Heather Pemberton Levy
I’m a mommy to two children (ages 6 and 8 years) writer, editor, wife, household executive, chef (sometimes), short order cook (most of the time), playmate and nag (hang your coat up, please!) I’m also now classified as a power mom, which makes it sound like I either know what I’m doing in this mommy job, have lots of important, exciting things going on while I’m doing my mommy job; or some kind of superpowers, which, other than a set of bionic ears and breathtaking speed at the sound of a blood curdling cry, is not the case.
About Mommy Truths
Founded in 2007, Mommy Truths has chronicled my life on the mommy job since my children were infants and toddlers. The older posts cover topics such as how to get your child to sleep at night, organize a minivan, and the lessons we learn as new parents. Mommy Truths is where I chronicle the lessons and insights of my experience raising young kids. Writing about the craziness, silliness, and eye-opening ah ha! moments of my days keeps me sane. It’s how I process the mommy job in all its isolation, frustration and joy. Plus, I like to share.
My Background
My day job, before having Son, was as vice president at an IT research and consulting firm. I did things like meet with people, manage product lines, launch product lines, launch a book publishing program, and generally work hard to move up the corporate ladder. After having Son, I went back to work part-time and did things like fight for “Mother Rooms” to breast pump in private, finesse breast pumping in a conference room with the door locked while surfing the Internet, dread leaving newborn Son and going to work each day, and resent my sweet Columbian nanny each night I returned home and discovered that she’d already given Son his bath and put him to bed. At the end of Son’s first year of life, I quit.
I stayed on as a consultant (10 hours per month), edited a new magazine (did I say that Son slept from 6 pm until 6 am?), and tried to learn the mommy job. I joined playgroups, did the dishes and laundry, and desperately searched for play dates for Son and me. I tried to get pregnant again and by his year and a half was nauseous and uninterested in moving off the lounge chair in the back yard. By December, I was seven months large and back working for the Company ten hours per week (hey, they needed me!). The magazine didn’t pan out, I was ready for some brain stimulation and could use the money. I conducted calls to India, Tokyo and Sydney at strange hours and gave birth to Daughter on her due date in March.
The first two years of her life were a blur of toddler/infant scheduling conflicts, bedtime ritual dilemmas, and just plain exhaustion. No one told me that raising two kids actually is rocket science. That the presence (or lack) of a strong mommy network determines your sanity and success. Or that it will be really, really hard for a couple of years and then it will get easier. (Well, the daily routines get easier but the whining and fighting don’t.)
These days I balance raising the kids and managing the house with writing and part-time work writing and editing for corporate clients. Somehow it all fits and satisfies different parts of me. My days don’t run smoothly by any stretch of the imagination. They’re a work in progress. Just like this mommy job. I hope you like my blog. Please share back.