- I returned from five months of maternity leave to a career built on purpose and impact.
- I stretched too thin between work and motherhood without a built-in support system.
- Instead of forcing myself to fit into an old structure, I built a career that works for my life.
I never set out to climb a corporate ladder. My career was always about purpose — helping others, creating impact, and working on things that mattered.
For years, I thrived in roles where I could drive meaningful change. But when I returned from five months of maternity leave, my priorities, time, and energy all felt different. I still wanted to create impact, but I needed to do it in a way that aligned with the life I was now building.
Even the best corporate benefits can’t replace a village
On paper, my job had everything a working parent could ask for — on-site subsidized childcare, flexible leave, a 30-day flexible transition back to work after maternity leave, lactation rooms, and even parent coaching programs. But here’s the raw truth: corporate parental benefits are built for someone with a village.
As an immigrant professional relatively new to Los Angeles, I had no family nearby to lean on. No parents to drop by with a home-cooked meal, no siblings to give me a brief moment to shower or nap, and no grandparents to share the mental load. No amount of subsidized childcare could replace having family around — not just for emergencies, but for those everyday moments when you’re trying to be both a high-performing professional and the default parent, running on empty.
The best advice came from moms who’d been there before
When I confided in other moms at work, they offered the kind of wisdom only experience can bring: We need to give ourselves grace and six months to make big decisions.
They reminded me that my body was still balancing out hormones, and everything felt different from my pre-baby life. When I realized that the six-month mark would land on my birthday, it felt like a sign. I promised myself that my birthday gift would be peace of mind, whatever I decided.
What I thought was flexibility was really just working around the clock
As a breastfeeding mom, I was the default parent, which added another layer of complexity to the work-life puzzle. There I was at 11 p.m., typing emails one-handed while nursing my baby, telling myself this was work-life integration. Between racing to wrap up by 5 p.m. and responding to emails during late-night feedings, something had to give.
I wasn’t integrating — I was barely hanging on. So, I signed up for my company’s parent coaching program, hoping for clarity.
Building my own definition of work-life integration
These weekly coaching sessions became my lifeline, bringing together parents at different stages of their journey. We were sharing real stories, real struggles, real victories. Through these conversations, I had my revelation: I wasn’t failing at achieving “balance” — I was playing the wrong game entirely. Instead of asking “How do I fit into this traditional structure?” I began wondering, “How can I design work around my life right now?”
Reimagining success on my own terms
Now, I run my own social impact consultancy. The work still matters, but now, I get to shape my days around my and my family’s needs, not the other way around. Recently, when my daughter was sick, instead of being stuck in back-to-back meetings, I could take breaks throughout the day to walk outside with her. No guilt, no rushing back to my laptop — just being present when she needed me.
3 lessons I learned along the way
First, protecting your time isn’t career suicide — it’s survival. Setting boundaries around my availability didn’t diminish my professional edge — it sharpened it by focusing on what truly mattered.
Second, I needed to direct the same creativity I applied to business challenges toward my own life. The most powerful career moves aren’t about fitting into existing structures but creating new ones.
Third, the community requires intention. Finding my tribe of working mothers became as essential as any professional network. While these connections couldn’t replace the village I lacked, they provided support and a reminder that I wasn’t navigating this terrain alone.
