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233: FOMO: Working Moms vs. SAHMs - Insights from Sharon Macey, Host of the Mom to More™ Podcast

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Content provided by Melissa Llarena. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Melissa Llarena or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

In this enlightening episode, we delve into the unique perspectives of stay-at-home moms (SAHMs) and working moms. Our special guest, Sharon Macey, host of the Mom to More™ podcast, shares her journey from being a SAHM for 20 years to reinventing herself professionally. This conversation offers working moms a chance to understand the other side of the coin and see that no matter the path chosen, there's no missing out or falling behind. This episode is perfect for you if you wish to uncover the profound wisdom that moms—both working and stay-at-home—can impart to each other to enrich their motherhood experiences.

Do you want to ask me or this week's guest a question? Send in your question today: https://www.instagram.com/melissallarena/

Key Points:

  1. Understanding Different Mom Experiences:
    • Gain insights into the stay-at-home mom experience from Sharon Macey. Learn how SAHMs navigate daily challenges and find fulfillment, providing a broader perspective that can enhance your own parenting journey.
  2. No Right or Wrong Path:
    • Discover how both SAHMs and working moms face unique but equally valid challenges and rewards. Sharon’s story highlights that choosing either path is about finding what works best for you and your family, without fear of missing out or being left behind.
  3. Shared Wisdom for a Balanced Summer:
    • Learn practical tips from Sharon on how to make the most of your summer with your kids. Whether you're a working mom or considering a shift, this conversation provides strategies for balancing enriching activities for your children with personal growth and career aspirations.

Actionable Takeaways:

  • Embrace a new perspective by understanding the experiences of stay-at-home moms.
  • Find reassurance in knowing that whether you work or stay home, you're making the right choice for your family.
  • Implement shared tips to create a summer that is fulfilling and productive for both you and your kids.

Join us for this insightful conversation with Sharon Macey, and discover how understanding different mom experiences can enrich your own parenting journey and help you make the most of your mom summer.

Listen now and gain a fresh perspective on motherhood!

Official bio:

Sharon Macey is a content creator, blogger, speaker and host of the Mom to MORE podcast. A real "mother of reinvention", Sharon created Mom To MORE™, a podcast and community for women rediscovering themselves beyond motherhood.

Sharon enjoyed a successful career as an award-winning copywriter and marketer before proudly embracing the role of stay-at-home-mom. During the years of raising her 3 kids, she realized while doing all of the expected mom things, she had developed a wealth of skills that served as the foundation for her own personal reinvention. Sharon knows that moms of any age can use their talents, wisdom and unique gifts to create their empowering and fulfilling next chapters in life. Sharon holds a BA in advertising from the University of Texas at Austin and a Digital Marketing Strategies certification from the Kellogg School of Management. She competes in Latin ballroom dance and lives the empty-nest life in Connecticut with her husband and comedic dog, Comet.

In this episode, I shared a resource you can use today to initiate conversations with anyone! Grab it this week and let me help you take the first step to building a powerful network that can help you grow your business (and even connect with other moms too).

Links:

Podcast: https://apple.co/46XAhPB

Website: https://www.momtomore.com/

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TRANSCRIPT:

What if stay at home moms and working moms got together and helped one another and imparted some really useful wisdom that could help us each be better moms? That is what this conversation is about. I have here quite the special guest, Sharon Macey. She's the host of the Mom to More™ podcast. She's the mother of reinvention.

Former stay at home mom for almost 20 years, Sharon intimately understands the journey of motherhood, its joys, challenges, and the inevitable question moms all ask themselves. Is this all there is? And what's next for me? These moments of introspection led Sharon to her own aha moment and inspired the creation of her podcast, a podcast and community dedicated to supporting women rediscovering themselves after motherhood.

In this episode, we'll Sharon and I talk about what is it that we should be doing and can be doing with our kids during these summer breaks. And so I thought that Sharon would have a wonderful perspective seeing that she had about 20 summers with her children as a stay at home mom. And I think asking a friend with that experience is absolutely invaluable.

Also discussed in this conversation was a chapter of my book, fertile imagination. So in my book, I share how as working moms, we might want to phase out our approach to business building. Or just the way that we tackle our goals. And so I wanted to get Sharon's perspective pertaining to her life as a stay at home mom for the last 20 years.

And I wanted to see kind of like the other side of things. I wanted to know if she had been building out her interests in phases as a stay at home mom. And so that was something that we talked about as well as this very unique and very cool concept, which is that She was plugged into the community of advertising as a stay at home mom, so although she may have not been, you know, working for an agency at the time, her mom friends in agencies and friends in general would still reach out to Sharon.

As she may have been, you know, driving a child from hockey practice to back home. And that continuation of building those relationships, even when you are not working, per se, or looking for a job, I thought is such a wonderful example to share on this episode. So truly enjoy the conversation. If this really adds value and helps you reimagine what this summer could look like, having spent some valuable time with your kids, but also still plugged into your interests, then share this conversation with your mom bestie in particular.

And I want to challenge you. If you're a working mom, share this with a stay at home mom. And if you're a stay at home mom, share it with a working mom. I promise that we have more in common than we could possibly imagine. So please share this episode. And now for the wonderful conversation with Sharon Macey.

Amazing. Sharon Macey, thank you so much for being on Unimaginable Wellness. How are you? I am great. My friend. How are you? I'm really excited about this. I'm really excited about you. I'm excited that you're in a library. Oh my gosh. Do you know internet problems today? So we're in a library with this heinous yellow background behind me.

So But you know what, Sharon, this is emblematic of making it all work, making what lemon sorbet out of lemons. Here's the best part. I love libraries. So you're actually in like my Haven, right? So your library, fun fact, when I was living in new Canaan, we were very library envious. of people in Westport, right?

And so you are in a really great library looking at what a river or something. So yes, yeah. Overlooking I'm not overlooking a river, but yes, this library is overlooking a river. Yeah. So shout out to libraries. You guys are saving graces, especially if the internet ever conks out. And, and also for those mom friendly rooms, right?

With all those beautiful children books and such. So Sharon, I am so excited to have you here and we can absolutely launch into the regularly scheduled conversation. So Sharon, let me just paint the picture here, right? So. A lot of us want to spend more time with our kids, especially when we're in school break during the summer.

But the, the challenge is if we have our own businesses, if we're working moms, is that at this point we already feel behind, like behind on life, behind on our to dos, on our dreams. And so this idea that, okay, kids are out and we want to spend time with them. It just feels Card, and it feels like something that might take us away from building the skills necessary to like make progress on our business.

So I would love you to help us all better understand how time spent with kids. For example, maybe thinking about your years as a stay at home mom, 20 years or so, how did that better prepare you? For when it was your turn or time to launch your own platform or business, like help us rationalize, like, okay.

Time spent with my kid is going to help me for when I'm back at it in the fall. 100%. I love that question, Melissa. Thank you. The beauty of having been a stay at home mom, at least for me, and I realize that is a privilege to be able to spend that time, is that I realized later that everything you do as a stay at home mom builds a skill set and Or superpowers, whatever you want to call it, that will help you manifest, create, be whatever it is you want to be in your future.

Or if you are trying to get this done while your kids are, maybe your kids have finally entered kindergarten or elementary school and you do have a little more time. In your day, you've got more daylight, it will help you build those skills. And so every moment that you're with your kids, you're learning so many things and we blow these off, right?

You think about how you act in an emergency, the leadership roles, the, the infinite questions in your ability to multitask and be a communicator and a negotiator and we'll throw in Dr. Mom, cause we've all been there. You have these innate abilities to do so many things and all of those skills are going to inform you.

They will help you get to whatever your next chapter or what I like to call my podcast, your more is going to be. And so I, I, I sort of challenged moms to say, think about all the things that you do, write them down. I mean, think about all the parties you've done. You're an event planner. Think about nonprofits that you've raised money for.

You are developing a skill set that is rich and varied and marketable, and those will take you far. I have to share something with you. A lot of moms that I've partnered with, mom founders, have told me that following up after going to networking events tends to be hard, awkward, and a lot of them really don't know how to do it. I completely agree, and I think, as I think about time with my child or my children, I also think about the fact, and what I'm hearing you say, Sharon, is that I could almost, like, reframe it, right? If, if I'm feeling that, That complexity of the decision, the fact that it is time that I'm not going to be working on my business, quote unquote.

So one reframe that I'm hearing is that maybe the summer season, maybe these breaks, quote unquote, are like opportunities for me to work on like my soft Skills, right? So soft skills as a leader is certainly something that if you're a business owner, like a solopreneur, like myself, like you tend to forget the fact that you too need like a development plan as well in terms of your leadership skills.

So maybe time with your child can be time spent focusing on some key soft skills, and maybe it's something you do together. A hundred percent. And this, I think this time with the kids, summer is fun. It's creative. It's imaginative. It is, it's sort of where you can try to give your brain a bit of a mental break because the kids are on break and listen, your kid may go to camp.

So you'll have a little more time there. Just, I'd say really enjoy that time. And, and drill down on all of these life experiences and see what comes up from there because it's not wasted time at all. It's incredibly valuable time. Absolutely. And, and I mentioned that because I remember when I was coaching a client, she had spent one morning going to some sort of science museum with her son and her husband, and in the back of her mind, she was like, But I should be really working on building my business.

But then she got back to the whole point of like, but wait, like, why did I actually build my business? It was to have the flexibility to be with my child. And so I think all of it can be rationalized. If you need that rationalization, just so that this way you feel great and actually present when you are with your child.

So I love what you said there, Sharon. So let me, let me ask you something because here's the thing that's super cool. So when I've interviewed people, not everyone has like checked out my book, fertile imagination, but you have it in your hand. And so I think it's, it's amazing. So I want to just reference it and get your thoughts on this idea.

Yeah in the book In the book Thank you so much In the book sharon. I reference a working mom who I admire so so so much martha hennessey who's Like a rock star and she's like a grandmother at this stage, too And she told me before I became a mom that I would never regret the time I spent with my kids It was really hard to think about Think that through because I was not yet a mom, but now I like I get it, right?

Cause a lot of us, for example, especially if you're a working mom, you only have these like windows of time, right? Of mom exclusive time. So here's my question, Martha, I mentioned in my book, she worked on her professional dreams. In phases while being a mom, right? And so my question to you, because you were a stay at home mom for 20 years, like, did you, on the other side of this coin, explore your interests in phases during your stay at home mom time?

Ooh, interesting question, my friend. So I didn't think that I did at the time, but in retrospect, I I absolutely did, because I realized everything I was doing with my kids, all of the information I was absorbing and the knowledge that I was learning and the skills that I was honing, all of those things helped me eventually get to where I am right now with mom to more with the podcast and the community for women rediscovering themselves beyond motherhood.

And what was interesting, Melissa was when I was a stay at home mom, it was a little more black and white then. Right. I've got a, got a couple of years on you. It was a little more black and white, and it was either you were working or you are not. And I had some freelance clients. My background is advertising and marketing.

I'm a writer. So I did have some freelance clients for a while until I had too many kids and then they outnumbered me and I was overwhelmed, but. What I, what I tried to do is keep my fingers in the things that I like to do. I, my friends know that I'm creative. I would have friends who were working, who would call me up and say, need a headline.

I need an idea. Talk to me about whatever. And so during those years, as I had in the back of my head, I knew that There was a lot of questioning inside of me going, well, is this all there is? And what do I want to do when my kids grow up, which definitely led me into my mom to more chapter. And then during the pandemic, I was able to go back to school, which really helped to launch a couple of things, which then ultimately led in into what I was doing.

So I. Definitely different phases, although I might not have been as aware of it at the moment when things were happening, but in retrospect, when you really look at that pool of experiences and knowledge and highs and lows and disasters and successes, everything sort of helped me to get to where I am right now.

It's so interesting how originally I'm gonna this is actually something I've never told anyone. So like, I remember when I was first pregnant, me and my husband, okay, this was before becoming parents. Well, I guess I was with my first born in me, but I remember. We got all analytical about what we wanted our firstborn to be.

We literally started writing down, like, we want them to know all these languages. We want them to be, pick a word, kind, ambitious, whatever. Like we were almost like scientifically writing out like the recipe that we wanted to then bake. And, and so it's interesting because obviously that was like, To shreds because reality, you become a mom, but what I'm hearing from you is that maybe we don't need to be so like, I don't know, methodological about how we want to approach our lives.

Maybe things will happen. Events will happen. Situations will present themselves that in hindsight, we can then connect the dots and make something out of them that. Helps us feel fulfilled, you know, and so again, we were not creating our child, but we're manifesting his personality. So this was, this was beyond manifesting.

We're like two MBAs. We got Excel on this whole thing. And, and honestly, I had no time for Excel that first year. But the whole idea is that there's, there might be something else at play that really just helps guide us in, in a logical way that we will only know after the fact, right? So 20 years later, it makes sense that your friends in the creative feels, we're still asking you for your insights and wisdom.

It makes sense that maybe now at this stage, Sharon, and I don't know if this is true. Maybe you also like reached out to them and ask them about your mom to more stage. Maybe there's, there's some sort of, right. Exchange there. So how did that work? Like at this point, at this stage, I'm just curious, like, did you plug back into those former friends, former colleagues, people who knew you when?

Absolutely. And, and a lot of that, they've just been in my life. Throughout the continuum, right? They never left. And I feel blessed to know as many people as I do in as many different stages of life that they're in. And so knowing that I have people that I can connect Reach out to and connect with, or sometimes reconnect with, has been incredibly powerful.

And I've found moms from my podcast, from, from knowing, from people that I've known for a long time and realizing things that they have done in their life. And I think also you have to, like in your book, Melissa, you have to allow for those moments of creativity and those moments of imagination and those moments of, I'm just going to go with the flow and see where it takes me.

And. Oftentimes, when you have these unexpected moments that were unex, these unexpected moments, you learn so much about you, about something that you love to do, about something that you think you might want to look into in the future. So I just say, Like what you said in the book, allow your imagination to be and be able to take chances.

And I, and I think that's also something that I'm, I'm actually really comfortable doing. I don't know why, but I'm cool with taking chances. I feel like I started the podcast before I was really ready, although I had done a lot of research and I was as ready as I was going to be at that moment. But was it perfect?

God, no, you just, sometimes you just jump in and you do something because you know that you have something that needs to get out and it's going to resonate and you just need to do it. So that's kind of sort of where I'm, I'm coming from about that. Yeah. And I love that. I love that. I love how there was this continuing this continuity, I guess you could say of relationships.

It's like, I noticed that in terms of circles. So like, you know, where I have lived and where I live now, like there's a lot of moms who might not be a purist. Stay at home mom because right now I would say the lines are blurry to your point Especially with the advent of hybrid work and just working from home It's like like I do everything at home But so does my husband which is really interesting and he's not a stay at home dad, right?

So I I love how you Stayed connected to people that were still in the work of of commerce right at the time and how and I also love how they respect you so much for your talent and skills, even though maybe at that moment, you may have been literally like driving someone to hockey practice or something.

Right? Like, And yes, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Right. You know, for mom, some, sometimes some of your most creative ideas happen behind the wheel of your car. Yeah, that's, that's very true. Actually, Sarah Blakely, by the way, just today on Instagram did a reel on how she used to feel. Fake a commute so that she could come up with her best ideas while driving nowhere, like around the same sort of set of blocks in Georgia.

But that being said, it just supports what you just said, Sharon. Yeah. Driving, showering, all of these moments where you're not thinking about a campaign or whatever, where that is when you get the tagline, right? That's when you get that soundbite. So I love that. I'm super creative. It just moments of when you're sort of like falling asleep or maybe you wake up in the middle of the night because at a certain age, yes, everybody's waking up in the middle of the night and oftentimes I find my brain just starts going and ideas just start popping and I have to open up my phone so I could just jot myself a note so I don't forget it.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's actually when my imagination was in full gear, like when I would put my head to the pillow and when I became a mom, because I was not putting my head to the pillow very often, that's why I felt like there was this pause on my imagination. And that's why I wrote the book so that I could rediscover my imagination and, and help moms and readers do the same for them.

And, and so let me ask you this question, cause I think I think this is really going to be common in terms of a lot of the listeners here. And I think your perspective, Sharon, would be amazing. So, okay, we have this idea that we are missing out on the lives of our kids. And And I, I am, I wonder from your perspective, when you were a stay at home, mom, did you feel like you were missing out in the world of commerce?

Like, was that ever like an inner conflict for you? Like, Oh, I'm not in the glitz and glamour of that. Things I heard this from a mom. That's a stay at home mom who was in, in communications before. That's why I'm curious about your thoughts and how you either untangled that conflict or worked through that conflict.

Cause we have it on the other side. We feel like we're missing out on the lives of our kids working mom. So I'm just curious your thoughts. Yeah, it's really interesting. You mentioned that because I absolutely felt that I was missing out, but. At that moment in my life, I had my it was a joint decision with my husband and myself that I had decided to step back and focus on the kids because they were only young ones and also recognizing that I had the privilege of being a stay at home mom.

But I would advise. Moms who are home to stay connected. And it's so much easier now than when my kids were younger, right? Having come back from, you know, the mom 2. 0 summit, so many women are really engaged in a, in a part time way. They've got younger kids, they're content creators that didn't exist when, when my kids were younger.

And so I'd say. My advice would be stay connected to the things that you love, the things that resonate with you, anything in your form or career, stay in touch with the people that you worked with. You can take an online class, you can meet up with other like minded moms, and I know that there are, are groups all over the country of women who, Our home who are gathering together and they're talking about how do they stay relevant?

How do they stay informed? How do they stay with their fingers sort of still in the pie of their former careers? So then when they have the opportunity to be able to go back to what they did or interestingly, maybe start something totally new that they had no idea that they were going to do, that they feel that there was still that connection.

I'd say for the moms who are working and they're feeling like they're missing out with their kids, that, that is, is maybe not PC. That's, that's obviously a choice that you have. Now, I will also say, That there are women who have to work and I respect the hell out of them for doing two really incredibly hard jobs at the same time, raising kids, having to make that decision to put them in daycare or have someone in the family look at them so you can go make a living.

And that is, that is an incredibly hard journey. And I applaud all those moms who do that. And. And so they're not missing out because it's really interesting. Melissa, from the kids perspective, my kids would say to me, we can't imagine having a mom who wasn't at home. But I know other women who were working and their kids have said to them, we can't imagine having a mom who wasn't working.

And so kids will glean. Information and and experiences from how they lived and that will inform I think who they're going to become. So I think both sides of the coin are valid and true and real and they happen every day. And I think we just really have to embrace where we are able to be at this moment in time while we are embracing our kids and just trying to take every moment that we gain from them and grow from it and love it.

I would agree. And I think, as I think about some of the clients that I've had who, who technically have a choice, that's, that's the part that's kind of interesting. And everybody has to decide for themselves, like what it is that they want out of their one precious life. Right. But, but some of the, uh, Some of the individuals who do have a lot of choice and, and opt to be very ambitious in terms of their careers, even when their kids are only going to be five, one time or 10, one time there's the other side of it is that you poured in so many years, a lot of times before becoming a mom, right?

So there's so many people that I've gone to school. School with, for example, that before they became a mom, which a lot of people now become moms later in life, they poured in decades to go up the ladder and to accomplish whatever dream was on their heart. And so it's very, very valid that that dream doesn't just go and it doesn't get thrown in the toilet with our placentas.

Again, I wonder where my placenta is. It's all. And it's really interesting, Melissa. I was just speaking with a cousin, a cousin of mine, and it's actually my cousin's daughter, and she just had a baby last fall. She's got a really big time job. And I think the pandemic really changed a lot of things. She is able to work from home two days a week.

And so she can be with her daughter. She can work, she can take time out and, and. And have that mommy time, which is so important, but she also has this like really big job at a really world renowned firm. And so I think moms today have so many more options, so many more options than what I had when my kids were younger.

And so I, I think that's really important. I think that's terrific. You can sort of do both, right? You can have the time with your kids. You can have time at work. Sometimes they're overlapping at home. And, and it's just a whole different world in that regard, whether who's going to be a home parent, working parent.

It's, it's, it's, there's a lot of, you know, We may want to edit this out right here. Cause I just had a senior moment. There are, there is much more optionality that exists today than exists before. Absolutely. Sharon. I think that people definitely can re imagine what. A day can look like where they are present with their child, and they're also super focused on their work during another slice of, of the day.

I, I do, I do know there's, it's such a complex thing. I think having been a coach, like I appreciate also a lot of the realities, which is just one thing. Like. I still do think even though we have the option to work from home, I still do think that people that are physically based in a headquarters area might get picked for a C suite job a little more readily and easily.

Or if you show up to the office, it might convey extra commitment. And I'm not saying that's right. I'm just saying that I understand. And I appreciate the reality you. But I also understand that anyone that's listening has the opportunity at this time to really figure out for herself what she wants.

Like, what do you want out of this life experience? Some, some listeners may. May have always thought to themselves, like, I've always wanted to be a mom. Like, like this, this being the CEO of an organization, that's for the birds. I'm being so silly right now, but like not everyone wanted that. And so for some people, I think it's just a matter of seeing the fact that if your dream was.

To be a stay at home mom and you have the opportunity to do so that is as valid and worthy and honorable as being the CEO of a billion dollar organization or whatever. And yeah, I mean, you're representing the next generation of humans and I think the world is definitely more amenable to the whole work from home concept and we'll, we can thank the pandemic for that really.

And. There are, I think you can have more of it both ways than we could in the past. And, and the other thing that's really interesting, Melissa is what I've learned from some of the women that I've had the privilege of interviewing for my podcast is that I find that women who have spent a period of time home with their kids, they, they have become.

Far more entrepreneurial than they would have ever imagined. And so if you had said to many of the moms that I've spoken with, if someone had told you five years ago that you're gonna be doing what you're doing at this moment, they would have said, no way, would have said, that's not me. I'm never gonna be doing that.

And so I think that just, The experience that you gain as a mom, the experience that you gained from working first and then being a mom and taking all those things that you went sort of putting it in the washer and the dryer and saying, okay, how's it going to come out on the other end? There's women have really this extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit and creativity and imagination, which leads them places they never thought they'd go.

And, and that, I mean, that's what happened to me. And I think that is just beautiful because life. Is you never know what's going to happen in life. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow. So to be able to take that creativity and move it forward, I think is a real gift and a blessing to, to have that opportunity.

Absolutely. Sharon, thank you for this. I think anyone listening is going to want to keep up with you. Keep up with Sharon. So like, where can we, yeah. So where can people find you hear more for about being a mom and, and just. Living in that moreness, like, how can we be part of your world? I love that. Living in my moreness.

Thank you for that. You can find me, well, my website is MOM2MORE, so M O M T O M O R E dot com, and on there, You'll have links to the podcast. The podcast is mom to more. It is on Apple, Spotify, YouTube for the video cast, really, wherever you do your podcast, you can find me. And on Instagram, I am at mom to more also on Facebook, also on LinkedIn.

I'm at Sharon Macey and talking about all things just from a slightly different perspective on LinkedIn that are relevant to, to moms. So I think also what's interesting for moms is. Using your creative flow and, and, and having that idea exchange continuing on in your life, whether it's with friends who are moms, friends who are working, but that that whole sort of your creative flow, your essence, exchanging of ideas, building bridges, and, and it's something that I think is, is helpful in helping you just sort of try to figure out what your next chapter is going to be.

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Sharon. Have an awesome one. Thank you, Melissa. Thanks. This has been great fun. What a wonderful conversation with Sharon. Here are the three things that I am going to reflect on myself and you might want to consider as well. So that this way, this summer season is A present one, and it feels completely nourishing, whether you are a stay at home mom or you're a working mom.

Point number one, there is beauty in being a stay at home mom. There are skills that you will learn that you can absolutely use now and later. And so just appreciating the beauty that there is, is my personal to do. I mean, there are moments when I am definitely very focused on my three boys, especially the summer season.

When I might lose sight of the fact that, you know what, we're out here having frozen yogurt together. How often is this going to happen? I don't know the answer to that. And so appreciating the moment and being in the beauty is absolutely something that I will take to heart. The second point is phases.

So in my book, fertile imagination, Martha Hennessy is someone who I feature. She's outstanding, had various positions in the government, and she is actually someone that I admire in terms of phasing out her professional ambitions. Sharon mentioned how moms stay at home. Moms can do the same thing. You can do the same thing.

If you are on a career pause, you can absolutely Think about what is interesting to you and start exploring this in a very like phase by phase basis. So if your children are, you know, just starting school, you could absolutely approach your love of dance. If your children are now in middle school, you can absolutely approach your love of song, whatever it is that's on your heart.

You can absolutely Think about how to experience that interest and Definitely check out my book because there's some ideas there pertaining to how you might want to Reimagine how you actually explore an interest so check out fertile imagination Third point. So this relationship between stay at home moms and working moms, I want more stay at home mom friends.

I want more working mom friends. I want us to get together and talk about the reality of our life experiences. There's so much more that we can learn from each other. than there is in terms of judging each other or even like judging ourselves. You know, I know for me, there have been moments when I've been like, okay, wait, was I supposed to be a stay at home mom?

Or was I supposed to be a, you know, working girl out in corporate America? Like there's all these thoughts that we often share, but we do not to one another about. So we share it in terms of we're thinking it. But we're not expressing it. So what if we actually got together over a cup of coffee and we actually had these conversations?

So definitely thank you so much for listening to the conversation and until n

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In this enlightening episode, we delve into the unique perspectives of stay-at-home moms (SAHMs) and working moms. Our special guest, Sharon Macey, host of the Mom to More™ podcast, shares her journey from being a SAHM for 20 years to reinventing herself professionally. This conversation offers working moms a chance to understand the other side of the coin and see that no matter the path chosen, there's no missing out or falling behind. This episode is perfect for you if you wish to uncover the profound wisdom that moms—both working and stay-at-home—can impart to each other to enrich their motherhood experiences.

Do you want to ask me or this week's guest a question? Send in your question today: https://www.instagram.com/melissallarena/

Key Points:

  1. Understanding Different Mom Experiences:
    • Gain insights into the stay-at-home mom experience from Sharon Macey. Learn how SAHMs navigate daily challenges and find fulfillment, providing a broader perspective that can enhance your own parenting journey.
  2. No Right or Wrong Path:
    • Discover how both SAHMs and working moms face unique but equally valid challenges and rewards. Sharon’s story highlights that choosing either path is about finding what works best for you and your family, without fear of missing out or being left behind.
  3. Shared Wisdom for a Balanced Summer:
    • Learn practical tips from Sharon on how to make the most of your summer with your kids. Whether you're a working mom or considering a shift, this conversation provides strategies for balancing enriching activities for your children with personal growth and career aspirations.

Actionable Takeaways:

  • Embrace a new perspective by understanding the experiences of stay-at-home moms.
  • Find reassurance in knowing that whether you work or stay home, you're making the right choice for your family.
  • Implement shared tips to create a summer that is fulfilling and productive for both you and your kids.

Join us for this insightful conversation with Sharon Macey, and discover how understanding different mom experiences can enrich your own parenting journey and help you make the most of your mom summer.

Listen now and gain a fresh perspective on motherhood!

Official bio:

Sharon Macey is a content creator, blogger, speaker and host of the Mom to MORE podcast. A real "mother of reinvention", Sharon created Mom To MORE™, a podcast and community for women rediscovering themselves beyond motherhood.

Sharon enjoyed a successful career as an award-winning copywriter and marketer before proudly embracing the role of stay-at-home-mom. During the years of raising her 3 kids, she realized while doing all of the expected mom things, she had developed a wealth of skills that served as the foundation for her own personal reinvention. Sharon knows that moms of any age can use their talents, wisdom and unique gifts to create their empowering and fulfilling next chapters in life. Sharon holds a BA in advertising from the University of Texas at Austin and a Digital Marketing Strategies certification from the Kellogg School of Management. She competes in Latin ballroom dance and lives the empty-nest life in Connecticut with her husband and comedic dog, Comet.

In this episode, I shared a resource you can use today to initiate conversations with anyone! Grab it this week and let me help you take the first step to building a powerful network that can help you grow your business (and even connect with other moms too).

Links:

Podcast: https://apple.co/46XAhPB

Website: https://www.momtomore.com/

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TRANSCRIPT:

What if stay at home moms and working moms got together and helped one another and imparted some really useful wisdom that could help us each be better moms? That is what this conversation is about. I have here quite the special guest, Sharon Macey. She's the host of the Mom to More™ podcast. She's the mother of reinvention.

Former stay at home mom for almost 20 years, Sharon intimately understands the journey of motherhood, its joys, challenges, and the inevitable question moms all ask themselves. Is this all there is? And what's next for me? These moments of introspection led Sharon to her own aha moment and inspired the creation of her podcast, a podcast and community dedicated to supporting women rediscovering themselves after motherhood.

In this episode, we'll Sharon and I talk about what is it that we should be doing and can be doing with our kids during these summer breaks. And so I thought that Sharon would have a wonderful perspective seeing that she had about 20 summers with her children as a stay at home mom. And I think asking a friend with that experience is absolutely invaluable.

Also discussed in this conversation was a chapter of my book, fertile imagination. So in my book, I share how as working moms, we might want to phase out our approach to business building. Or just the way that we tackle our goals. And so I wanted to get Sharon's perspective pertaining to her life as a stay at home mom for the last 20 years.

And I wanted to see kind of like the other side of things. I wanted to know if she had been building out her interests in phases as a stay at home mom. And so that was something that we talked about as well as this very unique and very cool concept, which is that She was plugged into the community of advertising as a stay at home mom, so although she may have not been, you know, working for an agency at the time, her mom friends in agencies and friends in general would still reach out to Sharon.

As she may have been, you know, driving a child from hockey practice to back home. And that continuation of building those relationships, even when you are not working, per se, or looking for a job, I thought is such a wonderful example to share on this episode. So truly enjoy the conversation. If this really adds value and helps you reimagine what this summer could look like, having spent some valuable time with your kids, but also still plugged into your interests, then share this conversation with your mom bestie in particular.

And I want to challenge you. If you're a working mom, share this with a stay at home mom. And if you're a stay at home mom, share it with a working mom. I promise that we have more in common than we could possibly imagine. So please share this episode. And now for the wonderful conversation with Sharon Macey.

Amazing. Sharon Macey, thank you so much for being on Unimaginable Wellness. How are you? I am great. My friend. How are you? I'm really excited about this. I'm really excited about you. I'm excited that you're in a library. Oh my gosh. Do you know internet problems today? So we're in a library with this heinous yellow background behind me.

So But you know what, Sharon, this is emblematic of making it all work, making what lemon sorbet out of lemons. Here's the best part. I love libraries. So you're actually in like my Haven, right? So your library, fun fact, when I was living in new Canaan, we were very library envious. of people in Westport, right?

And so you are in a really great library looking at what a river or something. So yes, yeah. Overlooking I'm not overlooking a river, but yes, this library is overlooking a river. Yeah. So shout out to libraries. You guys are saving graces, especially if the internet ever conks out. And, and also for those mom friendly rooms, right?

With all those beautiful children books and such. So Sharon, I am so excited to have you here and we can absolutely launch into the regularly scheduled conversation. So Sharon, let me just paint the picture here, right? So. A lot of us want to spend more time with our kids, especially when we're in school break during the summer.

But the, the challenge is if we have our own businesses, if we're working moms, is that at this point we already feel behind, like behind on life, behind on our to dos, on our dreams. And so this idea that, okay, kids are out and we want to spend time with them. It just feels Card, and it feels like something that might take us away from building the skills necessary to like make progress on our business.

So I would love you to help us all better understand how time spent with kids. For example, maybe thinking about your years as a stay at home mom, 20 years or so, how did that better prepare you? For when it was your turn or time to launch your own platform or business, like help us rationalize, like, okay.

Time spent with my kid is going to help me for when I'm back at it in the fall. 100%. I love that question, Melissa. Thank you. The beauty of having been a stay at home mom, at least for me, and I realize that is a privilege to be able to spend that time, is that I realized later that everything you do as a stay at home mom builds a skill set and Or superpowers, whatever you want to call it, that will help you manifest, create, be whatever it is you want to be in your future.

Or if you are trying to get this done while your kids are, maybe your kids have finally entered kindergarten or elementary school and you do have a little more time. In your day, you've got more daylight, it will help you build those skills. And so every moment that you're with your kids, you're learning so many things and we blow these off, right?

You think about how you act in an emergency, the leadership roles, the, the infinite questions in your ability to multitask and be a communicator and a negotiator and we'll throw in Dr. Mom, cause we've all been there. You have these innate abilities to do so many things and all of those skills are going to inform you.

They will help you get to whatever your next chapter or what I like to call my podcast, your more is going to be. And so I, I, I sort of challenged moms to say, think about all the things that you do, write them down. I mean, think about all the parties you've done. You're an event planner. Think about nonprofits that you've raised money for.

You are developing a skill set that is rich and varied and marketable, and those will take you far. I have to share something with you. A lot of moms that I've partnered with, mom founders, have told me that following up after going to networking events tends to be hard, awkward, and a lot of them really don't know how to do it. I completely agree, and I think, as I think about time with my child or my children, I also think about the fact, and what I'm hearing you say, Sharon, is that I could almost, like, reframe it, right? If, if I'm feeling that, That complexity of the decision, the fact that it is time that I'm not going to be working on my business, quote unquote.

So one reframe that I'm hearing is that maybe the summer season, maybe these breaks, quote unquote, are like opportunities for me to work on like my soft Skills, right? So soft skills as a leader is certainly something that if you're a business owner, like a solopreneur, like myself, like you tend to forget the fact that you too need like a development plan as well in terms of your leadership skills.

So maybe time with your child can be time spent focusing on some key soft skills, and maybe it's something you do together. A hundred percent. And this, I think this time with the kids, summer is fun. It's creative. It's imaginative. It is, it's sort of where you can try to give your brain a bit of a mental break because the kids are on break and listen, your kid may go to camp.

So you'll have a little more time there. Just, I'd say really enjoy that time. And, and drill down on all of these life experiences and see what comes up from there because it's not wasted time at all. It's incredibly valuable time. Absolutely. And, and I mentioned that because I remember when I was coaching a client, she had spent one morning going to some sort of science museum with her son and her husband, and in the back of her mind, she was like, But I should be really working on building my business.

But then she got back to the whole point of like, but wait, like, why did I actually build my business? It was to have the flexibility to be with my child. And so I think all of it can be rationalized. If you need that rationalization, just so that this way you feel great and actually present when you are with your child.

So I love what you said there, Sharon. So let me, let me ask you something because here's the thing that's super cool. So when I've interviewed people, not everyone has like checked out my book, fertile imagination, but you have it in your hand. And so I think it's, it's amazing. So I want to just reference it and get your thoughts on this idea.

Yeah in the book In the book Thank you so much In the book sharon. I reference a working mom who I admire so so so much martha hennessey who's Like a rock star and she's like a grandmother at this stage, too And she told me before I became a mom that I would never regret the time I spent with my kids It was really hard to think about Think that through because I was not yet a mom, but now I like I get it, right?

Cause a lot of us, for example, especially if you're a working mom, you only have these like windows of time, right? Of mom exclusive time. So here's my question, Martha, I mentioned in my book, she worked on her professional dreams. In phases while being a mom, right? And so my question to you, because you were a stay at home mom for 20 years, like, did you, on the other side of this coin, explore your interests in phases during your stay at home mom time?

Ooh, interesting question, my friend. So I didn't think that I did at the time, but in retrospect, I I absolutely did, because I realized everything I was doing with my kids, all of the information I was absorbing and the knowledge that I was learning and the skills that I was honing, all of those things helped me eventually get to where I am right now with mom to more with the podcast and the community for women rediscovering themselves beyond motherhood.

And what was interesting, Melissa was when I was a stay at home mom, it was a little more black and white then. Right. I've got a, got a couple of years on you. It was a little more black and white, and it was either you were working or you are not. And I had some freelance clients. My background is advertising and marketing.

I'm a writer. So I did have some freelance clients for a while until I had too many kids and then they outnumbered me and I was overwhelmed, but. What I, what I tried to do is keep my fingers in the things that I like to do. I, my friends know that I'm creative. I would have friends who were working, who would call me up and say, need a headline.

I need an idea. Talk to me about whatever. And so during those years, as I had in the back of my head, I knew that There was a lot of questioning inside of me going, well, is this all there is? And what do I want to do when my kids grow up, which definitely led me into my mom to more chapter. And then during the pandemic, I was able to go back to school, which really helped to launch a couple of things, which then ultimately led in into what I was doing.

So I. Definitely different phases, although I might not have been as aware of it at the moment when things were happening, but in retrospect, when you really look at that pool of experiences and knowledge and highs and lows and disasters and successes, everything sort of helped me to get to where I am right now.

It's so interesting how originally I'm gonna this is actually something I've never told anyone. So like, I remember when I was first pregnant, me and my husband, okay, this was before becoming parents. Well, I guess I was with my first born in me, but I remember. We got all analytical about what we wanted our firstborn to be.

We literally started writing down, like, we want them to know all these languages. We want them to be, pick a word, kind, ambitious, whatever. Like we were almost like scientifically writing out like the recipe that we wanted to then bake. And, and so it's interesting because obviously that was like, To shreds because reality, you become a mom, but what I'm hearing from you is that maybe we don't need to be so like, I don't know, methodological about how we want to approach our lives.

Maybe things will happen. Events will happen. Situations will present themselves that in hindsight, we can then connect the dots and make something out of them that. Helps us feel fulfilled, you know, and so again, we were not creating our child, but we're manifesting his personality. So this was, this was beyond manifesting.

We're like two MBAs. We got Excel on this whole thing. And, and honestly, I had no time for Excel that first year. But the whole idea is that there's, there might be something else at play that really just helps guide us in, in a logical way that we will only know after the fact, right? So 20 years later, it makes sense that your friends in the creative feels, we're still asking you for your insights and wisdom.

It makes sense that maybe now at this stage, Sharon, and I don't know if this is true. Maybe you also like reached out to them and ask them about your mom to more stage. Maybe there's, there's some sort of, right. Exchange there. So how did that work? Like at this point, at this stage, I'm just curious, like, did you plug back into those former friends, former colleagues, people who knew you when?

Absolutely. And, and a lot of that, they've just been in my life. Throughout the continuum, right? They never left. And I feel blessed to know as many people as I do in as many different stages of life that they're in. And so knowing that I have people that I can connect Reach out to and connect with, or sometimes reconnect with, has been incredibly powerful.

And I've found moms from my podcast, from, from knowing, from people that I've known for a long time and realizing things that they have done in their life. And I think also you have to, like in your book, Melissa, you have to allow for those moments of creativity and those moments of imagination and those moments of, I'm just going to go with the flow and see where it takes me.

And. Oftentimes, when you have these unexpected moments that were unex, these unexpected moments, you learn so much about you, about something that you love to do, about something that you think you might want to look into in the future. So I just say, Like what you said in the book, allow your imagination to be and be able to take chances.

And I, and I think that's also something that I'm, I'm actually really comfortable doing. I don't know why, but I'm cool with taking chances. I feel like I started the podcast before I was really ready, although I had done a lot of research and I was as ready as I was going to be at that moment. But was it perfect?

God, no, you just, sometimes you just jump in and you do something because you know that you have something that needs to get out and it's going to resonate and you just need to do it. So that's kind of sort of where I'm, I'm coming from about that. Yeah. And I love that. I love that. I love how there was this continuing this continuity, I guess you could say of relationships.

It's like, I noticed that in terms of circles. So like, you know, where I have lived and where I live now, like there's a lot of moms who might not be a purist. Stay at home mom because right now I would say the lines are blurry to your point Especially with the advent of hybrid work and just working from home It's like like I do everything at home But so does my husband which is really interesting and he's not a stay at home dad, right?

So I I love how you Stayed connected to people that were still in the work of of commerce right at the time and how and I also love how they respect you so much for your talent and skills, even though maybe at that moment, you may have been literally like driving someone to hockey practice or something.

Right? Like, And yes, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Right. You know, for mom, some, sometimes some of your most creative ideas happen behind the wheel of your car. Yeah, that's, that's very true. Actually, Sarah Blakely, by the way, just today on Instagram did a reel on how she used to feel. Fake a commute so that she could come up with her best ideas while driving nowhere, like around the same sort of set of blocks in Georgia.

But that being said, it just supports what you just said, Sharon. Yeah. Driving, showering, all of these moments where you're not thinking about a campaign or whatever, where that is when you get the tagline, right? That's when you get that soundbite. So I love that. I'm super creative. It just moments of when you're sort of like falling asleep or maybe you wake up in the middle of the night because at a certain age, yes, everybody's waking up in the middle of the night and oftentimes I find my brain just starts going and ideas just start popping and I have to open up my phone so I could just jot myself a note so I don't forget it.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's actually when my imagination was in full gear, like when I would put my head to the pillow and when I became a mom, because I was not putting my head to the pillow very often, that's why I felt like there was this pause on my imagination. And that's why I wrote the book so that I could rediscover my imagination and, and help moms and readers do the same for them.

And, and so let me ask you this question, cause I think I think this is really going to be common in terms of a lot of the listeners here. And I think your perspective, Sharon, would be amazing. So, okay, we have this idea that we are missing out on the lives of our kids. And And I, I am, I wonder from your perspective, when you were a stay at home, mom, did you feel like you were missing out in the world of commerce?

Like, was that ever like an inner conflict for you? Like, Oh, I'm not in the glitz and glamour of that. Things I heard this from a mom. That's a stay at home mom who was in, in communications before. That's why I'm curious about your thoughts and how you either untangled that conflict or worked through that conflict.

Cause we have it on the other side. We feel like we're missing out on the lives of our kids working mom. So I'm just curious your thoughts. Yeah, it's really interesting. You mentioned that because I absolutely felt that I was missing out, but. At that moment in my life, I had my it was a joint decision with my husband and myself that I had decided to step back and focus on the kids because they were only young ones and also recognizing that I had the privilege of being a stay at home mom.

But I would advise. Moms who are home to stay connected. And it's so much easier now than when my kids were younger, right? Having come back from, you know, the mom 2. 0 summit, so many women are really engaged in a, in a part time way. They've got younger kids, they're content creators that didn't exist when, when my kids were younger.

And so I'd say. My advice would be stay connected to the things that you love, the things that resonate with you, anything in your form or career, stay in touch with the people that you worked with. You can take an online class, you can meet up with other like minded moms, and I know that there are, are groups all over the country of women who, Our home who are gathering together and they're talking about how do they stay relevant?

How do they stay informed? How do they stay with their fingers sort of still in the pie of their former careers? So then when they have the opportunity to be able to go back to what they did or interestingly, maybe start something totally new that they had no idea that they were going to do, that they feel that there was still that connection.

I'd say for the moms who are working and they're feeling like they're missing out with their kids, that, that is, is maybe not PC. That's, that's obviously a choice that you have. Now, I will also say, That there are women who have to work and I respect the hell out of them for doing two really incredibly hard jobs at the same time, raising kids, having to make that decision to put them in daycare or have someone in the family look at them so you can go make a living.

And that is, that is an incredibly hard journey. And I applaud all those moms who do that. And. And so they're not missing out because it's really interesting. Melissa, from the kids perspective, my kids would say to me, we can't imagine having a mom who wasn't at home. But I know other women who were working and their kids have said to them, we can't imagine having a mom who wasn't working.

And so kids will glean. Information and and experiences from how they lived and that will inform I think who they're going to become. So I think both sides of the coin are valid and true and real and they happen every day. And I think we just really have to embrace where we are able to be at this moment in time while we are embracing our kids and just trying to take every moment that we gain from them and grow from it and love it.

I would agree. And I think, as I think about some of the clients that I've had who, who technically have a choice, that's, that's the part that's kind of interesting. And everybody has to decide for themselves, like what it is that they want out of their one precious life. Right. But, but some of the, uh, Some of the individuals who do have a lot of choice and, and opt to be very ambitious in terms of their careers, even when their kids are only going to be five, one time or 10, one time there's the other side of it is that you poured in so many years, a lot of times before becoming a mom, right?

So there's so many people that I've gone to school. School with, for example, that before they became a mom, which a lot of people now become moms later in life, they poured in decades to go up the ladder and to accomplish whatever dream was on their heart. And so it's very, very valid that that dream doesn't just go and it doesn't get thrown in the toilet with our placentas.

Again, I wonder where my placenta is. It's all. And it's really interesting, Melissa. I was just speaking with a cousin, a cousin of mine, and it's actually my cousin's daughter, and she just had a baby last fall. She's got a really big time job. And I think the pandemic really changed a lot of things. She is able to work from home two days a week.

And so she can be with her daughter. She can work, she can take time out and, and. And have that mommy time, which is so important, but she also has this like really big job at a really world renowned firm. And so I think moms today have so many more options, so many more options than what I had when my kids were younger.

And so I, I think that's really important. I think that's terrific. You can sort of do both, right? You can have the time with your kids. You can have time at work. Sometimes they're overlapping at home. And, and it's just a whole different world in that regard, whether who's going to be a home parent, working parent.

It's, it's, it's, there's a lot of, you know, We may want to edit this out right here. Cause I just had a senior moment. There are, there is much more optionality that exists today than exists before. Absolutely. Sharon. I think that people definitely can re imagine what. A day can look like where they are present with their child, and they're also super focused on their work during another slice of, of the day.

I, I do, I do know there's, it's such a complex thing. I think having been a coach, like I appreciate also a lot of the realities, which is just one thing. Like. I still do think even though we have the option to work from home, I still do think that people that are physically based in a headquarters area might get picked for a C suite job a little more readily and easily.

Or if you show up to the office, it might convey extra commitment. And I'm not saying that's right. I'm just saying that I understand. And I appreciate the reality you. But I also understand that anyone that's listening has the opportunity at this time to really figure out for herself what she wants.

Like, what do you want out of this life experience? Some, some listeners may. May have always thought to themselves, like, I've always wanted to be a mom. Like, like this, this being the CEO of an organization, that's for the birds. I'm being so silly right now, but like not everyone wanted that. And so for some people, I think it's just a matter of seeing the fact that if your dream was.

To be a stay at home mom and you have the opportunity to do so that is as valid and worthy and honorable as being the CEO of a billion dollar organization or whatever. And yeah, I mean, you're representing the next generation of humans and I think the world is definitely more amenable to the whole work from home concept and we'll, we can thank the pandemic for that really.

And. There are, I think you can have more of it both ways than we could in the past. And, and the other thing that's really interesting, Melissa is what I've learned from some of the women that I've had the privilege of interviewing for my podcast is that I find that women who have spent a period of time home with their kids, they, they have become.

Far more entrepreneurial than they would have ever imagined. And so if you had said to many of the moms that I've spoken with, if someone had told you five years ago that you're gonna be doing what you're doing at this moment, they would have said, no way, would have said, that's not me. I'm never gonna be doing that.

And so I think that just, The experience that you gain as a mom, the experience that you gained from working first and then being a mom and taking all those things that you went sort of putting it in the washer and the dryer and saying, okay, how's it going to come out on the other end? There's women have really this extraordinary entrepreneurial spirit and creativity and imagination, which leads them places they never thought they'd go.

And, and that, I mean, that's what happened to me. And I think that is just beautiful because life. Is you never know what's going to happen in life. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow. So to be able to take that creativity and move it forward, I think is a real gift and a blessing to, to have that opportunity.

Absolutely. Sharon, thank you for this. I think anyone listening is going to want to keep up with you. Keep up with Sharon. So like, where can we, yeah. So where can people find you hear more for about being a mom and, and just. Living in that moreness, like, how can we be part of your world? I love that. Living in my moreness.

Thank you for that. You can find me, well, my website is MOM2MORE, so M O M T O M O R E dot com, and on there, You'll have links to the podcast. The podcast is mom to more. It is on Apple, Spotify, YouTube for the video cast, really, wherever you do your podcast, you can find me. And on Instagram, I am at mom to more also on Facebook, also on LinkedIn.

I'm at Sharon Macey and talking about all things just from a slightly different perspective on LinkedIn that are relevant to, to moms. So I think also what's interesting for moms is. Using your creative flow and, and, and having that idea exchange continuing on in your life, whether it's with friends who are moms, friends who are working, but that that whole sort of your creative flow, your essence, exchanging of ideas, building bridges, and, and it's something that I think is, is helpful in helping you just sort of try to figure out what your next chapter is going to be.

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Sharon. Have an awesome one. Thank you, Melissa. Thanks. This has been great fun. What a wonderful conversation with Sharon. Here are the three things that I am going to reflect on myself and you might want to consider as well. So that this way, this summer season is A present one, and it feels completely nourishing, whether you are a stay at home mom or you're a working mom.

Point number one, there is beauty in being a stay at home mom. There are skills that you will learn that you can absolutely use now and later. And so just appreciating the beauty that there is, is my personal to do. I mean, there are moments when I am definitely very focused on my three boys, especially the summer season.

When I might lose sight of the fact that, you know what, we're out here having frozen yogurt together. How often is this going to happen? I don't know the answer to that. And so appreciating the moment and being in the beauty is absolutely something that I will take to heart. The second point is phases.

So in my book, fertile imagination, Martha Hennessy is someone who I feature. She's outstanding, had various positions in the government, and she is actually someone that I admire in terms of phasing out her professional ambitions. Sharon mentioned how moms stay at home. Moms can do the same thing. You can do the same thing.

If you are on a career pause, you can absolutely Think about what is interesting to you and start exploring this in a very like phase by phase basis. So if your children are, you know, just starting school, you could absolutely approach your love of dance. If your children are now in middle school, you can absolutely approach your love of song, whatever it is that's on your heart.

You can absolutely Think about how to experience that interest and Definitely check out my book because there's some ideas there pertaining to how you might want to Reimagine how you actually explore an interest so check out fertile imagination Third point. So this relationship between stay at home moms and working moms, I want more stay at home mom friends.

I want more working mom friends. I want us to get together and talk about the reality of our life experiences. There's so much more that we can learn from each other. than there is in terms of judging each other or even like judging ourselves. You know, I know for me, there have been moments when I've been like, okay, wait, was I supposed to be a stay at home mom?

Or was I supposed to be a, you know, working girl out in corporate America? Like there's all these thoughts that we often share, but we do not to one another about. So we share it in terms of we're thinking it. But we're not expressing it. So what if we actually got together over a cup of coffee and we actually had these conversations?

So definitely thank you so much for listening to the conversation and until n

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