Being a mom is the best thing I’ve ever done, but it’s a tough job day in and day out and certainly not a job for sissies. And if you’re a mom who works outside the home, it’s a superwoman feat to get lunches made and kids hustled out the door by 8 am so…

Do you work? Posing that question to a group of mothers can be the verbal equivalent of throwing a Molotov cocktail. For those unfamiliar with the long-running “mommy war,” a flare-up between those who work outside the home and stay-at-home mothers recently exploded on the U.S. political scene. In a discussion about the economic challenges…

“Do you think you’ll return to work after having your baby?” That’s a question I heard many times before having my son more than eight years ago. I started hearing it again before the birth of my daughter last year. If there is one misperception I would love to quash, it’s the notion that women…

During her two maternity leaves, Tara Piurko maintained a lifeline to her hard-earned career as a lawyer in Toronto through an innovative buddy program run by her firm, McCarthy Tétrault LLP. Through the program, she and a selected work buddy regularly met for lunch, with her baby in tow. In weekly calls, Ms. Piurko received…

I’m getting ready for the October launch of the MomShift profiles (so blog action might be a bit slow!) but I wanted to share what I wrote in today’s Huffington Post – full text below! Working Parents Need Real Choices – Regardless of Test Scores. While paying for my groceries last week, I had one of…

It can be awfully tasting medicine, yet some unplanned career disruptions are true blessings in disguise. So thought Steve Jobs after being fired from his own company (ten years after starting Apple), as he recounted in a memorable commencement speech at Stanford. (Editor’s note: The first link takes you to the text of the speech,…

Jada Pinkett Smith is on this month’s cover of Redbook magazine talking about the career sacrifices she’s made to support her family and their ambitions. Posh (Victoria Beckham), who in her current incarnation is a designer and soon to be mother to her fourth child was recently quoted saying, “Maternity leave? What’s that?” These days celebrity working…

In discussions on work life balance or female talent retention, maternity or parental leave tends to take center stage. But should it? Here’s what I mean.  Yes, taking care of a newborn is all consuming and maternity leave is necessary to recover and adjust to everything that a new baby brings with him or her….

Ladies, would you say that your partner is a “real partner”? I hope so, but statistically, even if you are both doing your best to create an equal relationship, it’s still the woman that’s doing the majority of housework and childcare.  No surprise there right? In her recent TED talk, “Why We Have So Few Women…

Could children actually help your career and professional life? I know, it sounds unlikely, if not impossible. From the “mommy track” to off ramping, downshifting or just disappearing, the primary cultural and media story that we hear is that family sidetracks (or de-rails) a woman’s career. As the best selling author Chimamanda Adichie discusses in…