Am I a supermarket stalker?

Ginny told this story.

I am watching the "Cake Boss" on TV with one of my middle school sons, Josh. We love this show for different reasons - me because the bakers make the most astonishing creations out of sugar and flour and Josh because the Cake Boss is funny in a Mafioso kind of way. The shows ends with the Cake Boss, his three small children and his wife sitting around the dinner table:

Cake Boss: What does Daddy do?
Kids: Makes the greatest cakes in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cake Boss: And what does Mommy do?
Kids: Nothing!!
Mother puts her head on the table and the show ends.

Josh turns to me and says, "Wow! Just like you Mom!"

I am speechless.

I know Josh was kidding, but something in me went “Ugh”. Could this be true? Suddenly, my heart was in my throat, and I began to wonder. Four years of college, two years of graduate school, followed by 10 productive years in the working world before I had kids. And now, when I think about how I spend my days, I see they are completely full with mothering - shopping for food, laundry, volunteering in the school library, more laundry, and carting the kids all over the state for hockey and lacrosse. Not exactly where I thought I would be after I got my MBA.

So many fabulous stay-at-home mothers find themselves at this kind of crossroad. Often mid-career women initially feel happy to get out of the rat race and devote themselves fully to their families. But at some point, we get itchy and begin to wonder if there ought to be something more. In one of the groups we ran recently, women had a lot to share on this topic.

“I am busy all day but I am so bored!”
“I love my kids but what am I doing for my brain?”
“I want to do something more but what?”
“If they see me at the supermarket one more time they are going to think I’m a stalker”
“I’m in two book clubs, play tennis, and I joined a knitting class but I still feel like I need something else.”

The hardest part of this for women is feeling stuck. They want to do something for themselves, but they still want to be there for their kids. And, they have no idea where to begin.

The first step is to get out of your own head and pull in an empowering partner. The best thing to do is to get someone to go for a walk with you and start talking about what it is that you find fulfilling. Whether you work with an Empowerment Fitness® coach like us or whether you talk with a friend, it's important to think about the following questions: “What are your passions?, What are your strengths?, What are the things you do that make you feel most alive?”. It is so easy to forget about these things when we are always focused on taking care of other people’s needs. We have worked with so many women who are trying to re-discover their passion, skills and strengths as think about the next chapter in their lives.

Learn more about Empowerment Fitness® career coaching at
http://www.dksconsultingroup.com/