I am not alone

Last night I went to a Business Among Moms mastermind group.  The subject was remembering your why.  For the meeting we did a plaque to hang where we can see it to remind us of our why.  As we were working on our art project we went around the table and talked about each of our why's.

Here is what I found out listening to the other 6 Mom's at the table.  All of us were doing our businesses for some sense of identity and purpose outside our family.  We wanted to reach out to people and create a sense of sisterhood and community.

When I became honest with myself and realized my why was about being something more than I was, I thought I was being pretty darned selfish.  The truth is that I have found out that most of the women in direct sales or coaching type businesses are doing it for similar reasons.  All of us feel our families are important and want to be available to them, but we want to have more than just that.


Before the women's movement there was a sense of community and sisterhood among women.  There were sewing and quilting circles, there was neighborhood get togethers when the children were in school.  Women filled their time with helping others in the community as well as tending the hearth and home.

Once women went to work that sense of community and sisterhood suffered. Now we often see women pitted against women and a sense of competition instead of a spirit of support and caring.  We were told that we could have it all work, family and self.  So many women are stressed out just trying to work, care for their family and home leaving little time for themselves. Those who stay home have a sense of being less and loss of identity.

I have seen a trend toward a rejection of these things.  There are life coaches, Mom's support groups, Business groups for Mom's or women.  There is a trend towards women looking to leave the traditional work force in favor of things like Direct sales, coaching and blogging.  I think that this is a growing trend and a good one.  As much as we would like to believe otherwise, we do not have superpowers.  We have the same finite time each day as everyone else.  There has to be a happy medium between trying to be Superwoman and losing ourselves in our family responsibilities.  I think that many women are coming to realize that there are ways to do this.

We all were gifted with talents, strengths and weaknesses.  There is nothing wrong with using them and growing personally at the same time that you are raising your children, but it doesn't mean you have to leave their care to someone else while you pursue that growth either.