A friend and I were having lunch Thursday and talking about our kids, our careers, our goals. She is the breadwinner in her family and needs to be working, which suits her perfectly because she's is a brilliant, ambitious, hard working and well educated woman. She recently left a high profile executive job to launch her own website (we'll see her on the cover of Forbes one day), and has been at home with her kids while working hard at getting her brilliant idea off the ground. She's securing investors, writing the code for the site, hiring the right people... busy.
Even though her husband is super supportive, and has been the model of a true partner shuttling the kids around and making dinners, she's found that her presence at home has really made a difference for her children. They are happier, getting better grades, benefiting from her advice more. She really loves how calm her household is with her at home, but she's feeling the financial burden of not bringing home the money she once was.
Bring in the twist. She was just offered another high-profile, high paying executive position. Knowing that it may be years before her website affords her the salary her family is accustomed to, and knowing that in her lies this ambition to do something with herself that makes a mark in the business world, she's torn. This new position would have her commuting into the city again, but would give her an opportunity to be CEO in just a few years. She will not be able to make all of her son's wrestling matches anymore, but she can afford to send him to that expensive science camp he wants to attend int he summer. She will not be able to sit with her girls after school and hear all about their day, but she can continue to send them to the private all girl school they love so much.
It's the age old question... How can you do it all? If I had the answer, I would be rich enough to retire and be home with my daughter!
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