#Collaborative post
There is one big argument that women have to face in life and it’s whether they can have both a great career AND a new baby. The worst thing about this choice is that women believe that they cannot have both – which just isn’t true! Women are perfectly capable of being excellent leaders and fierce in their field of work, while also being fierce mothers who raise exceptional human beings.
The difficulty comes in the balance between paying attention to the children while still paying attention to their work. Can women really do both? Yes, actually, they can. We aren’t wired just to look at one thing at a time. We can split our focus. We can also build exciting careers with the aid of egg freezing to use at a later time in life, freezing the optimal eggs early on and ensuring that we don’t run out before it’s too late. So, if you want to wait until you’re 40 to have a baby, you can try with your eggs that you froze. There are several things that you should consider if you want to have both at the same time. The key takeaway here is that it doesn’t matter these considerations. If you want both, you go and get it.
- What’s your current family status? Is it just the two of you or do you have a great extended family? Are you both financially solvent? Do you have savings? If you are in a good position with your finances and your home and you know that you can handle the costs of having a baby, go and have one. Raising a family is wonderful, and babies need so much more than love in their lives. You also need to have more than the child you want to bring into the world. A career is going to help them grow up seeing you achieve. Is it always going to be easy? No, but nothing worth having ever is.
- What’s your current income? If your combined income is enough to live on but not enough for you to take one income away, you might choose to keep working and use the help of others to look after the baby while you’re at work. You might even decide your partner will stay at home with the baby while you continue to work if you earn more money. Your income matters when you have a baby because you want to be able to support yourselves!
- What does society say? Honestly, who cares? We’re in 2021 right now and this is not 1940, where the male parent would work and keep the mother and the baby in bonbons and roast dinners. This is 2021 where women are realising their voice matters and their choice matters even more. The thing to know is that everyone is going to judge you no matter what you do – so just do what will work for you and your family.
You do not have to pick. You can have the best of both worlds. Adjust your schedule and you will make it work.