I Know How She Does It: Compromise

But I consciously stayed boss-less after Liam was born, hoping it would allow me more time with our new addition.

I've always been career-centric, but when I was pregnant, I even turned down an editorial job I would have jumped at sans bambino because, with the long commute, the hours would have been full-time and then some. It was an agonizing decision, and one that left the ambitious 21-year-old inside me writhing in disappointment. But it had taken me two frustration-filled years to get pregnant, and I knew Liam's baby-hood would feel like it lasted mere seconds, in retrospect, if I was hardly around to see it.

Now I work full-time in a rented office two blocks from my house, and though I log fewer hours, I work harder than I used to. No wasted time commuting, watching YouTube or dawdling in the hallway after interminable staff meetings. Once I sit down at my desk, it's go time. Because at exactly 5 p.m., the nanny leaves for a self-awareness seminar, and I have to find a way to hide slivers of carrots in marinara sauce for my veggie-phobe son.

I still have ambitions that would require me to reenter Cubicle Land one day.