Meet Diana, author of LadydeeLG. Diana lives in New York, is a full-time working mom and just completed grad school. Whoa. A lot to handle for anyone. Diana shared with us how she survived grad school with her husband’s help and still managed to keep sane with some me time.
Tell us about LadydeeLG.
LadydeeLG is my blog. I started writing in 2012, with the goal of sharing my journey of raising a multilingual child. Since my husband is French, we only speak to our son in Spanish and French. He now speaks English as well.
I soon realized that I wanted to share my experiences about being a working mom and writing soon became a way for me to become an advocate about issues I care about, such as paid family leave, healthy food for kids and Latino issues. So the blog has become a place where I share my experiences being a working mom with a multicultural family in NYC.
I’m still very passionate about inspiring parents to raise bilingual kids, so this year I have started creating a lot of resources for parents, such as free printables in Spanish and French. For example Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards. I also write about family friendly travel and fun stuff happening in NYC. It’s pretty much all about my multicultural life with my multicultural family in NYC!
You just completed grad school. Congrats! What are some tips you can share with working moms who want to go back to school?
I think it is very important to have a support system and learn to prioritize. Without my husband helping and my parents, other family members and even friends who helped out I wouldn’t have been able to do everything I did!
When I was in school, school work came before keeping a clean house for example… but not before spending time with my son! So for example, there were days when he wanted me to put him to bed and I had to read, I would just put him to bed and try to wake up earlier to read, or catch up on my reading on my commute, of course there were days when I had deadlines and then I had to explain to him that mama had to do work. But he came to graduation and he told me that he liked my school and that school is cool, so I was so happy to hear him say that. Just last night, he said that I looked so pretty in my cap and gown!
See Diana’s tip for getting through grad school.
With your busy schedule, how do you and your husband share the load between work and home?
Right now my husband is working from home so he is doing a lot more around the house than I am. I do take care of the laundry (unless we drop it off to be washed).
We also have a cleaning person come once a week to keep our sanity. But right now, my husband is definitely doing more. When he worked long days, and I was in grad school, it was hard and our house was always messy.
How do you squeeze in time for yourself?
My husband usually helps me in that. I love getting manicure/pedicures and long showers… and I love listening to music, so even if I’m doing laundry if I have music on, it makes me happy. It’s a little escape.
I make time to go to yoga at least once a week (during my lunch break) and also exercise 2-3 times a week. (This was hard to do during my last year of grad school, and I gained some weight, so I’m trying to get back on track). I’ve recently discovered Zumba so I will be doing that on the weekends.
More About Diana
Diana is a writer and blogger from New York City. As a full-time working mom raising a multilingual son, Diana is an advocate for paid family leave, healthy food for kids and Latino issues.
Visit LadydeeLG for her free Spanish and French printables plus fun family friendly things to do in New York City.
Stephanie Lema 