Bonbons and Lattes

Welcome to the "On Balance" guest blog. Every Tuesday, "On Balance" features the views of a guest writer. It could be your neighbor, your boss, your most loved or hated poster from the blog, or you! Send me your original, unpublished entry (300 words or fewer) for consideration. Writers need to use their full names. Obviously, the topic should be something related to balancing your life.

By Linda Nazareth

The at-home moms spent the morning eating bonbons while I was at work, I said, sarcastically to myself. No wonder they got here first.”

At least that's what part of me wanted to snap when my daughter said I was the last mom to arrive for kindergarten pick up.

What I really said was, "“Hey, I missed all the lights, okay? And school was over like four minutes ago."

I rolled my eyes and she rolled hers back.

My sarcasm about at-home moms aside, I know that my daughter gets plenty of time and attention even though I work. My patchwork career of television, writing and consulting is an ideal way to have a career while being a hands-on parent.

I'’d urge more moms (and dads) to try the patchwork approach to juggling kids and work. For all the insecurity of income and loss of benefits, there are compensations. True, I have to get up around 4:30 a.m., but if I scramble I'’m there to pick her up every day when school lets out, and for swimming lessons and play dates, too. I have afternoon leisure--my private version of bonbons. It probably sounds sinfully decadent and just plain wrong if you’'re used to a corporate environment.

Of course, some days are better than others. Picture -- —on top of late pick up--trying to convince an almost five-year-old that you need to revise a presentation because your client really wants it that afternoon. Could we maybe skip picking up your new skates? And could you be super-quiet for an hour while I work? Honey, please?

I got a cheerful "No way”!" to the first, and an "Okay, I'll try" pledge to the second. For a moment I pictured traditional working moms at the office, sitting in serenity and sipping an afternoon latte picked up from Starbucks. Anybody could get a presentation done in that environment. I'm not sure everyone could revise a presentation for a client in the car on the way to the ice rink.

This is more or less the way I planned to combine work and motherhood. Still, I wonder about the stay-at-home and working moms endlessly drinking lattes and eating bonbons in my imagination. Are they living the lives they planned? Are you?

I didn'’t say any of that to my daughter, either. I picked up her hand and she skipped as we headed to the car.

Linda Nazareth is an economist and the author of The Leisure Economy: How Changing Demographics, Economics and Generational Attitudes Will Reshape Our Lives and Our Industries from John Wiley & Sons.

By Leslie Morgan Steiner |  February 12, 2008; 7:00 AM ET  | Category:  Guest Blogs
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