The Working Mother's Guide to Life: Strategies, Secrets, and Solutions

by Linda Mason

After you’ve made the decision to return to work following the birth of a child, you may still wonder, “Am I doing the right thing for my family?” and “How on earth do I make this work?” Now, The Working Mother’s Guide to Life sets out to offer you hundreds of answers to these types of questions, from nuts-and-bolts advice, such as finding top-notch child care and stress-free ways to manage your household, to more complex issues like separating from your child without feeling guilty and creating a rich, strong family culture that will thrive regardless of whether or not you are working.

Author Linda Mason—herself a working mom and founder of an award-winning company that cares for the children of working parents across the country—provides a reassuring, practical, and comprehensive guide based on interviews with more than 100 successful working mothers from diverse backgrounds. Here are countless strategies and tips from these experts on everything from household chores and returning to work with a newborn to finding communities of support.

• Building the Three Pillars of Success: A supportive workplace, a “partner-in-parenting,” and excellent child care
• Running a household, holding down a job, and thriving while keeping
it all together—from getting food on the table to getting out the door in the morning
• Setting your priorities, including nurturing your family, satisfying your employer,
and taking care of your own needs
• Tips from caregivers on how to help your
children blossom and grow in a variety of child care settings

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction

496 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2002

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd say good for WOHM, but I was looking for stuff for WAHMing. When I skimmed the table of contents, it didn't seem to cover WAHMing at all, but I couldn't believe they'd skip it entirely, so I decided to read it all to find it. Found one page, in the section on technology, strangely, and it just gave a list of other resources to look at.

But I can see it being a good primer for WOHMing and if that was the info I was looking for, I'd probably give it more stars because it was thorough in that regard.

[Biblioblond · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was probably 100 pages longer than it needed to be but by skimming through several chapters, I was able to get enough useful information to make it worth the read. Considering that the author owns daycare centres, I thought that she presented a very unbiased perspective on the different types of child care (day care centres, home daycares, nannies, and, relatives) and truthfully discussed the pros and cons of each type. I really liked the chapters on how to simplify your life to make both work and home-life much more manageable.

[Inder · Rating 3 out of 5]

The suggestions here are validating and supportive, but unfortunately, also pretty obvious and self-explanatory. Nothing revolutionary here. It was worth skimming the library book, but I'm glad I didn't actually purchase this.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good guide. I read the chapters that were more relevant for me. I appreciated that there was a mix of mothers including single mothers, lower income mothers (though there was only one or two small examples), and other types of mothers with careers.