One of my continuing themes is that working moms tend to be better at time management than the majority of the folks who are in an office. When I, for example, am in my office I am multi-tasking like a champ. I’ve got a limited time to get my work done and get out, so I have to catch up on the office gossip WHILE emailing, and writing, and managing a staff…and that’s not even the tip of the iceberg when I’m “working from home”. I once did the following simultaneously, with no one the wiser or the worse for wear:
(1) watched all 3 kids have fun in the backyard on the swingset
(2) cooked dinner
(3) participated in a 3 hour conference call
(4) hammered nails that were sticking out back into the deck.

I mean, let’s be honest…if you’re on a 3 hour conference call, you’ve got to be HOPING there’s some nails to hammer in!

And I remember the offices that I’ve been a part of, filled with staff that are there “full time”—who are more often then not on the internet. Who spend so much time at meetings that it is physically impossible for them to get anything done. And who just aren’t motivated to bang out work at a fast and furious pace…because they don’t have the same motivation to get home fast to pick up kids. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly no better than them for having kids—I’m just motivated a little differently. I can remember being at the office and staying late to leisurely wrap things up, then hitting the gym before getting home…I dream of having that kind of time devoted only to me now.

My point is, that’s WHY more companies should be willing to hire working moms. They work hard, they work fast—and they can manage their time wisely. I’m still shocked at the amount of people that I know that use “working from home” as a euphemism for “watching a movie”, “taking a nap”, even “going to the beach”. Most working moms I know would never abuse the privelege because they feel lucky to have it—and they’ve perfected the art of multi tasking. They can conference call while sautéing chicken; they can type with one hand and give a bottle with another.

They can even hammer a few nails while thinking out a sales strategy.

My schedule these days is a “flex time” schedule of a couple of days in the office, a couple of days from a home office, always plugged in to something and juggling kids – work – house – everything (sound familiar)? I was reminded the other day of one of my lowest days…I’d been working like mad. On conference calls with the phone on mute as I pushed kids in the swing, justifying extended viewings of “Sesame Street” with “It’s Educational, right?” It was a crunch time at work and I was trying to prove that I could do it all. And I was so stressed. And strangely (!) my kids were acting generally squirrelly…

So I was in my home office, stressed and trying to get my computer to work, and respond to emails, and they had a play room full of toys that had just been built for them, right next door—but all anyone could do was pull out my files, push my keyboard keys, climb on me. I snapped. I screamed “Get OUT of here!” And I picked them each up—a 2 ½ year old and two one year old twins—and put them right outside my office door and closed the door so I could finish what I was doing in three minutes.

I sat there and listened to them all scream outside the door and just cried, looking at my computer and feeling like the worst person in the world. Everyone always told me “I don’t know how you do it” and I knew right then I WASN’T doing it.

I took the next day off. I didn’t have my phone or my blackberry. We went to Hoboken, we had a picnic in the playground…we looked at the boats…we went at the pace of my 2 ½ year old. I didn’t rush her or throw her into the stroller with her sisters to get home for a call—instead we poked along and stopped to look at dogs, and generally lolly-gagged all day.

That was one of my best days. And that’s when I knew that sometimes, going at the pace of a toddler is what you need to do—to keep everyone sane.