Two weeks into your first C-suite role and crushing it already (unsurprisingly!) Very interested and curious to know:
- Who do you envision will get the most benefit from reading this content?
- What types of content do you imagine you'll dig into? For ex: is this a space to learn about product recs/items you can't live without, or feeding, starting solids, sleep training etc?
- What do you think are the gaps for new moms? Where can we better support?
Such good questions, Caroline! And apologies for the delay -- these really made me think...! Some initial thoughts:
1) I'm hoping you can help me figure out who might benefit from reading this ;) My current thinking is "moms like me" in the sense that any of the following resonate:
-On balance, you want being a mom to be more fun than it is stressful.
-You want to give mom-ing your all, but not all of you. You have at least one thing in your life that's important to you that you don't want to deprioritize completely now that you're a mom (e.g., a relationship with a spouse or family member, a career, your own health, etc.).
-You want to be a great mom, but struggle with how to define that and translate to your day-to-day.
-You enjoy optimizing things and get a thrill out of discovering a shortcut that doesn't compromise value.
-You require a lot of sleep and are very worried about not getting enough (kidding! ...kind of...).
-You have perfectionist, insecure-overachiever, and/or anxious tendencies.
-You wish there were more crisp, punchy slides that explicitly call out the "so what's" on parenting topics (and fewer books you have to sift through for golden nuggets of wisdom!).
2) I want to dig into the complex, ambiguous challenges ("big hairy problems") of parenting. Things I have or am currently grappling with where I benefit from "marinating" in the content and others may too. I think most parenting topics (including the ones you mention) fall into this category.
3) Two big gaps I see (I'm sure there are others, but these are particularly relevant to me):
a) postpartum, particularly the "caring for mom" side of the equation. For all the content and focus on pregnancy and birth, I feel woefully unprepared for postpartum. You and others have been a huge help to me on this dimension, but what happens to new moms that don't have "a Caroline"...?!
b) the "discovery phase": how to make a thoughtful decisions about whether to have kids, how many, etc., with the goal being to feel confident in the end decision(s), to know that you made those decisions for right reasons, and to go in "eyes wide open" about the tradeoffs you've inherently made.
First off - welcome to the BEST and also hardest job in the world! You're doing amazing mama! I also love how your take business principles and apply them to parenting.
To your question, what do I wish I knew 2 weeks into parenting... everything is a phase (good or bad!) and that basically all of parenting is trial and error. What works for someone else - although helpful to know - may or may not work for you. And might work on your first child, but not your second! You just figure it out! And you're not alone!
Thanks Anna! You casually dropped SO MUCH WISDOM here. Me being me, I'm going to break down my biggest takeaways and the "so what" (implications) for me so far. Let me know if this resonates:
1 - everything is a phase. there are so many learning curves that the single biggest parenting skill may just be ramping up efficiently on new topics. and enjoying the challenge of it (this is part of why its the hardest job...!) the more you can also see it as the "best job."
2 - trial and error. YESSS. I think of it as the difference between "do and iterate" vs. "one shot" perfection. another term I love: "test and learn." embrace the "error" part to learn something useful.
3 - do accumulate best practices from others. they're helpful to know.
4 - but don't blindly adopt them. you're the boss. decide if it resonates with you and if so, feed it into your "test and learn" process while moderating your expectations of it working.
Two weeks into your first C-suite role and crushing it already (unsurprisingly!) Very interested and curious to know:
- Who do you envision will get the most benefit from reading this content?
- What types of content do you imagine you'll dig into? For ex: is this a space to learn about product recs/items you can't live without, or feeding, starting solids, sleep training etc?
- What do you think are the gaps for new moms? Where can we better support?
Such good questions, Caroline! And apologies for the delay -- these really made me think...! Some initial thoughts:
1) I'm hoping you can help me figure out who might benefit from reading this ;) My current thinking is "moms like me" in the sense that any of the following resonate:
-On balance, you want being a mom to be more fun than it is stressful.
-You want to give mom-ing your all, but not all of you. You have at least one thing in your life that's important to you that you don't want to deprioritize completely now that you're a mom (e.g., a relationship with a spouse or family member, a career, your own health, etc.).
-You want to be a great mom, but struggle with how to define that and translate to your day-to-day.
-You enjoy optimizing things and get a thrill out of discovering a shortcut that doesn't compromise value.
-You require a lot of sleep and are very worried about not getting enough (kidding! ...kind of...).
-You have perfectionist, insecure-overachiever, and/or anxious tendencies.
-You wish there were more crisp, punchy slides that explicitly call out the "so what's" on parenting topics (and fewer books you have to sift through for golden nuggets of wisdom!).
2) I want to dig into the complex, ambiguous challenges ("big hairy problems") of parenting. Things I have or am currently grappling with where I benefit from "marinating" in the content and others may too. I think most parenting topics (including the ones you mention) fall into this category.
3) Two big gaps I see (I'm sure there are others, but these are particularly relevant to me):
a) postpartum, particularly the "caring for mom" side of the equation. For all the content and focus on pregnancy and birth, I feel woefully unprepared for postpartum. You and others have been a huge help to me on this dimension, but what happens to new moms that don't have "a Caroline"...?!
b) the "discovery phase": how to make a thoughtful decisions about whether to have kids, how many, etc., with the goal being to feel confident in the end decision(s), to know that you made those decisions for right reasons, and to go in "eyes wide open" about the tradeoffs you've inherently made.
First off - welcome to the BEST and also hardest job in the world! You're doing amazing mama! I also love how your take business principles and apply them to parenting.
To your question, what do I wish I knew 2 weeks into parenting... everything is a phase (good or bad!) and that basically all of parenting is trial and error. What works for someone else - although helpful to know - may or may not work for you. And might work on your first child, but not your second! You just figure it out! And you're not alone!
Thanks Anna! You casually dropped SO MUCH WISDOM here. Me being me, I'm going to break down my biggest takeaways and the "so what" (implications) for me so far. Let me know if this resonates:
1 - everything is a phase. there are so many learning curves that the single biggest parenting skill may just be ramping up efficiently on new topics. and enjoying the challenge of it (this is part of why its the hardest job...!) the more you can also see it as the "best job."
2 - trial and error. YESSS. I think of it as the difference between "do and iterate" vs. "one shot" perfection. another term I love: "test and learn." embrace the "error" part to learn something useful.
3 - do accumulate best practices from others. they're helpful to know.
4 - but don't blindly adopt them. you're the boss. decide if it resonates with you and if so, feed it into your "test and learn" process while moderating your expectations of it working.