Can motherhood and speechwriting mix?

Sometime at the start of 2019 I found myself lying down on a cold, marble floor of a bathroom in a conference centre. Despite the whir and tug of my breast pump I was very nearly asleep. I set an alarm on my phone just in case I nodded off during the twenty minutes it took to produce tomorrow’s lunch for my 5-month-old munchkin.

I had been up with her approximately 34 times the night before and “exhausted” doesn’t really cover how I was feeling. At 5am I slathered on a thick layer of make-up and chugged enough coffee to turn me into an edgy zombie.

I was so grateful to get picked up by a company car because a snowstorm had hit New York and there was no way I’d had enough sleep to drive myself safely to the conference centre where my CEO was delivering a breakfast speech. By some miracle I had written 2,000 vaguely coherent words about the economy. But I have never been so grateful for fact-checkers and proof readers because I was too tired to trust my own writing.

I snuck out between cheap breakfast pastries and opening remarks to pump in the (very clean) bathroom. The only saving grace of the whole situation was that this was my second baby. I knew that one day she would sleep for longer stretches and I would be able to write a keynote on four cups of coffee instead of five.

My babies are now 5 and 7 so everyone (usually) sleeps through the night, but we’re facing a different set of challenges. We’re ever, ever so close to the end of the never-ending American summer holidays and running a company with patchy childcare for 11 weeks is not for the faint hearted. But it’s much easier doing it now that my office is next to my kitchen and my kids are old enough to fight over the TV remote.

This summer has definitely left me reflecting on how motherhood has shaped my career and my career has shaped my parenting. I’ve been approached for a couple of jobs that require “a 24-7 commitment” in the past few months and I know they are not for me. Even a couple of years ago I would have been game for the challenge, but not anymore.

The reality is that speechwriting schedules are often unforgiving. Today’s speechwriter is a strategic advisor, writer, editor and public speaking coach to boot, writing for multiple channels and audiences, and sometimes multiple people too. We drop everything to craft thoughts and prayers for the latest crisis and we love it: But with small people at home, it becomes harder meet everyone’s demands… and make sure I have a bit of time to fill my own cup too.

As I count the hours the minutes until everyone is back in school on Thursday I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s much easier to be the kind of parent I want to be and the speechwriter I want to be running my own company. I didn’t make the decision to leave working in-house for my children, but we’ve all felt the benefits. As my son said to me the other day. “You’re just kind of around a bit more.” I think he meant around in a good way.

So, on Thursday morning, instead of dropping everyone off at school in the car listening to a call in my earbuds and rushing to make my ferry, I’ll walk my kids to school. I’ll swell with pride and take a thousand photos as they disappear off to their new classrooms. And I might have time to share a coffee with my husband before I go back to taking care of my third baby, my speechwriting career.