Balancing work obligations and outside interests is challenging for everyone. Adding children to the mix increases the complexity, yet people do it all the time. New parents are warned about the lack of sleep and personal time, so as those issues arise it’s no surprise. When Erika Gonzalez recently returned to her position as anchor/reporter for NBC4 and Telemundo44 after maternity leave for her second child, the process of regaining her footing in the newsroom and in her broadcast was familiar to her. What she hadn’t anticipated was the learning curve at home as she experienced what it meant to be mom to two kids while also working full time outside the home.
Gonzalez likens her return to the office to riding a bike that changes color every day. “It’s still the same bike. And I know how to do that.” Plus, her coworkers helped ensure “a seamless transition, because I’ve been given both the support that I need and sort of the space to find myself again and my footing in the newsroom and in my broadcast.” On the home front, meeting the needs of two young children took more practice. She explains, “I say my learning curve these days is at home more so than it is at work because I’m learning what two is like now and what that juggle is. I’ve never had a 3-year-old before. I’ve never had a 2-year-old or a 1-year-old before or a baby before that. And now all of a sudden, I have two. And they both need me in different ways.”
Leave Opportunity and Hiring the Right Nanny Match
“I’m grateful that I’ve been able to experience pregnancy and maternity leave. And I’ve had two very healthy pregnancies,” Gonzalez says. Her “generous maternity leave program” gave her a six-month leave for each of her children. Taking the full leave was important her, both in recognition to both those before who worked hard for the program and the reality that “those six months would be a drop in the bucket compared to the lifetime that I would be putting into my day-to-day.” She used her leave not only to bond with her baby but also to help her 2-year-old transition to life as a big sister.
Hiring a nanny before returning to work was also essential to a smooth transition. “My husband and I are not an employment agency,” Gonzalez says. “It’s the hardest thing that you’ll ever do in finding the right person that you feel at peace with leaving the most sacred possession that you have.” The right person is important, Gonzalez says, because “it’s not just that their diapers are changed and that they’re fed, but that they are being encouraged to meet their milestones and explore safely around them and meet new friends at story time and at the park and at the splash pads. All of that is really, really important.” Finding that person is not easy. “It’s almost like dating. You have to feel like you make a match with that person. Like you can connect with them,” she explains
Staying Connected While Staying on Task with the Kiddos
Working as a team with her husband another part of the puzzle. The first time they went on a “date,” they had a babysitter for four hours but, exhausted, were ready to head home as soon as they’d eaten. To prevent a situation where both of them are perpetually exhausted, Gonzalez and her husband now take turns sleeping in on Saturdays. Gonzalez and her husband make a concerted effort to check in with each other. “I don’t think anybody’s house is ever good in the morning, so in the evening, we have some sort of touchpoint, a checkpoint. ‘How are you doing?’ ‘Are you doing okay?’ ‘What’s your next day look like?’ ‘What do we need to do both as a team and as a couple?’ And I think it’s really just a concerted effort. I mean, just the same way that you would make time for a friend and a phone call is the same way that you have to work for what you’ve got” with your spouse.
Focusing on the kids takes time, too. There’s church on Sunday. Family time on Saturday. “When I get home at 6 o’clock,” Gonzalez says, “it’s all hands on deck. ‘Who’s feeding who?’ ‘Is that one getting in the tub?’ ‘Are they both getting in the tub at the same time?’” It’s rush right up until story time, which is a nightly ritual for Gonzalez and her daughter. They do two books on a weeknight – four on Friday night – and each time that includes a Pigeon book by Mo Willems and a story from a children’s Bible.
Emphasizing Her Spanish Language and Mexican American Heritage
To foster a strong connection to their heritage, Gonzalez and her husband ensure their children’s first language will be Spanish by speaking only Spanish in their home, so the Spanish version of the books are a good choice. Since Gonzalez grew up speaking Spanish as a girl and learned English when she started school, “I want to be sure [my daughter] has this as a base, first and foremost, that this is ingrained in her and that it’s never forgotten and that it, too, can open doors for her in the same way that it did for me.” In addition to her work on NBC4, Gonzalez maintains her connection with the Spanish-speaking community by reporting for the weekly Bebé Tips segment on Telemundo44. “I also fill in on the anchor desk from time to time. My Spanish language and Mexican American culture [are] the very fabric of who I am. It means a great deal to both my parents and me to enlarge the footprint of my bilingual career while serving the community in which I live and love.”
Returning to work as a mom of two has been a challenging but exiting time. “Just like every other parent, we’re figuring it out on a daily basis,” Gonzalez says. And when you look at your kids, “they’re just the best thing that you’ll ever do. The hardest and the best thing that you’ll ever do.”
Gina Hagler is a freelance STEM writer and author. She also provides parents with family-friendly Language Arts ideas and materials at KidWrite!
