Welcome!

Welcome to The Art of Nurturing, a new site focused on finding a balance between work and motherhood.  The authors, Jessica and Christina, have known each other for over 25 years.  They have watched each other grow up, get married, and start their families.  Despite being very different individuals, they are both working moms with tendancies towards an attachment parenting philosopy. 

Here is a little more about each of them:

Jessica

Who are you? Describe your family.

I am Jessica.  I have a daughter, Abigail born in August of 2010, and a son, William born in November 2012.  I met my husband Steve in 2001 and we were married in 2006.  We currently live in Tallahassee, Florida but have previously lived in Colorado (together), and separately we have spanned many, many states. 

Where do you work? Describe your job.

My actual job title is a “GIS/CADD Supervisor” – which probably means nothing to most of the world.  Basically, I make maps.  I’m a cartographer.  Only I do it with very specialized software that pulls information from a database.  So I also do a little bit of IT work/database management.  But I am also a supervisor, so I also handle all of the responsibilities that comes along with that.  I work for a state agency, so I am considered a “public servant” though, probably not as well respected as policeman or firefighters, but I am ok with that.

Describe your parenting philosophy.

My parenting philosophy is simple.  We do what we feel in our hearts is right for our children and our family regardless of what anyone else says.  We make the best decisions we can with the information we have at our fingertips.  What works for us may or may not work for anyone else, but it doesn’t matter, because it works for us.  I have been labeled “AP” in a lot of ways, but, I didn’t go into motherhood saying, “I want to follow the rules of attachment parenting.”  We fell into a lot of AP type practices because that is what works for our family.

Why did you want to start this blog?

I feel passionate about this blog, because while there are tons of resources for stay at home moms, or on attachment parenting in general, there isn’t much out there to support working moms, and especially working AP moms (or working moms with AP tendencies).  Maybe it’s because us working moms have so little time as it is, that starting a blog would be too much.  But I feel like it is important to be able to share with other moms that YES you can work and still be a fantastic, loving mom and be as “attached” to your kids as any stay at home mom.  I think many moms struggle (both working moms and SAHM) in many similar ways, and it is always good to find a resource that can provide support and make you feel like you are not alone (and that you are definitely not crazy!).

Christina

Who are you? Describe your family.

Hi! I’m Christina. I’m a homegrown Texan and in 2007, married my very long time boyfriend, Scott. Together we have a 2 year old daughter named Sydney, who incidentally is named after my Dad (Sid Jr.) and Grandfather (Sid Sr.) Scott and I met during my freshman year at Texas Tech in Lubbock, TX, but he is originally from Birmingham, Alabama. Sydney was born in the city we live in now, San Antonio.

Where do you work? Describe your job.

I work for a global consulting firm in Business Process Outsourcing, or BPO. My specific job is within Human Resource Services – I am a Senior Analyst in Compensation and Performance Management. We’re more “admin” than analytics, but above all, we’re policy enforcers. So it’s like we’re the salary, bonus, promotion and demotion police. Because my job is highly operational, a huge portion of my time is dedicated to finding process improvements and efficiencies using Six Sigma principles and tools.

Describe your parenting philosophy.
 

We tend to subscribe to a good portion of the Attachment Parenting philosophies, though we don’t subscribe to all. When Sydney was an infant, I just did what I felt came naturally to me. Thankfully I have a supportive husband who didn’t oppose anything I wanted to do. Despite the fact that even my mom raises her eyebrows at some things we choose to do, the bottom line is that they work for us, so that’s all that matters to me!

Why did you want to start this blog?

I think it’s important to share experiences and ideas for taking care of your family. I also want to help create a resource and community of working mom’s who share some of my same philosophies. There aren’t many (if any) mom groups here that meet up at times convenient to working moms – and my thing is, working moms need support, too! And I hope they find it here.