Reinventing Ourselves After Motherhood: How Former Career Women Refocus Their Personal and Professional Lives After the Birth of a Child

How I wish I could give this book ten stars! If you're tired of hearing about the Mommy Wars and want to read about women who've somehow managed to balance work and motherhood, this is the book for you. Susan Lewis clearly is coming from the assumption that we all love our kids, and we all have unique gifts to present to the world, but unfortunately the reality is that we live in a culture that doesn't have a lot of respect for parenthood--or for women's choices, for that matter. You know how it goes--if you stay home with the kids, you're an underachiever; if you have a full time job, you're self-centered, if you work part-time so that you can be there for your kids, well you have to be screwing up both jobs then, right? :) Lewis interviewed ten women like herself, all of whom gave up full-time high-powered careers to spend time with their children. Some downshifted to part time, some switched to a less demanding career, some just gave up a career altogether. What these women have to say about the decisions they made really surprised me and inspired me, and often made me laugh. Lewis herself cracked me up with her descriptions of being available for monosyllabic teenage boys, or being humbled by her utter failure at baking a batch of brownies from a mix.I also think this would be a great book for any young woman who wants to "have it all" to read. It really does give a realistic picture of both worlds, work and home, and helps you think think creatively, and sensibly (love how Lewis, before she got pregnant, thought that the first year of her baby's life would be a great time to sail around the world!). Yes, combining motherhood and career can be done, but as these women show, you've got to be creative, you've got to be true to your instincts, and you shouldn't give a hoot about whether you've got a glamorous enough self-description to impress people at cocktail parties!

If you are struggling with how to manage your career AND love your baby AND nurture your family, read this book! It's like talking to a best friend who understands who you were before you had a baby and what you feel now. I am still struggling with "what to do next"...this book empowered me to do what's best for me (not based on anyone else's "should do's"). Ms. Lewis has a great writing style...easy to read with thoughtful stories. I stay up late at night (or get up before the baby wakes up) just to get another chapter read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Lewis tells us how women have coped with the biggest life altering experience of all...motherhood. I wish it was available when my first child was born. I felt so alone juggling to combine motherhood with a career. The anecdotes in the book are so funny because they are real. It feels like a chat with your closest friends telling you what was the "last straw" incident that forced them to make changes. What is most interesting about the book is the variety of solutions that women came up with. There are no right or wrong answers because every family is unique. Having the insight on what changes others have made will get you thinking creatively.

When I walked away from a prestigious, well paid career a decade ago, I knew it was merely in order to take a "sabbatical." With two young children, I feared I might lack the stamina to launch into a new position in the investment industry, where I'd spent the prior 17 years. When they were in school all day . . . that would be the time to jump in again . . . Skip to 1999. I've not yet jumped back in, but I've learned a tremendous amount about paid work vs. volunteer work and how a frantic pace compares with a busy, but manageable, workaday stride. I've learned that there are still pointless and destructive preconceptions on both sides of the working/non-working mother issue. Though I felt somewhat unique during the early years of this transition, I apparently had plenty of company. Susan Lewis, author of "Reinventing Ourselves after Motherhood" was obviously sharing my experience. She, however, took the time to write a wonderful book about all of us who grew up post-feminist revolution and tremendously conflicted about work/family choices. Through her own often amusing and always insightful anecdotes, and through her gleanings from scores of interviews with mothers of all ages, she has come up with a highly readable narrative. Unlike so many others who've written on the topic, however, Lewis succeeds in evenhandedness. She knows the path she's taken is probably best for her, but doesn't insist that everyone else should be tagging along. This book should be of interest to a wide range of readers, including both mothers at home and mothers at work. (A few enlightened fathers might even be induced to have a look!) It might be most valuable to young women who know these life-altering choices lie just ahead. A satisfying read.

Through anecdotes and experience, Ms. Lewis leads the reader through the transformation which occurs in women as they move from/to career and/or from/to motherhood. The stories are poignant, passionate, humerous and revealing. Anyone who is interested in understanding women in the workforce should read this book.