Birth Day (Well, Almost)

Fifteen years ago today, I did not yet have children. Well, that's not entirely true, as I was just a day away from delivering my first. But while my belly was huge, fifteen years ago today was my last day without visible children. 

I'd already been through a series of career moves by then--hired right out of college, promoted several times, fired, hired to work freelance, hired to work prime time. As I describe it all, it sounds like practically a lifetime. Yet, in a way, a day later, a whole other lifetime began. 

Two more kids have joined my first since then, and I have been a working person through practically all of it--all, if you consider job-hunting as much working as actually working. 

As toddlers, my kids saw me head off each day and went to gym classes and play dates with a nanny. As school age children, they have seen me as the mom who hurries off to work after the class publishing party. Over the past year, they have seen me as the mom who is suddenly around for field trips and pick ups. And over the coming year, they will see me (or not see me much) as the mom who is part of a new venture (and as the mom who gets to work with Corbin Bleu, the actor they have seen on TV and Broadway). 

When I worked on a cyber-bullying story, I saw how it might help kids like mine. When I worked on music shoots, I hoped (well, at least most of the time) that my kids would share the music with their friends. When I brought home a paycheck, I knew that it would help pay not only for the rent and electricity, but also for a class or camp I wanted one of my kids to experience. In one way or another, every thing I have done in my career has had a whole different spin since that night fifteen years and a day ago. It's taken some creative logistics and whole lot of humor, no question. But I wouldn't have it any other way.