Supermoms share how they do it all
A few of South Florida’s ‘supermoms’ share some tips on how how they juggle family life and their increased workloads.
BY CINDY KRISCHER GOODMAN
BALANCEGAL@GMAIL.COM
Youri Mevs is a Haitian American businesswoman balancing four kids and a high-profile job. She is preparing for her meeting with a banker to ask for a loan for a new free-trade zone in Haiti.
C.W. Griffin / Miami Herald Staff
I’ll never forget when a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at my newspaper told me she had rushed to pick her kid up early from after-school care for an appointment and demanded her child — fast. The administrator looked at her puzzled. My friend had forgotten that she had moved her child to a different after-care program.
As a working mother, I understood. Balancing a high-stress job and family is a juggling act in which the balls can drop at any time, invariably on our own heads. I say this as America is abuzz over Sara Jessica Parker’s newest role as Kate Reddy in the movie debut of I Don’t Know How She Does It. The movie, based on a fictional novel, is the story of a fund manager struggling to balance marriage, two small children and her high-powered career. It’s a role Parker knows well as a mother of three. She, like many other women, are finding ways to shine in their professions and run households in their spare time — even if they have to stretch themselves like elastic bands to pull it off.
I spoke with a few supermoms in the age of increased technology and greater workloads to find out how they juggle responsibilities:
Youri Mevs is managing shareholder of a 60-year-old private family conglomerate called WIN Group. She’s also CEO of a household that includes four daughters, ages 20 to 11. Earlier this week, Mevs, a Haitian American, found herself reviewing for a test with her youngest daughter in Miami in the morning, pitching one of her company’s projects to a loan officer in Haiti in the afternoon and talking over a new development with her business partners in the evening.
For Mevs, the key to balance is knowing how and when to ask for help. She does this from her assistant, her sibling/business partners, her ex-husband and her children. She’s specific when she asks for help and has taught her kids to help her by deciding what’s important for her to attend.
“They have been the greatest source of support in helping me manage my time,” she says.
Technology allows Jennifer Westerlund to pull off her balancing act. Westerlund, an equity partner at Greenberg Traurig in Fort Lauderdale, says she calendars everything, regardless of how trivial. With four children ages 8, 7, 5 and 3 and a corporate law practice, a calendar item might be sending an apple to school for a special project. Westerlund programs the electronic calendar to send her reminders.
Of course, technology also brings work into the home. That’s where closets come in handy. You’ll occasionally find Westerlund retreating to her master closet, where she’ll plunk herself down on the floor to discuss client business.
“When an unexpected client call comes up, I can’t keep four kids quiet no matter how much I bribe them,” she explains.
She’s also been known to pace outside in a suit, phone to ear. “My neighbors can’t fathom why I’m doing this.”
A frequent business traveler, Maggie Fresen-Zulueta, vice president/co-founder of Academica charter school company, also uses technology in her juggling act. Facetime on her iPad allows her to virtually see her daughters, 4 and 2, while she’s on the road.
When possible, she takes her daughters with her on business, but when it’s too difficult, she relies on a support team that includes a nanny, her mother and her sister. “I’ve had to realize I can’t micromanage how they do things when I’m away.”
The big challenge she finds is unexpected illnesses her daughters regularly pick up in preschool. “I might have a board meeting and I’ll be up all night before with my daughter who has a fever. It takes a toll.”
Fresen-Zulueta says her craziest working mom moment happened recently: She virtually accompanied her daughter on a doctor visit via speakerphone. “At least I could hear everything he said.”
If there’s anyone who understands working mom behavior, it’s Maria Bailey of BSM Media, who has built her business consulting companies on how to market to mothers. Bailey herself is a mother of four, ages 12 to 18.
Her secret to balancing: She does the math before taking on any new task related to business or kids. “I figure out what it’s going to cost me at my billing rate and whether it’s worth hiring someone to do it for me.”
This could include wrapping holiday gifts, dropping off cupcakes at a birthday party or having something delivered to a client. Like the rest of us, Bailey has had her crazy mom moments — bringing her kids to work with her on a Saturday and having them make a toy out of an expensive company trophy and seeing pieces fly off. “You should have seen me trying to put it all back together.”
For Erin Knight, a single mother and Miami market president of Stonegate Bank, the juggling act requires educating her 5-year–old son and her clients that each is important.
She’s trained her son to be silent in the car during important work calls, particularly her regular Monday morning conference calls. Raising her hand indicates the mute button is off on her cellphone and her son must pipe down.
If she’s handling work business after hours, she feels comfortable telling most clients she’ll get back to them after her son is asleep. She keeps him on a rigid bedtime of 7:30 p.m. “That’s imperative for him and me.”
Julie Braman Kane relies on technology and her husband. Kane discovered being a trial lawyer/partner at Colson Hicks Eidson and a mother of a 12-year-old and 7-year-old twins is no easy task. She could be at a judge’s mercy for days or weeks. But Kane has a device the character Kate Reddy lacked when the novel I Don’t Know How She Does It was written — a BlackBerry.
“I don’t think I could function at the level I do without my BlackBerry,” she says. “It allows me to know when a child has the stomach flu so even if I can’t get there, I can get someone else on it without interrupting my business day.”
She relies on her partnership with her spouse to handle family needs when works gets demanding. “If I’m trying a case, he carries 80 percent at home for that month. When I need to, I’ll pick up 80 percent. It takes a partnership to have it all.”
Still, Kane admits, inevitably, like the movie’s Kate Reddy, she plans ahead but struggles with the inevitable dilemmas that crop up. On Sunday, she’ll map out the week’s activities on an Excel spreadsheet. “The week never ends the way it is supposed to.”
Cindy Krischer Goodman is CEO of BalanceGal, a provider of news and advice on work/life balance. Visit www.worklifebalancingact.com or email her at balancegal@gmail.com.
BY CINDY KRISCHER GOODMAN
BALANCEGAL@GMAIL.COM
Youri Mevs is a Haitian American businesswoman balancing four kids and a high-profile job. She is preparing for her meeting with a banker to ask for a loan for a new free-trade zone in Haiti.
C.W. Griffin / Miami Herald Staff
I’ll never forget when a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at my newspaper told me she had rushed to pick her kid up early from after-school care for an appointment and demanded her child — fast. The administrator looked at her puzzled. My friend had forgotten that she had moved her child to a different after-care program.
As a working mother, I understood. Balancing a high-stress job and family is a juggling act in which the balls can drop at any time, invariably on our own heads. I say this as America is abuzz over Sara Jessica Parker’s newest role as Kate Reddy in the movie debut of I Don’t Know How She Does It. The movie, based on a fictional novel, is the story of a fund manager struggling to balance marriage, two small children and her high-powered career. It’s a role Parker knows well as a mother of three. She, like many other women, are finding ways to shine in their professions and run households in their spare time — even if they have to stretch themselves like elastic bands to pull it off.
I spoke with a few supermoms in the age of increased technology and greater workloads to find out how they juggle responsibilities:
Youri Mevs is managing shareholder of a 60-year-old private family conglomerate called WIN Group. She’s also CEO of a household that includes four daughters, ages 20 to 11. Earlier this week, Mevs, a Haitian American, found herself reviewing for a test with her youngest daughter in Miami in the morning, pitching one of her company’s projects to a loan officer in Haiti in the afternoon and talking over a new development with her business partners in the evening.
For Mevs, the key to balance is knowing how and when to ask for help. She does this from her assistant, her sibling/business partners, her ex-husband and her children. She’s specific when she asks for help and has taught her kids to help her by deciding what’s important for her to attend.
“They have been the greatest source of support in helping me manage my time,” she says.
Technology allows Jennifer Westerlund to pull off her balancing act. Westerlund, an equity partner at Greenberg Traurig in Fort Lauderdale, says she calendars everything, regardless of how trivial. With four children ages 8, 7, 5 and 3 and a corporate law practice, a calendar item might be sending an apple to school for a special project. Westerlund programs the electronic calendar to send her reminders.
Of course, technology also brings work into the home. That’s where closets come in handy. You’ll occasionally find Westerlund retreating to her master closet, where she’ll plunk herself down on the floor to discuss client business.
“When an unexpected client call comes up, I can’t keep four kids quiet no matter how much I bribe them,” she explains.
She’s also been known to pace outside in a suit, phone to ear. “My neighbors can’t fathom why I’m doing this.”
A frequent business traveler, Maggie Fresen-Zulueta, vice president/co-founder of Academica charter school company, also uses technology in her juggling act. Facetime on her iPad allows her to virtually see her daughters, 4 and 2, while she’s on the road.
When possible, she takes her daughters with her on business, but when it’s too difficult, she relies on a support team that includes a nanny, her mother and her sister. “I’ve had to realize I can’t micromanage how they do things when I’m away.”
The big challenge she finds is unexpected illnesses her daughters regularly pick up in preschool. “I might have a board meeting and I’ll be up all night before with my daughter who has a fever. It takes a toll.”
Fresen-Zulueta says her craziest working mom moment happened recently: She virtually accompanied her daughter on a doctor visit via speakerphone. “At least I could hear everything he said.”
If there’s anyone who understands working mom behavior, it’s Maria Bailey of BSM Media, who has built her business consulting companies on how to market to mothers. Bailey herself is a mother of four, ages 12 to 18.
Her secret to balancing: She does the math before taking on any new task related to business or kids. “I figure out what it’s going to cost me at my billing rate and whether it’s worth hiring someone to do it for me.”
This could include wrapping holiday gifts, dropping off cupcakes at a birthday party or having something delivered to a client. Like the rest of us, Bailey has had her crazy mom moments — bringing her kids to work with her on a Saturday and having them make a toy out of an expensive company trophy and seeing pieces fly off. “You should have seen me trying to put it all back together.”
For Erin Knight, a single mother and Miami market president of Stonegate Bank, the juggling act requires educating her 5-year–old son and her clients that each is important.
She’s trained her son to be silent in the car during important work calls, particularly her regular Monday morning conference calls. Raising her hand indicates the mute button is off on her cellphone and her son must pipe down.
If she’s handling work business after hours, she feels comfortable telling most clients she’ll get back to them after her son is asleep. She keeps him on a rigid bedtime of 7:30 p.m. “That’s imperative for him and me.”
Julie Braman Kane relies on technology and her husband. Kane discovered being a trial lawyer/partner at Colson Hicks Eidson and a mother of a 12-year-old and 7-year-old twins is no easy task. She could be at a judge’s mercy for days or weeks. But Kane has a device the character Kate Reddy lacked when the novel I Don’t Know How She Does It was written — a BlackBerry.
“I don’t think I could function at the level I do without my BlackBerry,” she says. “It allows me to know when a child has the stomach flu so even if I can’t get there, I can get someone else on it without interrupting my business day.”
She relies on her partnership with her spouse to handle family needs when works gets demanding. “If I’m trying a case, he carries 80 percent at home for that month. When I need to, I’ll pick up 80 percent. It takes a partnership to have it all.”
Still, Kane admits, inevitably, like the movie’s Kate Reddy, she plans ahead but struggles with the inevitable dilemmas that crop up. On Sunday, she’ll map out the week’s activities on an Excel spreadsheet. “The week never ends the way it is supposed to.”
Cindy Krischer Goodman is CEO of BalanceGal, a provider of news and advice on work/life balance. Visit www.worklifebalancingact.com or email her at balancegal@gmail.com.
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