The Working Mom

My parenting journey began over 20 years ago with the birth of my first son, Philip. When I called my boss to tell him I decided to stay at home with Phil he asked if I would be willing to do free-lance work. It was a great opportunity as I really loved the business. The company was very family friendly so they didn’t mind if I snuck Phil up and tucked him under my desk (in his car seat) for in-house meetings.

Being a new mom, I soon realized that was a short-term solution (about 3 months) and created a home office in our basement. Within a few months I added another client and for a few years it was a perfect work/life balance.

However, as our family expanded from 1 to 3 children and we moved to another state, our part time sitters quit (or in other words my parents aged out of the job) along with our unexpected parenting journey (read my April post), I stopped working when Phil was about 4 ½ years old.

And while I enjoyed my new found full-time parenting role I really missed the camaraderie of my working mom friends. I loved their honesty about parenting mishaps and the conversations that weren’t completely focused on their children. And as my parenting role became more complex I even fantasized about going back to work full-time and grew even fonder of those early part-time working years.

But in all honestly I never truly experienced the working Moms struggle. I think of one of my dearest friends who bakes brownies late into the evening so her boys can proudly say my mom made these for a class party. Or another wonderful friend who confides that she “just can’t get it all done and always feels behind.” The constant challenge to meet client demands while hustling to choir concerts. And while we know many Dads are also juggling work and family, we know our girlfriends roles more intimately.

So, when Jane and I first embarked on our slow cooking journey one of our first goals was to help the working “out of the house” mom find a little more Zen in her life.

As we shared our blog and business concept with the excitement to these friends we soon realized that slow cooking wasn’t the answer to their prayers…It was clear, after hearing their stories, that a quick email check followed by a backpack review was their top priority in the morning not sautéing onions for our delicious Coq au Vin.

So in support of our female friends, Jane put together a few recipes that can be prepped overnight.  She also included a delicious weekend dessert.  While this can’t solve the work/life balance and no one can ever alleviate “mom guilt” (we all have it) we do hope these recipes help the working Mom have one more tool for her toolbox.

Zen Moment

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
 to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; 
and wisdom to know the difference.