“Daycare is awesome!”
Working mom-shaming knows no boundaries–even executive moms get their share of shade from friends, family and coworkers. Take, for example, one C-suite mom’s candid story about her decision to enroll her daughter in daycare.
On Monday’s episode of Staffing.Com’s The Talent Economy Podcast, host Meredith Bodgas–previously Working Mother‘s editor-in-chief–spoke with Verizon Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Christy Pambianchi. She’s been working in HR for over 30 years and helped create People + Work Connect, a free online employer-to-employer platform that helps companies fill positions with other companies’ displaced employees.
On the topic of helping women, specifically working moms, through the pandemic due to a lack of child care, Christy opened up about her own experience as a working mom. Christy, who has a 17-year-old daughter, felt judged by her family for putting her daughter in daycare.
“When I was a young working mom, I was the first person from both sides of my family to put a child in daycare,” Christy said. “Both sides of the family were quietly like, ‘Wow, what a bad mom… What’s going to happen to those kids in daycare?’ Daycare is awesome!” Amen, Mama.
Daycare is awesome–for so many reasons. Not only are the professionals audited and trained, daycare gives kids a chance to socialize with playmates. And, as Christy notes, she learned more about being a mom from the people who worked at her daycare. We love our daycare providers!
Further, Christy emphasized that we won’t get through this pandemic without a stronger infrastructure for child care. You can say that again! As the only woman manager at her company in the early 1990s, she notes that the pandemic has pushed working women back to the ’80s in terms of workplace progress. And she’s so right.
The pandemic has pushed over one million moms out of the workforce to date, and the numbers will only go up until schools reopen and enough people get vaccinated so the economy can begin to recover. Until then, take a listen to the podcast, and follow these tips to quash working mom guilt. Trust us, it’s not just you.
Career
“Daycare is awesome!”
This C-Suite mom got real about being shamed by her own family members.
