Male Founder Reminds Men About Moms and Work

This hilarious post about balancing a successful career and parenting is actually worth you actually reading.

When my husband and I co-founded First Bit, a mobile app that lets you share your brain with others for the exchange of insights, we couldn’t help but notice how every male in the tech community we were meeting with had two thoughts:

“Wow, are you pretty?” and

“Stop worrying about the kids. They’ll be alright.”

While my parents taught me to always put myself first when it came to work, my beliefs got shaped by the relationship I had with my own father. So when, upon becoming a mom, I began to see how broken things were in the corporate world, I vowed that while I would not abandon my job, I would address the issues at hand to empower women to take their careers in a radically different direction.

That’s where the brilliant gentleman who wrote this essay came in. The guy describes how he started his business, got into coding, and now has a good job with a pretty nice commute. But he’s not complacent, he’s seeking to better himself still. The first part of his essay is no different: “The awesome upside of being an entrepreneur has been the independence it affords you. That’s a great luxury. But I have only had so much alone time.” Then, to emphasize how much work goes into maintaining a healthy lifestyle, ” I always try to exercise regularly: 5 days a week, every week, in fact.” And, of course, his coffee makes the body go “Gag.”

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Looking to go to the gym more, but concerned it would take up more of your time? No worries, because his work dress code has basically made it so. He reads: “My gym clothes are pretty basic: white t-shirt, workout pants, and a comfortable baseball cap.” It was tempting to type the advice “Do what feels right to you,” but I knew that to do so would trivialize his experience with the “all white” culture. (He was even dressing “white-worthy” in the offices of his former employer, GoDaddy.) My advice: first, take time to recognize your perspective and second, identify a supportive group of mentors and trust you to make a variety of decisions.

How about you? What advice would you give to working moms and fathers out there?

This post was originally published on Opotummy.