In the Cube: Tales from Working Mom Blogs

I've got summer fever. On top of trying to keep a grip on my family's schedule, my workday makes me feel like a little kid during the last week of school. When I wake up in the morning to gloriously hot and sunny weather -- or cool misty fog -- I want to play. When I pick my son up from summer camp or see my littlest one off with his babysitter, I want to play.

Taking a stroll around the working mom blogs realm I'm glad to find I'm not the only gal with summer fever. And it's making me feel just a wee bit better. Here's what's happening In the Cube:

Career an Kids: Elizabeth has vacation on the brain, too, and ponders how working parents shut off the "work" button and click into relaxation mode. She also offers some good tips to get help get moms and dads into the vacation mood. I like her advice to "Do nothing in 'absolutes,'" as in, "I'm NOT going to check my voicemail/email/crackberry" while I'm on vacation." Oh, the pressure. It is your vacation -- give yourself a little freedom and if checking your voicemail at home is going to make your feel more relaxed, well then, do it. (Just don't go into tailspin if you hear your the voice of your boss.)

The Juggle: Sara Schaefer Muñoz wonders if working parents are taking more vacation time then allocated as part of their paid time off. If you factored in all the times a dad or mom had to leave early from work for a soccer game or daycare pick up, maybe...if those hours weren't made up on the back end when parents are making up for missed work time after the kids are in bed. I know I stayed up many a late night in my previous work life making up for lost "office" time. But I don't consider that taking more vacation time than allocated. As for using paid time off, consider this. When I quit my job, I had a check coming to me for three weeks of vacation. I liked the cash, but wow, I wish I had traveled with my husband and at the time, one son, more often.

The Mom Ramp: Beth Blecherman Jumps Back on the Working Mom Highway

Beth Blecherman is the “chief technology officer” for the popular Silicon Valley Moms Blog and the publisher of a hot new tech blog for moms, TechMamas. In her pre-kid days, she worked in corporate finance, systems development and then systems auditing for a company that was purchased by Roche Pharmaceuticals. She later worked for Deloitte & Touche and when she was pregnant with her first baby, Beth was the senior manager of computer process integrity. After her son was born, she worked part time for the company.  But it was her second pregnancy with twin boys –- and two months of bed rest following the delivery –- when she decided the Partner track at Deloitte needed to take a back seat. She retired.

“Even though I knew it was the right decision, it was still difficult,” she said.

Beth recently decided to jump back in the working mom world. She’s moving towards the on ramp, starting with the brave new world of blogging. Beth is a fellow blogger and friend, and every time we see each other, I always come away with new ideas about working motherhood, parenting, and truth-be-told, the best celebrity gossip (sorry, Beth, your secret is out!).

Going back to work is as tough as deciding to leave your job to become a stay at home mom. I asked Beth a few questions about this new life adventure, her new tech blog, TechMamas, and how she's doing with work/life balance.

JobMom (JM): Why did you decide to get back into the working mama game?

Beth Blecherman (BB): After spending years building a career, I found it hard to become a full time mom. I realized that spending time with my kids was the most valuable part of my day, but that I was not good at doing it all day. Having time to myself made me a better parent. I decided that for me to get the right balance in my life I needed to go back to work. I talk about this in my blog post called, "I Surrender." (Ed. note: A must read for all moms.)

JM: Did you hit any roadblocks?

BB: The first roadblock in going back to work was timing; managing three young boys was too complicated for childcare so I waited until my twins went to preschool. The next roadblock was changing careers. My last job at Deloitte was in project management, which required a big time commitment and involved rigid time deadlines. So after years of building a career, I had to find a new career that had flexible work arrangements. I only wanted to work while my kids were at school or at night. I started to wonder if that type of work existed.

I kept current on technology news after I retired and found the concept of blogs very interesting.  I was lucky to work with Jill Asher, Pamela Hornik, and Tekla Nee to establish the Silicon Valley Moms Blog. Once I started blogging, I became completely hooked. We then joined the BlogHer network, which served as my new “work” network. I am still working to make blogging a career -- the path is not as clear as in technology consulting.