Working Mom in the Wine Industry

My son Maverick is already 6 months old! I cannot believe only 6 months ago I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy. In that short amount of time he has grown 3 times his birth size, laughs out loud at things he thinks are funny, interacts with the dogs, crawling all over the place, and eating real people food! When there is a new baby the main focus will always be on the baby, and for good reason, but what happens to the mom? Mothers go through the ultimate transformation and it is not always easy. We begin the journey of mommy-hood and that means balancing our new found role along with our previous life responsibilities.

This is my story of my transformation, my struggles and my wins. I hope it helps other new mothers out there trying to find the balance between mommy-hood, career, and themselves. 

I was excited and of course nervous about becoming a mom. I was comforted by the fact that every other parent in this world has had the exact same feeling as me. And I had confidence because I truly want to bring a better human being into this world and I already knew I was going to do everything at my disposal to do so. During pregnancy I started to realize that it was important to me to be able to raise my own children. I want to be there when they take their first steps, laugh, play during the day, put down for naps, go to museums, school, and cook for them. Only issue is, I also love my job so how would doing the two things work? From direct experience I have seen stay at home moms and working moms, can there be an in-between?

One more thing. I was given permission to bring my son into work with me. Say What?! Yes, I thought okay no problem, I will just bring him to work with me all the time, babies sleep a lot right? And otherwise can just throw him in the carrier. Little did my naïve self realize what my true reality would become.

Fast forward now to birth day. I am now a mom, with all the amazing ecstasy that can wash over a single person at once. Once home we had loads of help with food, house work, and overall caregiving of the baby and for me. I am pretty sure I did not make a meal until I was 2 months postpartum. Early on, for those of you who don’t remember, your life completely goes in 2 hour cycles of eating, sleeping, and changing diapers. Between the sleep deprivation, constant vigilance over the newest bundle of joy, new mom stress, and the changing hormones I began creating new sets of priorities in my life. First being I will do anything for this child! Anything! Nothing else matters, just the health and well being of my son, period. I had entered what I am calling the Postpartum New Reality, a new dreamlike world where you are scattered brained, tired, delirious, and happy about it. And in this Universe the world revolves around this precious little boy.

In that postpartum dream-world altered reality I knew I made wine, I knew about selling wine, I knew about wines from all over the world, but why. None of it made any sense to me anymore, at least why it was important to me. It’s as if it didn’t matter any more…

The only thing that mattered was raising this precious baby boy. And now, I finally began to understand just how much work it is going to take to raise this boy the way that I wanted to. Before giving birth I was expecting to be able to get all my work done while the baby sleeps, clean house, work from home, write… how wrong I was. My life had become consumed with this baby boy. Surprise! Did you know he needs constant supervision? Haha. And then I find out that naps are extremely inconsistent,  I am lucky if he takes one for an hour(FYI these are getting better though). Even with extra help, it was a good day if I got in the shower let alone get my computer out. It finally hit me, I cannot work and care for my son at the same time. I was going to need help.

But that didn’t stop me from trying. Before I figured out what we were going to do about childcare I brought him to work with me. He was right along for most of all the harvest, crush, and at least 2 presses. I even brought him on days with less physical effort involved. Again I was extremely lucky; one that I was allowed to do this and; two the owner who cannot wait to have grandchildren was more than willing to help hold and play with little Mav. But that did not make it easy. There was this constant struggle of being a good mom and then being an adequate worker. I have always worked hard and normally very physically involved but being mom required me to take a step back and instruct more than actually perform. With Mav there with me I constantly questioned myself; am I being a good mom? What does everyone think of me just bringing around a 3 month old? And, he is generally a very happy baby but the winery isn’t exactly a nice nursery. Naps were hard, nursing in desk chairs are not the most comfortable, and when he did cry I just hoped he wasn’t being too annoying to the rest of my coworkers. Short to say that bringing your infant to work wasn’t working for me. Even though I am grateful that I can, something else was going to need to happen. Again I cannot work and care for my son at the same time. I was going to need help.

Then my mother in law came back into town right at harvest time and for one day she would watch Maverick. I went into work by myself! Let me repeat that, I drove to work in my car by myself and was there without Maverick. Maverick, my precious little boy who I haven’t been away for more than 4 hours, I was without him. And it was liberating!!! It was the most liberating, happy, freeing feeling I have had in awhile. I was able to turn my focus to what I recalled as my career. It was like someone had turned on the lights and there were focused high beams. I could work, I could relax,  I COULD WORK! AND I LOVED IT! It was amazing to be back around my coworkers joking, laughing, and not having to worry about if Mav needed me. In the course of a single day my independence, passion, drive, parts of me that I thought lost were restored! It was amazing and truly inspiring. I can do stuff!

Winemaking, the winery, these people, are part of my life and are very important to me. It is important to keep that part about me and that’s when I realized I can be a working mom. I just need to find the right balance that works for me and my family, and that means getting the right help for childcare.

We hired a nanny. I tried to avoid it because of costs but there was no other good option. And it turns out we hired an amazing woman that helps with Mav and minor chores around the house as well. Finding the right childcare gives me the freedom to get the work that I want to get done. It allows me to focus on aspects of my life again without constant worrying over my baby. Given COVID and the flexibility of my job I can work from home and still be around Mav.

I am also happy I get to keep a part time job allowing me to spend more precious moments with my very special boy. 

It’s not perfect and I don’t expect it ever to be. It will always be a constant journey of finding the balance between mommy-hood and professional career, like needing to wake up at 4AM to get social media and writing done. But it is possible, finding and keeping a job you love while being able to be there for your family, may not always be easy but I am looking forward to all the rewards.