Corporate America is no joke as a mom, a new mom and especially as a single mom. What has been their motto for single moms during covid- it is business as usual. Be camera ready. You better not let your kid be seen or there could be consequences. I am not saying you can’t take lunch breaks, but I am going to keep giving you urgent assignments that can’t be fit into a regular work day or be completed if you take breaks. We will monitor everything you say and do by recording you, and by having impromptu meetings and calls to check on you. We will have meetings half he day, but still expect you to get the same amount of work done.

We will check to make sure you never leave your computer, are scared to take a bathroom break by monitoring the activity light that must stay on green, then will call you at 5:27pm, and if you don’t answer because you went pee, then will message you “where have you been?”.

We will have you enter in your every activity doubling your work. We will listen to your calls and grade them. We will also secret shop your calls and meetings to clients, require you send a specific report regardless if needed after every single call, and it must be done on the same work day ( 12:01 am is not acceptable). We will take away your monthly commission with one missed report or email not sent the same day.

We will have you spend most of your time collecting past due bills despite having a billing department, then remove these past due invoice amounts from your paycheck if not collected by month end (yet not report the company to collections and simply let them walk away from their contracts creating no incentive to pay). Even if contracts are fulfilled and have been active for years, if a client ever closes their business, sells or decides not to renew their plan, you will take the loss out of your new sales.

We will offer no paid maternity leave and expect you work until your baby pops out during a zoom meeting. Don’t worry, you can just go through trying to get short term disability and support your family off that when your rent or mortgage is likely $2,500, and you have those pesky necessities like food bills, car payments, cell bill, gas, medical bills and more.

We expect your unyielding loyalty to us, but can cut you loose with no notice.

We will plan events afterhours and say it not required, but shun you as not being a team player if you don’t attend

We will plan work events afterhours that are required, and expect you to pay for childcare

We are not required to give you breaks or pay you overtime (in this state), yet we will claim we care so much about your health.

We have men that will use their wives to brag in the office boasting how little their woman needed for their pregnancy. “My wife worked until the day she gave birth and was taking meetings until we were on the way to the hospital!” “My wife went back to work in 6 weeks like it was nothing!” “My wife said labor wasn’t even that bad and she was up the next day!” Like really Brandon, STFU, your wife is not a show horse.

At the end of the day, you must come up with your own strategies to juggle parenting with work in order to keep food on the table, clothes on your back, roof over your head, medical care, save for the future and keep a life together. For those that say “don’t have kids”, well you know, if men can do it all, why can’t women. I don’t hear society telling men to choose between careers and kids. I also don’t hear the men getting shamed for having kids and being single. In fact, when a man works with a kid, he is praised for trying so hard and offered extra help from both men and women! A woman doing the same is treated like a deadbeat, who should find a way to stay home and be a “real mom”. Friendly reminder- the parent working to both parent and provide for their child is the winner, and the alternative is ending up on the street and welfare. The mom who is doing the job of two parents needs to be supported, not admonished.

It also needs to be recognized that the cost of living has skyrocketed so much, that many homes need two working parents in order to get by and get health care coverage. Single moms who manage to do it all are working miracles not only supporting a household with one income, but often producing equal or more work than their peers that are able to share responsibilities with someone.

Other Friendly reminder- life throws curveballs, things change, partners pass away, partners cheat, partners turn into abusers, partners quit, give up, leave, and some simply don’t feel like being a parent after having a child. Society loves to point the finger at moms for picking the wrong person, for getting pregnant, for working, for not working, but they fail to forget there are TWO adults responsible for a child.

I hope for a better future where women are recognized for what they are- the backbones of families that often do the work of multiple people and making miracles every day.