Society and Its Fiery Hate Balls

There has been a lot of chatter lately about women, children, and careers. I know I have discussed it before on here and elsewhere but I wanted to add some more of my thoughts on this since I feel my perspective is relatively unique.

My wife, Annie, currently works five days per week but two of those days are from home. I currently work from home everyday although there are times I need to go to job sites or run some errands. Due to this, I have our son three days a week, the days Annie goes into the office. This will soon become four days per week and most likely five.

So my wife has a great career and she enjoys her job. I love what I do as well, although running two businesses is a bit hectic right now. In our home there was no discussion of you have to do this and I have to do that. We realized our circumstances and we each do what needs to be done for the greater good of our family of three.

Based on what I have read or heard lately in regards to Marissa Mayer of Yahoo or Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, there seems to be a big divide between “career minded” women and “family minded” women. I wonder why that is. If this woman wants to focus on her career and never have kids…who cares? If that woman wants to have three kids and be at home every waking moment of her life…who cares? And what if that woman wants to have her career and be a mother…who cares?

I don’t understand why this issue is so polarizing. Why can’t we be more supportive of the decisions that these women are making? Why do we rail against Marissa Mayer for having a baby while being CEO of Yahoo? Why do we rail against her when she makes the decision to end the “work at home” status for Yahoo employees?

Marissa is the CEO, she can make whatever decisions she wants. If her decisions lead to a negative end she will be let go…just like everywhere else (except when you’re a politician). If she thinks that she can be a good CEO and a mother why don’t we support that energetic move rather than bash her?

These topics lead to so many thoughts in my mind.

*Am I a wuss for wanting to work from home and raise my son?

*Is Annie wrong for working full time?

*Why is it anyone’s business but our own?

*How will this impact our boy?

*How will this impact Annie and I?

*Why does our society go straight to bashing people for these types of decisions?

*I didn’t know there was a manual that had the “right” answers in it, can I borrow it?

*It’s kind of hilarious how much people live in fear and from fear. Attacking other people’s decisions is really easy when you’re trying to make yourself feel better.

I’m rambling a bit now but as I have said before…we are all on this journey together whether we like that or not. Throwing second guesses, skepticism, and hate balls at people does nothing. The whole point of this life is to live it the way YOU want to live it, not the way others expect you to live. So let’s be a little more supportive and little less pissy pants.