How Motherhood Shaped My Perspective on Career
Since high school, I’ve had a strong ambition to be a successful working woman. After graduating college, I knew I wanted to climb the corporate ladder and one day become a company’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Now that’s changing.
Last year, I was unfortunately a part of a reduction in force in the company I was working for. Since I was in the middle of a pregnancy, I felt scared and anxious. Everyone told me it was a blessing in disguise, but I felt pressure to know what I wanted to do next. Part of me still yearns to be a CMO, but I can’t ignore the fact that I have a baby and how being a mother impacts my ambition.
The reality of becoming a mother has shifted how I view the professional world. Here I’ll discuss how motherhood shaped my perspective on career by exploring the impact of daycare or becoming a stay-at-home mom, and how to adjust priorities and expectations as a new mother.
Daycare Pros and Cons
Here’s the age-old problem of today’s society: who will watch my kids? How much will it cost? For many women, daycare is a no-brainer in keeping up with their careers. It’s a necessary sacrifice to uphold those connections and skills. However, according to researchers, working mothers still face systemic barriers and “penalties” in the workplace compared to non-mothers or men. These penalties include the bias women face in the workplace like being seen as less competent, less committed, and less productive than their non-mother counterparts.
When considering daycare, you must also factor in cost. For example in my county, my family would effectively pay over sixteen thousand dollars annually for daycare. While this depends on where you live, it’s an added expense to your cost of living. A close friend once told my husband and me that daycare is like “paying someone else to spend time with your child.” This sentiment is more subjective and based on preference, but it’s encouraged me to reflect on my values.
When you reflect, ask yourself what matters most and what compromises you can make to achieve a solid middle ground. Upon reflecting, one option may weigh more heavily than another.
For me, it’s starting to look like I might consider the possibility of being a stay-at-home mom in a single-income household. This is due to my personal feelings and values regarding family and time.
Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom
If you had asked me last year what my plans were after taking maternity leave, I would have told you that I would manage the baby and work remotely full-time – schedule flexibility was a luxury I was granted at the time. This all changed when I got laid off and had to take a real look at what my life was about to look like. I had never considered being a stay-at-home mom, mostly out of fear of losing my professional career and identity. Before my pregnancy, working professionally as a marketer meant so much to me and made up so much of who I was.
In this situation, concerns about mental health will come, along with questions about how different life will end up looking. This is a true phenomenon among stay-at-home mothers who were previously working. My initial fears about becoming a stay-at-home mom revolved around losing my financial independence, professional identity, and social connections. I also worried about the sheer physical and emotional demands of full-time childcare, especially while navigating the challenges of job searching.
While these fears loom large, I also recognize the undeniable joys and benefits of being home with my child. Plus, I still felt anxious about putting my child in daycare full-time. So with all these in mind, what now? How can I get the best of both worlds?
Adjusting Priorities and Expectations as a New Mom
With the rising cost of daycare, the implications of missing time with my child, and the fear of losing so much of myself without a career the best thing I can do is adjust my priorities and expectations. From here, I can create an organized (but loose) plan for what comes next. A priceless skill I learned in my last job was to be prepared for things to constantly change and focus on the next step rather than too far down the line. This is something I can apply to life.
In this situation, you can ask yourself what you can do to feed your ambition and prioritize your child. This can be accomplished in three steps:
Audit your professional skills
Let go and get creative
Become a “student” again
Let’s take a closer look at this.
Audit Professional Skills
After the panic settled from my layoff, I had to take a long and hard pause. I was losing a part of myself I didn’t know was possible and then I questioned who I was professionally. To get back on track, remind yourself it’s not the end of the world and you can retrace your steps and do an audit of your professional skills. Ask yourself:
What do you LIKE working on?
What feels like a natural talent for you?
What were your big accomplishments in the last five years?
These three questions shifted my perspective on what “working” actually means. They helped me hone in on what job I wanted to do next and what I could do in the meantime. Plus, your work experience can give you the confidence to know what you excel at. For example,
I like to write blogs and create short video content.
Producing new ideas and expanding on a topic feels natural.
In the last five years, I have managed a company’s blog, social media, and podcast channels increasing the top-of-funnel awareness and engagement.
Once you audit your professional skills, you can easily identify what creative projects to work on to build your portfolio or optimize your resume and speak to your skills in an interview.
Unleash Your Creativity
Understanding your professional skills means you can now think about what’s next. Not where you see yourself in five or ten years, but what’s NEXT for you, and how to support that goal. Aside from the nitty gritty details of job searching like creating your resume, networking, and interviewing, you can start a professional portfolio.
Unleashing your creativity isn't about long-term career goals. It’s about the immediate next steps you can take action on and start building. Let go of your fears and get creative. The liberating part of unleashing your creativity is there are no rules. For example, I decided to tap into creativity wherever I could and just started doing it instead of waiting for it to look perfect. Hence, where this blog came from. I jumped from trying to get started on multiple channels to focusing on just one - this blog. Once this channel is up and running, I can slowly expand from here and build my portfolio and personal brand.
Not only does this build tangible work that can be added to your resume, but it can also fuel your creativity and add purpose and meaning to your professional life.
Become a “Student” Again
Getting laid off due to a reduction in force is not personal, but in the heat of pregnancy hormones, it’s hard not to wonder if your work performance or skills influenced the decision. This feeling only made me want to get better. Therefore, I decided to become a “student” again.
This can look different for everyone, especially depending on what industry you have experience in. Revisiting and refining your skills keeps you relevant, builds confidence, and prepares you for future opportunities. Since my experience and passion are in digital marketing and content creation, this is where I got started.
Becoming a “student” doesn't necessarily mean learning something entirely new. In my case, it meant revisiting and honing my existing skills. For example, I redesigned my website, tested out new prompts in AI tools, and dove deeper into tools I currently use like Canva, Instagram, and Squarespace. Lastly, I’m relearning my copywriting style – it may not be perfect, but my goal is to build and get content out there.
Conclusion: How Motherhood Shaped My Perspective on Career
So how has motherhood shaped my perspective on career? Firstly, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of daycare and becoming a stay-at-home mom. Neither is the “right” or “wrong” choice but entirely based on personal preference for your family. And no matter which pathway you take, there are ways to adjust your priorities and expectations. Once you’ve taken the steps to understand where your skills are professionally, you can let go and get creative, then become a “student” again and improve on your skills. This process will help make a seamless transition as you make your next step to reach your professional goals.
At the end of the day, I’m finding out that an opportunity like this allows me to experiment with new and different things while focusing on my family. It’s okay to slow down and be comfortable not knowing what’s next. Life will fall into place if you allow it, and now I can take this time to look forward to this exciting chapter as a new mother.
