This morning after I dropped my daughter off at her preschool, I was walking back to the car through the parking lot and realized that I was smiling. She is so happy when we get there in the morning, I love all the fun projects they have planned for the day, and I leave to start my work-day feeling pretty awesome about where she will spend the next six hours. That’s cause for a smile, don’t you think?

And then I remembered how anxious I was about her transition to preschool last summer. We’d had a full-time nanny before that and we loved her. She was really part of the family, my (slightly) older sister, as I’d call her. But we moved and our daughter turned three so it was time for her to be with a group of kids and in a structured environment. Since I tend to overthink things to begin with, you can imagine how far I took this: Read the rest of this entry »

The lazy days of summer are over (ok, we had to get you to laugh with the word “lazy”) and our Speak Your Mind Contest is back. This week’s topic is:

What can your government do to help you as a working mom?

Longer paid maternity leave? Better and more affordable daycare options? Widely available after-school programs? What are you not getting enough of and what responsibilities do you think the government has towards working moms and working parents?

Whatever country you live in, share your opinions and ideas by writing a short essay as a response to our question and submit it to Work It, Mom! (Yes, you have to join the site, which will take just a few seconds, and our online article submission form is extremely simple. Plus you will have an article published with your own byline, which - ask any blogger or author - is a good thing.) Then post the link to your submission on your personal blog or email it to your friends and ask them to vote for your essay on Workitmom.com. The author of the essay with the highest number of votes will win a $50 gift certificate good for tons of awesome makeup at e.l.f. (eyes lips face). Because every opinionated mom deserves to look her best!

If you’re a member of Work It, Mom! you can submit your essay using our quick online submission form. Your essay need not be long and what you write is entirely up to you!

If you’re not a member, join Work It, Mom!, and then submit your article using this link.

The winner will be announced on Thursday, September 13th.

*Please be sure to put Speak Your Mind in the subtitle field of your submission.*

We’re eager to read your submissions! If you have any questions about Speak Your Mind, please post them as a comment so everyone can see the answer.

—-Fine print—-

Anyone who submits an essay on the weekly topic to Work It, Mom! is eligible to win, but you can’t win for 3 months after you’ve already won and not more than 3 times per year. Why? Because we want to spread the goodness!

If you’d like to post your submission in full on your personal blog, go for it. (Just include the link to your essay on Work It, Mom! to get more votes!)

This morning my husband and I took my daughter in for orientation day at her new preschool. She went to a summer camp there after we moved, but this was the first official day of school and we were all excited. Well, my husband and I were excited, our daughter was hesitant and excited.

I spent 15 minutes picking out my outfit. You can see it here. I’m not usually vain enough to spend that long picking out my clothes or taking photos of them, but I’m taking on Susan’s challenge to post to the Working Closet Flickr Pool and I hope you will as well. I wanted to look nice for her first day of school (OK, fine, I wanted the other parents to see me dressed nicely and professionally).

Picking out my daughter’s outfit took much less time and as I did, I counted my lucky stars. She is 3 and isn’t into picking out her clothes yet. I know in a few years this will be a much bigger issue.

The orientation went off without any hitches. I noticed two interesting things:

My husband was the only father who came to her class (the rest were all moms with their kids). I don’t know if this is due to work schedules or something else, but out of 15 kids, he was the only one.

As I met other moms we got to the question of what each of us did for a living very quickly. Frankly, I was surprised. Most of the moms turned out to have jobs outside the home, with more than half working part-time or from home at least a few days a week. It was a relief to talk about play-dates and know that we were talking about weekends without having to explain that.

How was back-to-school for you and your kids? Do you take your kids to school together with your husband or partner on the first day? Am I the only one getting away with spending more time on my own outfit than my daughter’s?