Jack Canfield - Chicken Soup for the Working Moms Soul: Humor and Inspiration for Moms Who Juggle It All

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE
WORKING MOMS SOUL

CHICKEN SOUP
FOR THE
WORKING MOMS
SOUL

Humor and Inspiration
for Moms Who Juggle It All

Jack Canfield
Mark Victor Hansen
Patty Aubery

Backlist, LLC, a unit of

Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC

Cos Cob, CT

www.chickensoup.com

Contents

Sally Friedman

Pamela Hackett Hobson

Peggy Bert

Harriet May Savitz

Felice Prager

Mimi Greenwood Knight

Nicole M. Whitney

Sheryl McCormick

Joan Paquette

Stephanie Ray Brown

Winter D. Prosapio

Linda O'Connell

Tiffany O'Neill

Kimberly Kimmel

Ann Morrow

Tanya Tyler

Dahlynn McKowen

Pamela Hackett Hobson

Jo Webnar

Judy Spence

Elizabeth Bussey Sowdal

Mary Vallo

Stephanie Welcher Thompson

Stephanie Chandler

Mimi Greenwood Knight

Vanessa Ann Cain

Maryjo Faith Morgan

Mindy Potts

Christina Guzman

Jennifer Oliver

Eva Juliuson

Stephen A. Peterson

Dorothy Megan Clifton

Deborah Shouse

Jo Ann Holbrook

Maya Fleischmann

Linda Hanson

Jennifer Nicholson

Ken Swarner

Elizabeth Bussey Sowdal

Melanie Howard

Diane M. Covington

Ken Swarner

Karen Cogan

Debi Callies

Erica Orloff

Sally Friedman

Elizabeth Bussey Sowdal

Tony Gilbert

Pamela Teague

Lynda Johnson

Miriam Hill

Cynthia Morningstar

Arlene Uslander

Crystal Davis

Pamela Hackett Hobson

Jane Elsdon

Elizabeth Bussey Sowdal

Britt Prince

Susan Courtad

Shirley Warren

Margaret P. Cunningham

Carol Mell

Mary Dixon Lebeau

Margaret Haefner Berg

Jennifer L. White

Peggy Frezon

Margaret Lang

Kathleen Partak

Emily Rider-Longmaid

Brenda Rosales Rincon

Pat Moore

Sharon McElroy

Pat Winters Lauro

Dorothy K. Fletcher

Jan Morrill

Bernetta Thorne-Williams

Heather Cook

Betty King

Bonnie Jarvis-Lowe

Working mom is redundant. All moms are working moms! And that is exactly what this book is about, to honor all moms, from those who stay at home to those who work outside the home, and even those who fit in between.

In creating this title, we had a difficult time deciding which stories to publish because each and every one was so varied in its definition of a working mom. While many of the stories made us smile, many more touched our souls and opened our hearts to just how hard it is to raise a family while working. This is evident in the chapter entitled Taking Time for Me: we received very few story submissions for this chapter, which proved to us that working moms rarely get time for themselves!

We invite you to enjoy the stories found within and apply your personal definition of your life as a working mom. And luckily, you can savor the book one story at a time, as we know moms are the busiest women in the world!

1
GOOD MOMS CAN WORK AND STILL HAVE GREAT KIDS

P eople take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they are not on your road doesnt mean theyve gotten lost.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

And what do you do? the gentleman seated to my right at a dinner party politely asked me. I was about thirty-two years old and the mother of three little girls.

Im a mom, I answered proudly.

Oh, so you dont work? He sniffed.

I will never forget the way this well-pedigreed captain of industry turned away from me in an instant to pursue a conversation with the woman on his other sidehopefully, somebody with a life.

And I never forgot the sympathetic looks, the rude withdrawals, the assumption that I was surely not important enough or enlightened enough to make decent conversation.

The women who were just starting to emerge in careers of their own back in the changing 1970s were sometimes equally disdainful. It was the era when all things seemed possible for women; Betty Friedans book The Feminine Mystique announced that the world was bigger than a baked potato. And suddenly, work was the answer to getting beyond the kitchen walls.

I was one of those women who didnt work outside the home, as we were careful to enunciate, until my three daughters were safely launched in school at least for most of the day. I loved those years at home. But to be perfectly frank, I also found myself occasionally wondering whether Id ever get my turn to do what I wanted.

It came. But in a carefully selected way.

I became a mommy-writer. In what turned out to be a perfect synthesis for me, I wrote about being a mom. That writing turned into a column. That column turned into something of a local institution that still goes on, thirty-three years and counting. My daughters grew up in my column, which made life both interesting and challenging for themand for me.