Happy Friday everyone! It is the last day of vacation before we return back to digital learning next week, and my kids are celebrating by taking over my book reviews! What are we reading today?

My kids and I read the book Mommies Work by Kristin Cowart Pierce.

Bit of a backstory: before the pandemic, both my husband and I worked full time and my kids went to a local daycare. My daughter loved the days her friends were there, but the rare day that she was alone, she would cry and work my mom guilt over why she couldn’t stay home with me. Enter the pandemic – boom! She’s home full time with us! All summer we juggled me working and caring for them, until she started Kindergarten and I quit my job to focus on caring for them.

When I began reading this to them, my daughter looked at me strange and said “but you stay home now.” Well lo and behold, it addresses moms that stay home – BECAUSE IT IS HARD WORK! The book discusses the many places mom can work, and how we do still think about our kids while we are away.

This book was a great way to speak to my kids about why mommy works, and how I feel when I am away from them. We walked through the sports they used to do before the pandemic, we talked about the food and clothes. My son piped up “TOYS!” That went down a different rabbit hole, as then we discussed the toys they got for Christmas.

I asked my daughter a little later if she liked the book, and she said she did. She was wondering if I would work again. We talked more about her digital learning, and how I probably wouldn’t be returning to work until after summer vacation next year, when my son becomes eligible for preschool and hopefully life will be returning to some type of new normal.

So for moms who work – this book is for you! I think it was a great conversation starter to find out how my kids truly felt about mommy working, and to reassure them that mommy still thinks about them. But it had an added benefit of also showing my daughter that she can be ANYTHING SHE PUTS HER MIND TO! Naturally, she wants to be a “waiter and then after taking the order I will cook the food! Maybe I just want to cook the food. You can come to my restaurant too and I will cook for you! But you have to pay.” Ok! I like this plan!

What does my son want to be? He wants to put together birthday parties, which caused my daughter to scream “I WILL MAKE THE CAKES FOR IT!” They ran off to go put together a birthday party and bake in their play kitchen. I can hear my son shouting “CUPCAKES” while I type.

And that is how a new business idea was born. Go for it kids! While you are preparing, I will be at work!