A Mother Addicted to Productivity
Yesterday I enjoyed an afternoon walk and mother/baby play date with a psychologist friend who is also in private practice. We discussed the many benefits of leaving an organization for self-employment such as walking with our children on a Wednesday afternoon…but we also had an honest conversation about motherhood and what it’s like for someone very attached to their career and work identity to experience this shift of spending more time at home. As I stood there struggling to carry on a conversation and give my daughter a snack/entertain her…I noticed the mother next to us pushing her child in the swing and singing the ABCs. I’ve tried to do this stuff with Hadleigh in the past (really I did…). For example, during the first week of taking her to the babysitter, I sang Old McDonald and the ABCs for a few days…and then I asked myself “what the hell am I doing?!” It felt like it was such an act – because that just isn’t me. You can ask any of the other counselors who were in my p...