As I have mentioned in other articles I struggle with the concept of work/life balance, because this assumes that work is removed from life. But many working mothers do struggle with a balance in their lives. While I believe that time management is a big key, I also believe that much of it comes out of an inner struggle of what working mothers actually want.
When I was a child I really wanted to be a career woman and children did not play a part in this future. I used to tell my baby boomer mother that I never wanted children and that I wanted to be numerous different, very important things. As I grew older my outlook changed and through a number of different circumstances I ended up having a child sooner than I had ever expected.
When I fell pregnant I was working and studying and still believed that I was going to be a super career woman. I returned to work part-time 6 weeks after my baby’s birth. I was in the privileged position where my husband could stay home with my daughter and I continued to give her breast milk by using a breast pump.
After a year I changed jobs to a position where I worked from home and completed my degree. After this time, with years of work and study under my belt I felt I was in a quandary. I would look at my daughter’s smiling face and think "Do I want to have a big career?"
Since then I have worked both full time and part time jobs to try and balance these dreams. Now this isn’t something revolutionary, many women get these feelings everyday. Why I thought this was important was because it made me think of how difficult it is for women to move up the ladder in various industries.
What would you do after years and years working at a higher level and then you begin questioning whether you want to work at all? It is a scary thought, when you imagine deciding on what may feel like throwing away a career.
- Do you really want to stay at home forever?
- How difficult will it be to get back to the workforce if you change your mind?
- Is this why so many women are leaving it so late to have a baby?
So many questions surround this time in a working mother’s life. It is difficult to throw caution to the wind, but the results could be regrettable if you do not. So I ask all of you out there:
What do working mothers want?
Angela Thomas-Jones - Angela Thomas-Jones is a PhD researcher in third year at Murdoch University, Western Australia. Her dissertation is focused on the ...
