Wanted: Rich Supermom and Wealthy Wonderdad

Inquirer.net Blogs:

I can spot them 50 feet away — mommies with not a single strand of hair out of place, carrying tiny handbags, and with fingernails done to perfection. Mommies who are slim, trim, and confident. Sometimes, I wonder if I decided too early to be a work-at-home mom.

Think big, bulky, baby bags and endless trips to the pediatrician. Gone are the regular trips to the parlor for hair spa and I have long since traded my strappy sandals for comfy ToeBerries.

While interviewing Education Secretary Jesli Lapus at the sidelines of a conference last year with the World Bank senior guy looking on, I saw him eyeing my notebook suspiciously after I turned a page to take down notes. The entire spread was full of scribbles made by my two-year old son. Using a big-point permanent marker, I might add.

“My two-year old loves to draw,” I said in a feeble, embarrassed voice.

“I thought those were your scribbles,” the secretary said. He didn’t look amused.

Welcome to my world.

I work at home a few feet away from my toddler, true. And it’s one of the best things that happened to me in my writing career -– to be working for a company whose out-of-the-box thinking allows mommies and daddies to wow the world with their writing and organization skills wherever they are, as long as they have a laptop or PC, Internet connection and a mind that’s capable of separating domestic and professional chores 24×7. That can be at the office, in an Internet café, at home or wherever they find themselves. But if you think this means shorter working hours, you are dead wrong.