The Interviews: Navigating Home, Office and Childcare

Kristen is a corporate America working mom with a very busy schedule. Kristen has managed to balance it all with her husband’s help. From home to office and childcare, keeping it all in perspective, she maintains a positive attitude mixed with a whole lot of moxie. 

What is the best thing about being a working mom?
I know I’m a better mom and person because I work. I can be more engaged and happy with my children because I have a job that also fulfills me.

I am showing both my daughter and my son that grown women are workers, just like men. We can be mothers and professionals.

Because of this, my husband is a just as important to my children as I am they believe that fathers are necessary and integral to the family. Dads can do anything moms can and vise versa.

How do you juggle home and the office?
I do not work more than 40 hours a week. My husband and I work hard to keep our schedules coordinated. He does drop off, and I do pick up. We keep a routine with the kids.

What do you do when your kids are sick?
My husband and I will “negotiate” each others’ schedules and determine who can stay home with the kid(s). Fortunately, either one of us can work from home on occasion.

Does your company make accommodations for your child care schedule?I have only discussed scheduling as one-off situations with my boss and coworkers about leaving early because I have to pick up a sick kid, or have an appointment. My coworkers know that I have to leave work by 5pm at the latest because of child care.

What type of child care do you use?
When the kids were young, we had them at in-home daycares. Now my 3-year-old son is at a Montessori preschool with extended care (my daughter went there as well). My daughter is at elementary school with extended care.

How did you find the provider?
For the in-home daycares, we did a search on the state’s licensed daycare site, then interviewed lots of daycares.  For the preschool, we used the Internet, found local preschools, and visited several. The local public elementary school offered extended care, and we signed up.  Interesting note on that:  for Kindergarten aftercare, there was a specific day in April (before Kindergarten started) that we had to line up outside an office and get a number at 6pm.  If we didn’t line up on that specific day, we would not get into aftercare.  We only found out about the sign-up day from a neighbor.

What are some tips you would offer other working moms or dads regarding daycare?
Do your research and trust your gut. Another story: We had an in-home daycare provider for my son when I first started back with him. Within a few months, there were complaints from other parents.  The provider was written up by the state (required if a parent complains). We had several discussions with her about the issues; none of them seemed to be a “big deal” or involve care of our son.  However, about a month later, her helper called us off-hours and stated she also had concerns. While none of these were about abuse/neglect or anything of that extreme nature, they were about the manner in which our son was being fed, and the general atmosphere of the daycare.

We immediately withdrew from the daycare, and quickly had to find a new daycare. Fortunately, we found a daycare that was outstanding as a result. Ironically, all of our interactions with the provider were very positive, so we just had to “trust our gut.” It was not worth the drama of not knowing what was exactly going on during the day, so we withdrew.

How do you relax when you are outside of the office?

• Read
• Yoga
• Date night with my hubby
• Play with my kids

About Kristen

Kristen is a full-time working mom in Michigan with two kids, a dog, two cats, and husband.  She lives in suburban Detroit and drives her minivan to her Corporate job every week day.

She works in IT — Information Technology — meaning she’s a geek by default. It’s OK, though –She’s also a huge nerd.

Kristen dabbles in professional photography on the side (mostly weddings) and formerly managed KT Moxie, a blog about her family, nerd/geek stuff and being a working mom.