having a baby is "easy": by amy

When is the last time you had Apple & Eve apple juice on the rocks?  Like, a lot of rocks.  Like, filled to the brim-rocks.  It is my most favorite beverage over the past three months.  It is icy heaven in my mouth that reprieves me from the awful "all-day" sickness that I've endured over the past few weeks.  Yes, I'm pregnant.  Yes, it's worse than the first time.  And you are my witness-- I am not doing this again!  Two and done!  Snip, snip, honey!  Snip, snip!  (Actually, I think it's done in a very quick laser/orthoscopic procedure now...)

OK back to the topic at hand:

Marissa Mayer's been back in the news lately because she recently crushed all other working moms' dreams of easily managing a working mom life by mandating that all employees come into the office EVERY DAY, or else, you can kiss your job goodbye.  No more working from home.  Although a bit extreme, I can understand why she's doing it-- she's doing it for the betterment of Yahoo!  That's why she's CEO.  She wants her employees to be Google-like-- all-in or go-home.  Yahoo! is pretty far behind Google in revenues, so she's trying to increase productivity and weed out anyone who's not all-in.  But it sure does suck for working parents!

Marissa was also in the news last year for announcing her pregnancy right after taking on the CEO position and a few months after giving birth, saying that "The baby's been way easier than everyone made it out to be."  My first reaction was BULLS@&T.  You can catch the interview here: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/28/yahoos-mayer-on-god-family-and-yahoo/

But then, I thought about it.  I'm not trying to be a hater, really.  Maybe it has been "easy" for her.  The woman went back to work after just two weeks.  I remember two weeks with the newborn felt like two months!  So to me, it sounds like she escaped when she could!  Let's make an assumption here that since she's pretty loaded (pretty safe assumption, right?).  With her wealth and responsibilities, she probably has some kind of help at home-- meals for the family are probably taken care of;  her house and laundry are probably more frequently cleaned than the average new-mommy's.  Given that many commercial daycares don't take two-week old babies, let's also assume she has a full-time nanny.  And apparently, she has a nursery next to her office at Yahoo!  (which is...convenient, I guess...?  Seems counter-productive to me).  So, given all of these luxuries, then yes, "the baby's been easy!"  And, if she's not nursing/pumping, then it's even EASIER!  (because I remember that being a turning point for me).  So, good for her-- she's managed to balance her work and mommy lives and make it fun AND easy.  Yeah, I'm kinda jealous.

She's also 37 years old.  Why does that matter?  It just means that she's invested a lot of her life in her career, and once you invest that much time into a career (particularly one that you truly love and perhaps defines you), you are more likely to push off baby-making (btw, there's no "right" time for it) and do what you can/afford to make both work to your satisfaction.  A managing director in my office is proof of it.  She had kids later in life after pursuing her graduate degree and travelling the world.  She makes a ton of money (opportunity cost of staying at home doesn't look too attractive); she loves her job; she still travels the world all the time; she has a full-time nanny;  and she's happy.  I will admit that I don't see her as my working-mom role model, but it works for her, so more power to her.

So back to Marissa.  A lot of women are hating on her because of her "my baby is easy" comment, but you know what?  Maybe she's just really happy with her situation.  Can't hate on that.  I think she could've worked on her delivery, though.  She could've at least tried to justify it by mentioning that it was somewhat hard, tiring, or she had a lot of help, or...something!  Or at least not making it SOUND like it's been really that easy, like she's rubbing it in our faces!  If you don't know what I'm talking about-- watch the interview.

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