Goodnight Mom

A recent study puts the average cost of raising a child at $20,813 annually. The Bay Area (San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley) was listed as the number one most expensive place to raise a child in the USA. Here they calculate the average annual cost of raising a child to be $35,647. That’s more than the starting salary at the first office job I had in the States (in 2012)! Plenty is written about the financial costs of raising children. Some articles are about the overall cost of raising children , others focus more specifically on the cost of childcare . The case of childcare costs is complex. Parents need childcare in order to work, but are they earning enough money to cover the cost of childcare? Can it be justified? I wanted to write more about the emotional rollercoaster of hiring childcare, specifically occasional babysitters. Friends of mine with young kids, and myself, have experienced so many difficulties finding adequate and reliable childcare. Especially for babysitting, when...

Actually, it's been 13 Months! I wish I had written a post before Max’s first birthday to celebrate this tiny child’s one year of sun rotation. But, you know, work work work work work work . I had a little writer's block early in the year and then took on two consulting projects, which made life a little more busy! I think with my writers block I started to get concerned about what I was saying. Was it insightful enough? Useful to other parents or wannabe parents. Today, I’m writing on this inspiration of this book, Born in Lockdown from Mothership Writers in the UK. I read an article about it on the BBC and was so intrigued. The website says the aim of the project was to “encourage writing for pleasure and purpose: to find, amidst the clamour, the space to hear one’s own voice.” That’s why I write! For pleasure and purpose. To share my voice. One of the things that often impedes my ability to finish a blog post is the feeling I have that it should be long and full of informat...

  It’s been a few months since I was able to post on this blog. That’s because I went back to work! It wasn’t easing being a full-time Mom and working, even part-time ( as if moms ever stop being a mom just because they’re working, or not physically present all the time. When I use it here, I just mean my “job” is to be a Mom) .  I told my friend I was writing a post about being a full time mom and working, and she asked, “So, do you mean it was just you with your head face-down on your keyboard for 5 minutes?!”  I’m not the first or the only parent to have to figure out balancing childcare and work during a global pandemic. We made it work, and I’m glad we did because I love my job. Though at times maybe I did want to face plant into my keyboard, that wouldn’t make a good blog post! Actual photo of me working. (JK this is @cookiethepom) Getting back into it Before Max, I was working as a consultant for an awesome learning & development company, A Positive Adventure ...