What it Means to be a Mom by a 24-Year-Old Single Male
Content by John Kennedy
I’m a 24-year-old single male copywriter trying to understand what it means to be a mom.
It’s a word that, for many of us, is our first. A word that throughout our lives we say countless times, in countless ways:
“Hey, Mom!”
“Where’s Mom?”
“Go ask Mom.”
“Mom, stop!”
“Your Mom.”
And of course, “I love you, Mom.”
So, easy task? Not really. Mom means so many things. And to make matters more complicated, we now have the ‘working from home while being a mom’ moms. There’s a lot to consider. How do they do it?
I decided the only way to really know was to ask those who know best — the super cool ‘working from home while being a mom’ moms at Big. To my surprise, they found some time in the midst of everything to answer a few of my questions. Here are some of the things I heard:
How did becoming a Mom change your life?
“It’s an indescribable feeling. I feel alive. It gives me purpose. No one told me what it would feel like to love someone so deeply, so profoundly, that I would feel every emotion that he feels.” — Ally Clokey, Senior Strategist
“I used to hate all kids. Now there are two in existence that I really, really like.” — Manu Gabaldon, Multicultural Strategy Lead
How has being a Mom helped you at work?
“Motherhood has made me more efficient. And helped me make decisions with more conviction, which has helped tremendously in my creative process.” — Shannon Harris, Creative Director
How do you balance working at Big with all of your motherly responsibilities right now?
“I think work/life balance is a myth. It’s more about fluidity and, thankfully, Big allows me to be fluid. They’ve given me the freedom and flexibility to be an engaged mom while still turning out stellar work.” — Merry Michael Smith, Media Director
“The help of my husband and everybody at Big, who have been so understanding with working around all of the schedules of all of the mothers during this time.” — Shannon Harris, Creative Director
What does it mean to be a Mom in one word?
Whole-hearted, teacher, firefighter, survivor, WORKINPROGRESS, responsibility, love, badass, badass, and badass.
Well. On top of working a full-time job, quarantine, and dodging everything else life dishes out, they still make shit happen. It’s a responsibility that I not only can’t imagine, but can’t fully comprehend. I set out to figure out what it means to be a mom, and here I am just feeling grateful, thankful, inspired, a bit lazy, and not much closer to truly understanding what it means.
But, that’s okay. Maybe I’m not meant to. What I do understand is that when I reflect on my mom, and these moms, and all the moms who have helped me through life, I just think “Wow. Moms are really badass.”
To mine, yours, and everyone’s,
Happy Mother’s Day