00:00When I first went back to work, I was all about, like, meal prep.
00:03Then my child turned into a toddler, and she hates everything.
00:06If she could live off of, like, cookies and yogurt and, like, licking a cucumber,
00:11because that's as close as we're getting to vegetables, that would be her favorite thing in the world.
00:16I realize that my go-to, whether it's at home or in the car or at the park to calm
00:22him down
00:22when I'm telling him it's time to leave and he doesn't want to leave,
00:24will definitely be a drinkable yogurt.
00:26That has been my savior.
00:40I'm, like, sliding off the stool because of the shirt.
00:45Nerves.
00:46My name is Michelle.
00:48My name is Nisha.
00:48I'm a marketing account director.
00:50I am a court reporter turned stay-at-home mom who is studying to be a real estate agent.
00:54I am the mom to a sassy two-year-old girl named Sierra,
00:58and I am the mother to a wonderful one-and-a-half-year-old son named Kamari.
01:02I have two jobs.
01:04My first job is being a mom and taking care of my kid.
01:07Then I'm at work by, like, 7.30, 8, and it's just crazy nonstop.
01:11I'm in meetings pretty much all day.
01:13Pick her up and get home by, like, 5.30, 6.
01:15I try to be present as much as I can then, and then she kind of goes to bed around
01:208,
01:20and then I turn my laptop back on and I work again.
01:24So before I had my son, I was a court reporter at a family court.
01:28But since I've sat at home and thought about it, I figured that I kind of want to go into
01:32work for myself.
01:33I want to be in charge of my own hours, be in charge of being around for my son.
01:38Did you go back to work after Matt leave and then make that decision, or...?
01:43Yeah, so the first day, I was just like, this feels so weird.
01:48Like, I just felt like I wasn't supposed to be there.
01:51Like, wondering what my son's doing, wondering, oh my gosh, am I going to get back in time to make
01:56dinner?
01:57What am I making for dinner?
01:58Did he get snacks today?
01:59Did he get what he's supposed to?
02:01Did he have milk?
02:01And I realized that what's best for me was not to go back.
02:03As a single mom, thinking about being in real estate and thinking about working for myself
02:08was the way that I realized that I could find balance for my work life and for my home life.
02:13For me, when I get home from work, that's my time with my daughter.
02:16And, like, my phone is off.
02:18I just want to spend time with her.
02:19And I think when I was on Matt leave, it was the hardest thing for me to just be present.
02:22And I spent that whole time learning how to be present with her.
02:26My mom was a single mom as well.
02:29So I get that motivation from what she went through and how she made sure that that happened.
02:33But I just don't want to do it the way that she did, having to do two jobs or three
02:36jobs
02:37or whatever the case is, making it possible for anything that he wants in the future.
02:40And I hope that he sees it.
02:42I hope he loves me for it.
02:44I think I'm the same.
02:45I think I hope being a working parent makes me a better parent.
02:49I feel guilt a lot.
02:50And I feel like people around me are the ones that kind of set that up.
02:54But then there's other moments where I know that, like, my drive and the way that, like,
02:58I just kept going and just decided, you know, like, I'm going to work harder now.
03:03I'm going to do more than I did.
03:05It's not necessarily what you're doing, but how you're doing it.
03:08Because when your daughter grows up, she's going to see how passionate you are about what
03:12you do and how proud you are of what you do.
03:14So I think loving what you do is the most important part of finding balance, because
03:18if you aren't into it, it's going to show.
03:21She's going to be like, well, if you hate it, why are you there and missing my stuff on top
03:25of it?
03:25So I think she'll understand that.
03:27I didn't think of it that way.
