Tweet

How to be a "Super Mom"

Guest post by: Holly Murdoch

Article Overview: "Super mom" can be a daunting phrase, but it is possible with a little organization and delegation! Read on for tips on achieving the "super mom" status, in this article reprinted from Womenetics.

How to be a "Super Mom"

"Super mom" can be a daunting phrase, but it is possible with a little organization and delegation! Read on for tips on achieving the "super mom" status, in this article reprinted from womenetics.com: Today's women want it all. They want motherhood, and they want careers. And they are getting both. But finding balance between the two keeps these super moms walking a tightrope in a fashion that would impress The Flying Wallendas.

Holly Sims, 47, senior vice president at the Bank of North Georgia, is a fifth- generation Atlantan who lives with her two sons, 11 and 13, just two miles from her office.

Unlike most metropolitan Atlantans, Sims doesn't spend hours on the road commuting. And that extra time is a godsend to Sims since she now is a single parent. But even with no commute, she still must be "incredibly organized" to keep home and work functioning properly.

As a working mother, Sims juggles car pooling and after-school sporting activities with managing a household, helping her sons with homework, and keeping her career up and running.

After her divorce, it took her a few months to find the right job and return to the working world. Initially, thanks to alimony, she had a nanny who helped with the boys and daily chores such as grocery shopping. But that changed last year, inspiring Sims to seriously develop her organizational skills.

Now, she says, "I can plan the invasion of Normandy."

Her day typically begins at 6 a.m., when she arises, turns on her computer, and does a little work. She continues handling email and job demands on her Blackberry as she sits at traffic lights.

One morning each week, Sims takes her turn as the neighborhood's designated car pool driver. Most days, she arrives at work by 8:15 a.m. On days when she needs to pick up her kids, she quits at 5:45 p.m. When they catch a ride with someone else, Sims arrives home close to 7 p.m.

That's during the school year. Summers get more than a little crazy, as Sims tries to schedule activities for the boys and also keep her job. One month of this past summer took them to sleepover camp. Whew! Then they spent two weeks with their dad. Sims took off work and spent one week with them. Finally, she was able to locate day camps, which occupied the boys for the rest of the summer.

Like other super moms who handle this overload, Sims gives a lot of credit to her employer. Bank of North Georgia, she says, understands that its employees are making financial sacrifices during this tough period for the banking industry - with raises frozen and no bonuses the past two years - so it's willing to be more flexible with employee working hours.

Married women who juggle careers and motherhood have problems similar to those Sims faces.

"There are tough days," acknowledges Marcia G. Jerding, mother of three and partner, Assurance and Advisory Business Services, at the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

Jerding figures if she stays mostly on track, then she's doing well. "I don't get it right 100 percent of the time. I told myself that if it was in balance 75 percent of the time it would be OK," Jerding says. But it requires tremendous communication with the people who work for and with you."

Every Sunday afternoon, Jerding, 39, and her husband compare calendars to make sure they don't schedule early morning meetings on the same days.

But even with a spouse, working women find they need additional help. For Jerding, it comes in the form of a personal assistant. When she became a partner in 2006, she hired an assistant who works 10 hours weekly doing the laundry, grocery shopping, and preparing meals.

Other female partners in her office have either nannies or au pairs. Different methods work for different people. But the point is, these women do get help.

As for Ernst & Young, Jerding says the company has been very supportive. When she was pregnant with her first child, she told her boss she wanted to stay on the partnership path. To accomplish this, she adopted a reduced flex-work arrangement following the births of her first two children. She worked three 11-hour days except during her busy season when she worked full-time.

By the time her third child arrived, her husband had more flexibility in his job so Jerding was able to return to full-time work.

"As I look around, I'm not sure I could have done this anywhere else," she says, referring to the flexibility Ernst & Young allowed.

Cindy Huber, 47, is vice president of sales and marketing for the Eastern division of Denver-based Strucsure Home Warranty, which just entered the East Coast market.

While Huber previously worked in publishing, her husband stayed home with their two sons. Now that he's back at work, Huber particularly appreciates being able to work from home.

This means she can be available in the afternoons to take her kids to after-school activities. And it allows her to volunteer at her boys' schools. When one of the boys is sick, she and her husband check each other's schedule to see who can best accommodate sitting at a child's bedside, or making him chicken soup.

Joking that she could use a wife to help her out, Huber says the "hardest thing is taking care of the house, laundry, and grocery shopping."

Female attorneys, who live and breathe by billable hours, are especially challenged by combining careers with motherhood. When Jane Allen, 45, practiced private law, she had three children in three years. After seven years, she went to her law firm and said she didn't want to work part-time.

"They said, ‘Figure out a way to make it work.'"

She did - big time. Allen launched Nashville-based Counsel on Call, which places top-quality attorneys with law firms and in corporate legal departments, on a contract basis.

She employs several hundred so-called candidate lawyers (because they are candidates for placement) across the country, finding positions that fit their needs. They receive benefits, including 401(K)s and the chance to earn their continuing education credits, all through Counsel on Call.

"Our clients understand why our lawyers choose to work with us. These lawyers are good enough to be partners in a law firm, but they've made a career choice," Allen explains. Each chooses the type of contract work he or she requires. Some mothers, especially those with young children, prefer to take on work they can do from home. Others work for only a few months at a time then take a break.

Although many of the lawyers at Counsel on Call are women, in the past year male attorneys who have been laid off have joined Counsel on Call, says Anne Whitaker, 53, a former attorney who now works for the company in business development in Atlanta.

Whitaker, mother of a son, also coaches women on how to juggle complicated lives. She says this requires planning ahead. In the summer, it means "lots of camps," but during the school year, because she wants to spend time with her son when he's not at school, Whitaker often completes her own work as late as 10:30 p.m.

"I want to be here for him, help with his homework, and make dinner," she says.

Whitaker emphasizes that staying in touch with her values is crucial. "I want to be clear about what's important to me. And I try to be in-the-moment. It's a special challenge of mine because I tend to jump from one thing to another." Her top tips to super moms include:

• Make time for you.

• Work with a coach to keep focused on goals.

• Exercise.

• Delegate - even to children.

Perhaps the ultimate in delegating is Whitaker's friend "whose children get her up in the morning and make her coffee."

Related Articles
  Time for Apple to release a 25th anniversary Mac
  Beware the salary sacrifice trap
  Employer's obligations to pay superannuation in Australia
  Entrepreneurs: The New Superheroes
  Changes to the government superannuation co-contribution scheme from July 2012
  When Entrepreneurs are Outstanding
  Super Stars Don't Make the Team
  Get Prospects Chasing YouSuper Size the Experience You Bring to the Table in EVERY Interaction
  Find Your Own Super Power to Increase Business Efficiency
  How Management’s Promotion Policies May Create Super Failures
  Business Management May Turn Super Workers into Super Failures
  5 Characteristics Of Super Affiliates
  What is superannuation?
  Do You Promote from Within?
  Pursue the Right Job Opportunities For You
  The Everyday Life of a Super Work at Home Mom!
  The XYZ of Adequate Returns in Super
  New superannuation rules for high income earners
  How You Can Become a Super Affiliate Starting A Internet Business
  Wonder Woman Wannabe?

Article Tags: advice, business, career, parenting, women



Related Forum Posts
Re: Super Mario Dethroned - You people are crazy. Super Mario will NEVER be dethroned! Vive la Mario & Luigi! I'm sorry, but remembering those days playing Super Maria for Nintendo and wondering when I would finally hit the last level and be able to beat the evil dragon for my perfect princess will never die. Wii is fantastic, but I'd still prefer the rights to Mario - if even for sentimental value.
Video Resources - Awesome resources - thank you Andy. I've been working on the book trailer creation and promotion chapters in my next promo book and this info is wonderful. There will be a couple more links to resources included in the book. Can you tell us some more about the Super program? I'd have to run it on my desktop after looking at the system requirements. It looks like it will do all sorts of things. Shri
Victoria's Secret - Too Sexy? - This will be upsetting for some men. I just heard a report about Victoria's Secret and it was interesting. Their sales were down drastically in the 4th quarter of 2007 and the report was about how they are thinking the company has gotten too far away from the heritage that made it the blockbuster company it is. They are thinking the ads etc have become too sexy and the plan (at the moment) is to make the ads more sophisticated. That would be like the Super Bowl commercial which was very tasteful, but very different from any Victoria's Secret I've seen lately. Who do you all think the current sexy ads are targeting? I think its the men that they hope will buy these items for their female significant others. I hate to give Omarosa any kudos - but most women aren't "sold" on an item by an ad of a near naked sexy woman. Shri
Re: How To Be Rich - [quote="TheRainmaker":tst8wsa8]Sounds great. What exactly have you found to be eye opening??[/quote:tst8wsa8] The first eye opener was measuring wealth by your total assets 1 Million - 2 Million Pounds The Comfortable Poor 2 Million - 5 Million Pounds The Comfortably Off 5 Million - 15 Million Pounds The Comfortably wealthy 15 Million - 40 Million Pounds The Lesser Rich 40 Million - 75 Million Pounds The Comfortably Rich 75 Million - 100 Million Pounds The Rich 100 Million - 200 Million Pounds The Seriously Rich 200 Million - 400 Million Pounds The Truly Rich 400 Million - 999 Million Pounds The Filthy Rich Over 999 Million Pounds The Super Rich
Possibilities abound! - Hey All, Ok, I am now in a position to see something profound. I've been involved in the automotive field as a hobbyist for years. My first car as a 1974 Dodge Charger SE. 318, dual exchause, 340 cam, black with black leather interior (yes, it was 10 deg hotter INSIDE that outside during the summer...). Moved onto a 1972 Dodge Dart. 4 door, slant six motor (upgraded to a Super Six), manual drum brake, manual steering, V8 Leaf springs, Rallye Rims. Then onto a 1987 Plymouth Caravelle. 2.2 Turbo, 14psi (approx 180HP), painted like a Viper GTS (Blue with two white stripes), in fact, I called it a Caravelle GTS. The car was fun and taught me lots about 'modern' engines and turbos. I've recently met someone who make a performance intake valve (the part that lets the gas/air mixture into the engine) and I am seriously impressed with the product. I am working a deal to get a set installed on a vehicle to have some hard data for results. He wants me to be a distributor for him after we spoke on the phone for an hour about cars and life. Seriously considering it. I also then spoke with another company that makes performance parts for turbo cars (allowed my Caravelle to go from 145HP to 180HP) to talk about being a channel for his valves. He is interested and also having some problems. These are 'good' problems for an entrepreneur to have though. See, his company started as a hobby and is now taking up a lot of his casual time (he has a day job). He doesn't want to take it to a full-time job as he simply wants to enjoy the sport. He is considering selling it. Now, to add into this mix a 3rd company that both of the above ones do business with and compliment each other very nicely. This 3rd company is 'bigger' than both as they are more of a retailer with more products (main stream with all three is turbo-related with a heavy slant towards Dodge vehicles). When I sat there looking at all 3 sites in Firefox (loved tabbed browsing!) I got this giddy and excited feeling that there is a Severe opportunity to make one large combined company all marketed under one brand. I can see it, I can feel it, I can freaking smell it. I have no way to execute it. So, my question to the community is where to start? I have always been a car enthusiast, in fact, much longer than I've played with computers. To me, this is an awesome chance to bring another passion of mine to life and help everyone in the hobby field at the same time! I am at the mercy of my peers for direction.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Good News Travels Fast

Leading with Discernment

Top 5 Tips for Better Online Ads

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.