A Day In The Life Of A Working Mom.

I am a full time working mother. My career as an attorney requires that I commute to several surrounding counties either to represent my clients in court or visit them in jail. This means that while sometimes I am able to come home early and spend time with my son, the majority of the time I find myself eating lunch in my car and out of the home for almost 12 hours. It’s not easy but it is manageable. And as odd as it may sound, its what I have wanted to do ever since I can remember.

The problem comes at night when the working mom guilt kicks in. I was only able to spend quality time with my child for two or three hours before he went to bed. I missed a great milestone that he accomplished or I just can’t believe my little boy is getting so big and I will never get these days back.

Being a working mother and having a career is difficult. Nonetheless, I love both and with pride enjoy both of those titles. Being an attorney is something I feel I have been preparing for for most of my life. And the latter, [ctt template=”2″ link=”fXfHz” via=”no” ]Being a mother is something I could have never prepared for and know that I will be perfecting for the rest of my life.[/ctt]

There are definitely days when I get a text from my mom, who is my son’s care taker, and I want to rush home to be with my little one. I don’t want to witness his childhood through pictures. But I love my career and could never imagine leaving it to be a stay at home mom (SAHM). I have an immense respect for stay at home mothers. Most of the time I wonder, how do they do it? I have collaborated with fellow mommy blogger and SAHM Jasmine from Love, Life, Laugh, Motherhood for this post. Jasmine is a first time mom to a 16 month old little boy.

We recently came together and decided to share our experiences as a Working Mother, and a Stay At Home Mom. Today I will be answering her questions about being a Working Mom, and if you want to know what I asked her about being a SAHM you can head on over to her blog. This is a post that I am definitely excited for. Having recently met Jasmine, I feel like I have gotten to know her so much better. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing this post!

Question 1:What is your profession?

I am a criminal defense and immigration attorney. What does this mean? Although both fields of law do overlap with some of my clients, I represent two different types of clients. In State Court I represent defendants who have been accused of violating criminal law. In Federal Court and with Federal Agencies I represent non American citizens who either are in the process of obtaining some type of legal status or who are being threatened with being removed from our country.

Question 2: How do you balance work and family time?

It’s difficult, definitely. When I get home my sole attention is on my child. If I have personal things I need to do or office work that I bring home I always do it after my son is asleep, whether that is 8:30 pm (his normal bedtime) or 11:00 pm. Weekends are focused on family time. Seldom is the time that my husband and I or I go out by myself without my son during the weekend. The office is very busy and although I bring home with me every weekend, it only gets done if I am not too tired Saturday or Sunday night after everyone is asleep.

Question 3:Would you ever want to start working from home?

Technically this is what I do when I come home early. But it hardly ever happens as I plan it. As soon as my son sees my laptop come out he thinks it’s play time and I can’t say no. Even sending a short email takes 20 to 30 minutes with him and it actually proves counter productive. In order to “work from home” I often end up working until the late hours of the night since that’s the only time he is asleep. Maybe it’s my mom guilt but I cannot shut myself off in another room while he’s playing because I feel like a horrible parent.

Maybe this will be a better option once he is going to school and that way I can use his school time to get work done.

Question 4: Do you ever wish you could just be at home?

Definitely! When my clients show to be unappreciative I always think, I could be home with my son, why am I here wasting my time? When my mom sends me videos of him or pictures I get a horrible feeling of sadness because I know that I am missing so much with him. But at the end of the day I remind myself this is all for him. This is also a field I have wanted to be in since I was a little girl and I owe it to my son to follow my passion.

Question 5: Should you have future children, would you do anything different?

Future children is actually something that I see as a possibility sometime after my son is enrolled in some type of school, so at least 2 years from now. At that point I would hope to have opened up my own office or at least be able to work closer from home. That way, I will be able to drop off my son at school and be there to pick him up. I definitely want to be able to give him alone time with me so that he does not resent his new sibling(s). I also hope that by then my mom guilt won’t be as strong and I will be able to actually work from home during the day while my children are being taken care of. This way, I know I will be able to spend more time with them.

Are you a SAHM or a Working Mom? or Both? Let me know if there are any questions you would want to ask either of us and how you deal with being either a SAHM or a Working Mom.

XOXO – L.