Geek Mama

She’s Geeky: Tech Moms – Navigating your career with kids

January 28th, 2011

I led this session at the end of day one of She’s Geeky.  I chose to have my session in the teepee but it turned out to be too small to hold the group and awfully hot inside.  So we all grabbed pillows and sat on the floor.

There were seven women including myself.  Half of us have school age children and the other half have toddlers and babies.  So there was lots of reminiscing, personal stories and advice.

I brought up a topic that I’ve been struggling with… I call it Mom Fog.  As a coder, it is very difficult to reconcile logical thinking for your job with the very emotional task of raising children.  Since the birth of my son, I find that at last my Mom Fog is beginning to lift.  I don’t think it is a coincidence that I’m getting more sleep these days, but likely there is a hormonal aspect to it as well.

The women tell me that this is a phenomenon that gets better about a year after birth, but never completely goes away.  And we talked about strategies to capitalize on our manic, ADD days with the opportunities for intense focus that seem to ebb and flow throughout the month.

We even got to hear from the kids who attended today’s event who talked about what it was like to have a “tech mom”.  It was moving to hear them talk about their positive experiences and I hope that my kids will talk about me that way someday.

There are some mom friendly, task management applications out there to check out:  Backpack, Cozi, Things, and organizing advice from FlyLady.

As working moms, a number of us are lucky to have supportive partners and we are encouraged to trust them with our children.  Along those lines, it’s important to remember to build a village to support you.  Ask for help.  And accept help when it is offered.

This morning I was hesitant to introduce this topic since this was my very first She’s Geeky event.  But I’m truly glad that I did.  I got some much needed validation today.  And I’m hoping the other moms got a lot out of it too.

Entry Filed under: Personal,Professional,She's Geeky