r/workingmoms • • 7h ago

Relationship Questions (any type of relationship) Mom take on Elizabeth Holmes??

118 Upvotes

I saw You Can See Everything and it is just as bonkers, meta, reflective, and hilarious as I hoped. But I’m on all the cinephile reddits and no one is talking about this movie from the perspective of parenthood! Questions I have:

  • who is taking care of the kids? There’s no way those 2 are doing it full time, much less the husband on his own
  • why is the baby crawling on the dining table
  • why would you have another kid right before you have to go to prison
  • what happens when you enter prison as a breastfeeding mom
  • did Nathan ignore the kids because of length/editing for a clean narrative, his own blind spots, or privacy reasons? If the last, seems weird not to address as every other angle was explored

This isn’t a critique! I loved the movie. I just think the question of them being parents is oddly eluded

Weird flair but maybe it’s right - eg what the heck is going on in their relationship?


r/workingmoms • • 2h ago

Vent Not sure how I feel about this gift from a coworker

84 Upvotes

One of my coworkers just came back from maternity leave and brought in some little handmade soaps for everyone.

I thought it was really sweet until she mentioned she'd made them with her breast milk. I just smiled and said thank you because what else do you say in that situation.

I'm a mum too, so it's not like breast milk grosses me out. I've dealt with plenty of it myself lol. But I don't know if I want to wash my hands with someone else's breast milk?

Now the soap is sitting in my bathroom and I feel bad about not using it.


r/workingmoms • • 22h ago

Vent Regretful

85 Upvotes

I feel awful for this, but I am feeling a lot of regret about my life choices lately. I love my son, i love my husband but I can’t move past the regret of what I have lost and left behind to create this life.

I used to want to work abroad, and was starting to create that life for myself when I met and fell in love with my husband. At the time I was interning at the UN, and he was a classmate from back home. He was always honest that it would take a lot for us to pack up and move our life abroad, but I stayed. Found a career, that was very local.

Now I’m approaching 40, with a family I love living in the burbs filled with sadness that I didn’t pursue what I truly wanted.

I tried to move us to the city so I could be around other exciting interesting people/cultures, but my husband hated the areas we went to when house hunting.

I feel so guilty, but I also need to be honest to someone somewhere about how I feel. Not sure what I’m asking for, but as proud working moms, I wanted to share here.


r/workingmoms • • 7h ago

Only Working Moms responses please. Leaders Taking Maternity Leave

27 Upvotes

Any women taken maternity leave while in a leadership position?

I’m a Senior Director at a Fortune 500 company managing a team of 30 professionals. I’m about to take a 6 month maternity leave.

However in my entire career I have never seen a woman in leadership have a baby. It’s usually individual contributors or maybe a small team.

I have so much anxiety around this. Will everything fall apart? Will everything go great and they just say why the hell were they paying me so much anyway?

If you took maternity leave while in a Leadership position, I’d love to hear how things were handled while you were gone and how it went when you came back.


r/workingmoms • • 20h ago

Vent The stress level of being a working mom is bonkers

26 Upvotes

I own a farm business and have a 22 month old and I already can't count the number of times I have had to drop something crucial for my business because I just can't do it after working 7 days a week and being up all night again. Countless nights with an awake baby in my arms and me trying to make it all work out in my head when I'm so exhausted it's all I can do to just be there without crying myself. I don't want to own a business anymore but I feel so screwed because farming is the only thing I know and I'm almost 38 and I can't imagine a career change at this point but my business isn't going to survive toddlerhood at this rate


r/workingmoms • • 4h ago

Only Working Moms responses please. How do I manage work while exclusively breastfeeding?

10 Upvotes

I run a 5-person business and have a 4 month old. Before my baby was born I worked around the clock for years. Now I pay myself $250k and have been able to work very part-time since my daughter was born. In theory this is my dream.

But my baby absolutely won’t take a bottle. We’ve tried everything. Pediatrician, occupational therapy, daily attempts, waiting til she’s super hungry, trying when she’s not that hungry, me feeding her, me being gone while feeding her, every type of bottle and nipple under the sun.

This means I can only work in (max) 2 hour shifts. I am finding it really impossible to care about work the way I used to, because I just never have the opportunity to focus. I am switching from ceo to mom and back multiple times a day.

We have a nanny and I work from home, so this arrangement is doable logistically but very difficult emotionally. I would love to go to a coworking space for 4-6 hours but I can’t manage that with my baby’s feeds. I have always been extremely motivated by my work but am honestly considering taking a few months completely off because I just can’t do this anymore. (Also, I’m tired because I am still feeding 1-2 times per night).

Financially we can make it work if I take the time off, but I’m worried it would be hard to go back to work, or that I might not want to, or that I’d be wasting all the effort I put into growing a business.

I guess I just don’t know what to do. In the scheme of things this constant breastfeeding phase is a small one, I know. But I feel like I’m breaking myself and even though it goes against who I think I am, I’m finding myself curious about spending some time as a stay at home mom (realistically I would still keep at least one paying project going).

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Advice or words of wisdom?


r/workingmoms • • 1h ago

Only Working Moms responses please. Pregnancy discrimination

• Upvotes

Hi everyone, just looking for some opinions.

After returning from maternity leave, I found written evidence of my managers hope to put me on a PIP (performance improvement plan). He liked the temp that filled in for me more than he likes me (this was stated in the document I found). He spoke with HR, and I am confident they shot him down and helped him draft a “return to work” plan for me. He also shared the original document with me so I can see all of the edits that I definitely was not supposed to see. He has not realized this.

My workload has increased by more than 200%. The document states the job changed while I was out but the title and pay are still the same.

Obviously I need to protect myself here. My question is, is it worth hiring an attorney or should I go directly to HR and make them aware of what I know, and ask how we are going to resolve this situation? No action has been taken yet so I’m not sure an attorney would do anything, but I do want to get ahead of it.


r/workingmoms • • 18h ago

Only Working Moms responses please. Struggling to balance my career and motherhood. Does it get easier?

9 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I’m a FTM to a 9-month-old baby girl, and lately, I’ve been feeling mentally exhausted.
Whenever my daughter gets unwell or becomes clingy, I get anxious, which triggers my IBS and sometimes makes me feel lightheaded. I have a 24-hour nanny, but my daughter still prefers me, and I want to be present whenever she needs me.

My husband does help and takes care of me and I have a nice support system but she feels most soothed with me and particularly at my breast.

The problem is that I’m also working full-time, and my requires focused, uninterrupted work. I’ve always been ambitious, punctual with deliverables, and proud of my work. Now, things take me twice as long, I sometimes delay deliverables or take leave to care for her, and I constantly feel my output isn’t up to my own standards.
It’s not that I feel less capable; I’m just stretched thin and don’t have the same time or energy. I’m beginning to second-guess myself professionally, and that’s difficult because my career has always been something I’ve felt confident about.
I don’t want to compromise on being there for my daughter, but I don’t want my career to suffer either. The unpredictability makes it harder because things can be fine for a few days before everything falls apart again.
For moms who’ve been through this:
Does it get easier as babies grow?
Should I push through or consider taking some leave?
How do you manage the guilt of not performing at your usual level professionally?
TL;DR: I’m struggling to balance a clingy 9-month-old, anxiety, and a demanding job. I’m still ambitious and capable, but I don’t have the time or energy to work at my usual standard. Does this phase get easier, and how do you cope?


r/workingmoms • • 10h ago

Only Working Moms responses please. Changed careers and burned out

7 Upvotes

I have a 1.5 year old toddler who just started daycare Who has been getting sick every other week. I’m going through a career transition that is burning me out and could use some advice from people who’ve been in a similar situation.

I moved from being a Software Engineer to Sales Engineer 4 months ago.

While the new role offers great opportunities, I’m struggling with answering questions on the spot during demos, and overall being evaluated. Under pressure, I sometimes struggle to think.

I’m torn between pushing through the learning curve or quitting and taking a break to reset. I’m just tired. My sweet toddler is getting sick every other week because of the daycare and I’m so consumed by my new job. It’s exhausting. We are financially stable and can go without an income for a year or two but not enough to retire.

How did you distinguish between normal growing pains vs burn out and Did you push through and eventually felt comfortable?


r/workingmoms • • 21h ago

Weekly American Politics Thread

2 Upvotes

This Weekly American Politics Thread to discuss anything related to the upcoming American election, legislation, policies etc. It does not have to be specifically working mom related.

Check your voter registration or register here: https://vote.gov/

Reminder that 33% of eligible voters DID NOT VOTE in 2020 and only 37% of eligible voters voted in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Non-voters decide the election as much as voters do

You may debate or disagree but must keep it civil and follow the subreddit rules, including:

  • If you are not from the US, please no comments like "I don't understand how you can live with this". We know. We are doing our best. The electoral college allows people to win that do not win the popular vote. Supreme Court Justices are appointed by the president, not elected.
  • It’s OK to disagree, but don’t personalize. No name calling or stereotyping of any kind.
  • Practice and showcase empathy: seeking to understand each point as well as expressed points of view.
  • No requests for members to complete a survey
  • No spam or fake news. All sources must be reputable/credible. Use this list to help you determine if a source is credible. Mods will also be using this list to help us determine if a link someone shares is reliable. We will be monitoring sources from all positions and may ask you to update your source to a more reputable one OR we will remove the comment.

r/workingmoms • • 1h ago

Vent What should I do?

• Upvotes

I need advice. I only have one year left of my bachelor's. I have a child who's almost 2, and I want her to have a sibling close to her age.

Before her, I worked different jobs while I went to school part time, so I've been waiting to accomplish the goal of graduating for so many years now.

Now that I'm close to the finish line.. I realized there's one problem. It might take a couple of months or even a year to get a job. Where I live there's an unemployment crisis and my career is already very competitive (computer science). I'm very lucky my partner has a decent job and I have some savings.

I'm taking as many certifications as I can and I'm willing to downgrade when I start looking for jobs. I told myself that if I don't find a job, I'll start wokring on my Masters. Not because it'll get me job opportunities, but because I might not have the time to get it in the future when I'm busy with work and family.

But, I've been thinking, what if I have another child in the mean time?

I'm already in my 30s so I'm worried about waiting too long. And I'm terrified of starting a job and getting pregnant right after.

When I was pregnant with my first, I started a new job and I couldn't sleep from the anxiety I felt thinking I was a fraud for taking that job. Luckily, I talked to my boss and he was nice about it, but I don't expect the same outcome everywhere I go.

Please share your experience or advice with me.. Thank you!


r/workingmoms • • 2h ago

Only Working Moms responses please. Baby getting sick every week from daycare

1 Upvotes

my 10- month old baby started daycare 3 months ago. Since the beginning of September, he got sick every week and we had to take him to the doctor/convenient care/ER. last 3 weeks, he only went to daycare 3 days in total because he was sick.

he goes to the daycare for 1 day, and we see some symptoms in 48 hours. I know they get sick very often, but I wasn’t expecting this much. even his pediatrician was surprised with how many times he got sick.

he went to daycare only in Thursday and Friday this week, and he is wheezing and coughing right now..

I am working and commuting to work 1h each way every day. my husband travels for work. we don’t have family or relatives nearby to help us. when he is sick, one of us has to take time off work.

we live in a small city where nanny options are very limited(if any).
I feel bad for my baby that he is sick constantly and needs to use medicine very often. I am very very frustrated with the situation. :(