. One of them was “What is the key to work/life balance?” Hmmm. A lot of things flashed through my head. An understanding boss. A company that respects employee’s personal lives. A supportive spouse or partner at home. Some other kind of good personal support network. All of those things are helpful,…
Summer can be a burden for working parents, especially mothers. That’s because the American school calendar is predicated on a family structure that hasn’t existed for decades. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022, 73% of mothers and 93% of fathers with children younger than 18 were employed. That’s a lot of families that are scrambling to figure out how to cover care for up to 12 weeks.…
Of all the amazing people I’ve had the privilege of meeting, Tiffany Dufu stands out. She was the president of The White House Project, was part of the launch team for Lean In and is currently the chief leadership officer of Levo. And that’s just a few highlights – her list of accomplishments is so long and impressive it would take an entire blog post to fully represent them all.…
I have a friend who is very accomplished. He’s started and sold companies, built a local startup community, run events and done charitable work. I had lunch with him once and marveled at the long list of achievements on his LinkedIn profile and asked how he managed to do so much. He admitted that he was more involved in some things than others and that he wasn’t solely responsible for…
One aspect of working that can be profoundly impacted by having children is business travel. The issues around travel can be both philosophical and practical. When my children were very little I tried to limit my travel. But in the last few years my travel has increased and they seem to be none the worse for wear. On the practical front, I’ve developed a few strategies for helping my family…
This weekend’s episode of Bullseye, an NPR show hosted by Jesse Thorn, featured legendary TV producer Norman Lear. It’s worth a listen for many reasons, but at the very end of the interview Thorn asked Lear what it was like to be producing six network sitcoms – all of which were in the top 10 in the ratings – at the same time. His answer was wonderful. He said “Was…
In the life of any working parent there are a few predictable stress points. One is The Morning. When you have children, mornings start EARLY. Sometimes painfully early. And getting everyone up, dressed, fed and out the door in time for the buses and trains and commutes can leave you feeling as if you ran a marathon before you even hit your desk. Mornings don’t have to be Groundhog Day,…
