Fairygodboss

This article by AnnaMarie Houlis first appeared on Fairygodboss and  has been republished with permission.

Chronic pain affects anywhere from 11% to 40% of people in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, in 2016, an estimated 20.4% of U.S. adults had coped with chronic pain, and 8% of U.S. adults had high-impact chronic pain. 

This article first appeared on Fairygodboss and has been republished with permission.

After 17 years as a working mom, I see my biggest job as bringing up my two sons and making them responsible, ethical adults who contribute to the future of the world.

On a day-to-day basis, though, this mostly involves cooking for them, driving them around, cleaning up after them and always remembering how much I love them. I’m fortunate to have a great partner in crime in my husband, and he helps create an environment of gender neutrality at home; daddy cooking doesn’t signify a “special occasion,” for instance. Add to this an employer that empowers you, as well as management that values your contributions, and what you have is a team of indispensable allies for working moms like me who want to keep their sanity.

Your Monday blues are likely worse if you are going through something you can’t control, like fertility treatment, a parent’s illness, or project deadlines.

Small talk is about as dreary as the murky skies and as painfully vexing as the overcrowded parkway.

I think we both sleep a little sounder curled up with each other. And as annoying and cliché as it sounds, it really won't last forever.

As I look around my office, I know that one in ten of my colleagues have social anxiety. But I still feel like it’s my secret problem.

This article by Liv McConnell first appeared on Fairygodboss and has been republished with permission.

Not to contribute toward society’s habit of picking apart feminine communication patterns, but I’ll say it: in my own life, at least, the tendency to over-apologize was something I had to put effort into unlearning.