Work made me more streetwise because you can be so sheltered at home. I'd definitely encourage my kids Lillie and Karl, who are nine and seven, to get Saturday jobs in the future.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Kids are a huge sacrifice; they change everything - but I'm ready to work for things of greater importance than going out to meet someone for dinner at 10 o'clock at night.
I've had jobs that allow me the flexibility to achieve work-life balance, to be there when one of the kids sinks a jump shot or for the parent-teacher meetings. I can move tasks around. If I don't get something done at the office at 4:30 in the afternoon, I can go back to it at 10:00 in the evening.
I much prefer working with kids whose life could be completely upended by a reading of a book over a weekend. You give them a book to read - they go home and come back a changed person. And that is so much more interesting and exciting.
Weekends are a real luxury for me because I'm usually working.
During the week, my days are consumed with school commitments, play-dates and work for Baby Buggy, a nonprofit I started, which collects kids' gear for parents in need. So on weekends, I look forward to uninterrupted time with my family.
To work with children anywhere is just plain fun.
When the children were very small, I worked in the morning only, and then gradually, as they spent full days at school, I could spend full days at work.
I love that I can work from home and take my kids to school every day.
I like this job - most days I have a chance to make breakfast and take the kids to school or to read 'em a bedtime story. It's almost like a normal life.
I'm nearly always at home at the weekends; that's important for every working woman today, not just me. I don't encourage people to come in at the weekend and work; I encourage people to go home and create great families.