"Then last year, I was laid off from the job from the job I had held for nearly 11 years, only a few months before my two oldest children left for college and my youngest started middle school. Overnight, my calendar cleared and my phone stopped buzzing. No more daily deadlines, no more commutes, no more mental checklists of who needed to be where and when."
"While I was working, my two identities ran in tandem - sometimes seamlessly, more often in a constant juggling act. I'd spend my mornings in editorial meetings and my evenings shuttling kids to soccer games or dance classes. I'd squeeze in emails during school pickup, edit pages after bedtime, and answer late-night Teams pings from the glow at my dining room table."
"Then came the pandemic, and the lines blurred even further. I wrote cover lines and edited features while supervising remote learning. I led departmental calls while simultaneously prepping lunch and tossing clothes in the dryer. I was indispensable everywhere, always needed. As work returned to a hybrid model and the kids became slightly more independent, the chaos eased somewhat, but the balance was still elusive."
A longtime magazine editor combined full-time work with full-time motherhood for nearly twenty years, managing editorial meetings, deadlines, and family responsibilities in parallel. Mornings often involved editorial work while evenings were devoted to shuttling children to activities, with emails squeezed between pickups and pages edited after bedtime. The pandemic intensified overlapping obligations by adding remote learning to professional calls and household chores. A layoff arrived just months before the two oldest children left for college and the youngest began middle school, suddenly clearing the calendar and providing relief from burnout. With diminished daily demands, a deliberate reevaluation of career and life priorities has begun.
Read at Business Insider
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