Working Moms – Leave Your Guilt At The Door

I just read an article on www.Entrepreneur.com called “The Guilty Mom Entrepreneur”[1] – does that ring a bell? The article explains how working moms feel guilty about working and not being with their kids, and about being with their kids and not working. The article advises us working moms to separate the two and focusing exclusively on each one.

Good advice, but difficult to follow. What do you do when you’re in the car with your family and your cell phone rings and it’s one of your investors, or your sales guy who you’ve been waiting to hear important news from all day? I don’t know about you, but I take the call and tell my family I just need a couple of minutes. When my childrens’ nanny calls me at work, I take the call because she rarely calls and if there’s a problem, I want to know.

Isn’t the advantage of starting your own business to have this flexibility without someone looking over your shoulder and judging you? I started my own business because I believe in meritocracy – not face time.

I think the biggest problem with working moms and their guilt, is that they have let society tell them how they should feel rather than making the choice for themselves. Only I can be responsible for how I feel. If I choose to be an entrepreneur, mom, wife, and friend – then that’s who I am, and I don’t need to feel guilty about trying to squeeze it all in.

As Peggy Lee sang in 1963 “I can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan”. We’ve come along way in the last 45 years, now we just need to leave our guilt at the door.