Fantasy and Reality Collide

Mommy Tracks began as the story of a control freak lawyer named “3under5″ who bore three kids in four years and became the self-declared Queen of the Alternative Work Arrangement, before finally ditching the partnership track for the life of that maligned and adored media darling “The Stay-At-Home Mom.”

That would have been a great story, but, then, my oldest kid turned five, leaving me sans moniker, and I went back to work , leaving Mommy Tracks sans tagline.

This was pretty typical, really.  As a college student I vehemently predicted I would never forsake my career for child-rearing. As a newlywed, I swore I would drive a minivan when they started serving up ice cream in hell. As a passionate young litigation associate, I daydreamed of days spent arguing dramatically before the jury. As a new mom, I decreed my oldest son would never eat fast food, watch violent TV or be influenced by society’s stereotypical gender biases.

A decade later I found myself settling business disputes on my cell phone from the driver’s seat of my Ford Windstar as I cruised through the McDonalds drive-thru en route to dance and soccer … while my kids watched Power Rangers in the backseat.

In order to try to make sense of it all, I started blogging.

My first post lamented that moms should try to talk about something besides our kids and parenting. (You won’t have to stick around here too long to see how that turned out!)

And so Mommy Tracks just became the story of me, Leo, a mother, wife, teacher, lawyer, sister, daughter, friend, whose pesky real life keeps interfering with all her big ideas.

Welcome. I hope you’ll stick around. Don’t forget to smile today.