Shift of focus

It's strange how, at one moment, you are as a mom focussing on the quality and health of your nipples and the skin on your baby's bum. And just a few months later (or in some other countries like the US: week's later) chairing a meeting in a suit and talking about (if not managing) budgets of millions. To me it feels like travelling across the universe. The two worlds of home and work are so different. I guess it's not the case for everyone. I enjoy this part of being a working mom most. I get miles of distance to home when I'm at work, can focus on different issues and forget about being "mama" for a moment. But coming home, the beauty of it is just that: being mama, and getting distance to work. Sure, the two mix to some extent - my phone is omnipresent at work for emergencies at school or home, just in case. I have photos of my kids on my desk. And at home I often work in the evenings. But it's still more black and white than mushy gray. Or perhaps red and orange... in any case, different.

Femen Femen - Everywhere

There's a pretty good article in this week's Economist about the feminist boob-revealing protest movement Femen. It puts the protest movement into feminist context, and is pretty a-moralistic about it, and gets what it's about. But it also rightly states that boobies boobies everywhere stops being shocking or newsworthy at some point. Did you know that Angela Merkel and Vladmir Putim were femened early April in Hannover (I did, but only because I was following Merkel press that day due to a work event), or that the Barbie house opening was femened in Berlin (I didn't, and shhh about the Barbie house for a household with a 5 and 6 year old girl). What do I think about femen? All for it, if the protest is for a good purpose. I don't find breasts shocking, but I come from Finland where we jump around nude from saunas into lakes... Would I do it? Perhaps, if there would be a cause I strongly believe in - and perhaps would see no other effective way of having my voice heard (or text read...). Not going to happen, but it's an interesting thought process to go through. Would you?

Lean In vs Lean Back - at work and at home

What does leaning in (a la the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg) mean on a practical level at work and at home? Here are some thoughts on what this looks like in my life.

Leaning in at work means that I take care of my tasks, try to do them not too sloppily (I'm a rather sloppy person, as you can tell from the all typos in this blog!), and try to think of useful outputs (sharing with others, using as input in discussions, filing for later use). I try to stay motivated and be a more constructive team player.

But I also lean back a lot (which is probably why I haven't gotten that far in my career). I don't go that extra mile to think about what would make strategic sense, I don't give issues a second, critical thought, and I don't dive into details. I rather jump from one issue to another, and to a third, and to a hundredth... Or I'll stay quiet because I'm too tired to really activate my brain at a strategic moment, or prepare for something properly.

What about at home? Can leaning in be applied to parenting? Is this the super active, engaged parent, who invests into quality time? Or leaning back? The parent who can spend an evening on the sofa reading calmly, or meditating? The same applies as above. I'm slightly all over the place, trying to multitask playing with cars (with the youngest, now nearly 2.5), listen to the endless stories of my eldest (soon 7), and accept  hugs from my middle child (5.5, in a very cuddly phase) - while reading the Economist, hanging up the laundry, and changing out of my work clothes...

Crying at Work

I'm an emotional person, easily getting angry about silly things, or sad about random issues - or happy about little pieces of news (especially if those little things involve new little people in the world!). I try not to, but there have been occasions when I have cried at work. From anger, from being insulted, after having read a sad personal message. Today I cried when reading a UNAIDS report (UNAIDS) is an umbrella for all UN and multilateral development agencies working on AIDS.   In the report were profiles of people on antiretroviral (i.e. AIDS) medicines, and questions answered by them on what they find most important in life. Many were parents, many had given birth when already HIV-positive, and the response was the same throughout: staying alive and healthy (possible with medicines), and having made sure their children are born and remain HIV-free (birth to a positive parent of a negative child is possible with timed medicines). A good and hopeful reason to cry.

Impacting - who, what and why

I'm on facebook, twitter and on this blog. I always have to laugh when I see some other people's facebook/twitter/blog statistics. 1,500 friends, 30,000 followers on twitter, 15,000 blog followers. I laugh because a) that's so incomparable to my "stats", and b) I'm positively impressed at the impact these people are having on other people. Or are they? I guess it depends on who's following, what is being followed in terms of substance, and why the writer/poster is posting. Especially the latter is interesting, because the motivation to share can be so diverse. In today's FT weekend (courtesy of travelling husband who brings home newspapers), there was an article that people who actively post on social media are happier than those who don't. And most don't care whether their posts are "liked", re-tweeted or reviewed. They have the feeling that someone out there cares, even if they do not actively signal this. I think I belong to this category. Of course it's cool if you suddenly "trend" on twitter (I don't!), or get 720 likes for a comment on facebook (I don't), or see that 2,376 people read today's blogpost (guess..?). But even if one friend sees something I post, smiles, or thinks about some issue because of it, I'm happy. My impact? Does it matter....? An ode for more people to share ideas! I'll follow, smile or frown, and what be happy to read what you are thinking.