Can you be a great mom and have your career? Seems like a question women have asked and answered in different ways for decades. The question becomes how to balance the desire to pursue your career you may have dreamed about since you were a child, and the desire to take care of the little people who pull your heart in a way you could have never understood when you were a child dreaming of your future.
My answer to the question is yes you can do both. I have friends and people I look up to who do it every day. My own mother did it, and the three of us turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. However, in anything you will still have to work out the balance for you and for your family. This has been the question that I have been wrestling with and have laid awake at night thinking and praying about.
Let me preface this by saying that last year was an awesome, and for me likely a once in a lifetime, opportunity to pursue my career at the highest level. Coaching in the Big 12 and even in an NCAA Tournament game is what I dreamed about as a kid. I have watched many of the coaches I helped coach with and against in the last year and dreamt of being in their shoes. I do not regret for one second the experience of last year, or the friends we made in our time in West Texas. I learned a lot about myself, my coaching and we grew together as a family. However, for our family and for me, it came at to high of a price. With Jared and I both traveling weekly for work it took a toll on our little girl and our family, and it took it's toll on me as a mom. In May things surrounding my career made it decision time for our family. Over about a one month process of prayer and discussion we made a family decision: I would go back to coaching high school and select basketball and have more time to be with Jared and Peyton. I am lucky to have a supportive husband who would have made anything work that I wanted for my career. We are lucky enough to have friends and family who are supportive in a multitude of ways that will make this transition possible.
If I had a dollar for every person who told me I was crazy we would be a very wealthy family. I understand from the outside how it looks this way. I reached my dream, and in truth it was what I have/had worked for. But life changed in October of 2010, and it changed me in ways I couldn't understand. I have no doubt Peyton would have been fine. There are countless examples of GREAT moms who are college coaches and their kids are awesome! But for me it didn't work. In the end it is about what works for you as a mom and the person you are.
Being a high school coach is my version of having my cake and eating it to. I get to be a coach (the career I love) in a school I think will be an awesome fit, and get to be with my little girl every night. I get to help coach some of the best kids in the country with Cy Fair (and be back with my man main Al) and get a couple weeks on the road every year to do this. I will not live too far from family and will be close to some of our best friends.
As I type Peyton is having a two year old moment because we are out of cinnamon cupcakes, cinnamon rolls to most of you, and I am aware that even these crazy moments I don't want to miss.
So many of our family and friends have been so supportive, and we couldn't be more thankful. We are excited to embark on this phase of our life!
