Every so often I ask guests to write a blog post and this time, I asked my co-op student, Kejsi Shahaj, to write a post about Mother's Day and she came up with some great resources for working mothers!

Best,

In a time riddled with so much uncertainty, it’s important to take stock of the concrete parts of life. This includes the people who pick us up and brush us off after the most difficult moments. Mother’s Day is fast approaching and what better opportunity to send some extra love to moms everywhere. Mothers are a true force to be reckoned with. Life does not slow down for anyone once they have a baby, and there are a million things to juggle every minute of the day. Raising children is no easy pursuit but raising children while working seems almost impossible. Moms are no stranger to the impossible, though.

Working mothers somehow manage to balance the simultaneous pressures of motherhood and the stressors of a career. Although moms can make it look so effortless, I think we all know that raising a family while working is no easy task. This has only gotten more difficult with the pandemic. Moms everywhere have had to find new avenues of childcare while also becoming interim at-home teachers. Unfortunately, many working moms are constantly plagued with the guilt of having to make decisions that pin their family life against career aspirations. Even though working mothers can seem like super-heroes, they are secretly just as fragile as the rest of us. That’s why this post is dedicated to sharing some resources and tools for working mothers, to ease the load even just a little bit.

Four Online Tools for the Working Mother

One of the most easily accessible resources for working moms is a helpful website or app. It is important that moms can receive help or guidance quickly since children don’t exactly wait around for their parents to catch up. There are many useful sites, blogs and podcasts out there that offer helpful insight into parenting while also providing a sense of community in a recently isolating world.

Kidsinthehouse is a great online resource for parents. The website contains endless articles and videos regarding virtually every aspect of parenting. The best part is that the advice comes from over 500 experts and parents. These experts range from pediatricians to anthropologists and social theorists. The site also contains a parent-to-parent section which allows parents to connect with each other through forums and discussion boards. This is a great tool for parents to be able to share stories and guidance while feeling a sense of community regardless of physical distance.

Although this site is not entirely specific to moms, I think it is an awesome resource for any woman in the workforce. Fairygodboss is part blog and part social media site. There is a community feed that allows women to share career advice and opportunities. There are also so many useful tools such as anonymous company ratings, a built-in job search engine, databases regarding maternal leave minimums of different companies, and a pregnancy week-by-week guide for work.

The Child Mind Institute is a well-respected organization that provides parents with important mental health resources including clinical care and expert guidance. The organization created a COVID-19 specific source for pandemic related parenting help. The page includes the ability to sign up for telehealth care with clinicians as well as Facebook Live events of expert video chats. There are also numerous articles and tips on topics such as supporting your kids, addressing specific concerns and taking care of yourself.

I think one of the reasons why podcasts have become so popular in the last couple years is because of their ability to make the world feel a little smaller. They are a convenient way to tune into the world around you and listen to other people’s stories while going about day-to-day activities. The Motherly Podcast is perfect to listen to while commuting, exercising, or running errands. Each episode is an honest conversation with a working mother with a fascinating story. Guests include politicians, actresses, entrepreneurs and authors. These diverse stories of empowered mothers are a great source of joy and inspiration.

This holiday there is a new air of hope as many family members are finally getting the chance to embrace each other and share more than 6 feet of distance. If you can, hug your mothers a little tighter this year.

Happy Mother's Day,

Kejsi Shahaj
Drexel 2022 Political Science & Communications Major
College of Arts and Sciences