30 A Mom's Job

Motherhood is a loaded word, full of social, historical, cultural, and familial expectations and responsibilities. Yet, as we all know, there are no prerequisites and no formal training—not even a job interview—required to assume this position.  We’ve all read articles that break down the many hats moms wear while they juggle balls in the form of children and housework and birthday parties and jobs and side gigs. But rather than being intimidated and utterly overwhelmed by this long list of duties, we can choose to be liberated by it. Since no one person can possibly be good at all of them, we get to choose the ones that we’re going to prioritize, which our spouses are going to take on (if we have one), what we’re going to outsource to someone else, and which of the balls we’re just going to drop.   We get to write our own job descriptions. Resources mentioned in this episode: “Housekeeping Is Not Motherhood,” by Rebecca Brown Right, rebeccabrownwright.com Marriagelaboratory.com (Celeste Davis) Chantelallencoaching.com Brookeromney.com Your Kid—A Novel Problem Raising Seabiscuit All Joy and No Fun, By Jennifer Senior