Priorities are tested for working moms at home during the pandemic

[Music] better than me I changed careers I worked in marketing for several years and I started my nursing career at the start of March oh my god yeah as a pulmonary nurse so working with people with respiratory issues like [Music] I think what's changed is I am a

night nurse so I work nights and the whole plan for me doing this entire career switch was that I would get home from work and my kids would be at school and so that was gonna be my recovery time and then I was gonna be able to sleep

and then get dinner ready like all these home-cooked meals I had you know imagined for myself and get the kids from school you you know well rested and energized and obviously none of that ever happened but so now when I get home from work they've just had their

night's sleep so they're like ready to play ready to do their school and I just don't know the energy to keep up with all of that so it's been it's been a real challenge luckily my husband also is working from home at right now so if I really

need to go to bed I can go to bed but it's just a day-by-day thing just doing what you can day by day so I own my cafe and catering company in East Harlem in New York for us we are feeding relief workers at hospitals and it's it's

doctors nurses and I also like to say and the team behind them yeah so I've actually put on some weight recently because of all the food that keeps arriving to our break room has been fantastic [Music] work-life balance very early on I had to prioritize life and not

work that's for me been the most challenging part is figuring out how to run a business during a global pandemic and how to keep my daughter engaged and you know taking care of and feeling secure and supported and it's that's that's been the hardest part for me I

think I become a lot more patient as a parent like if my kids are upset about something I'm not like okay you know like let's try to solve it I'm just more like it's okay you know it's totally okay and I've told my kids several times like mommy

and daddy have never gone through anything what you're going through right now and I hope that that's what comes out of this is that you know a much stronger relationship with a lot more transparency between between kids and parents in general because every everyone is you know everyone's

going through that and and you know we're not relying on sitters or the schools like it's it's us all day every day and I hope that ultimately is a positive in terms of you know I hope that that's what they'll remember from this and not like the traumatic

sudden change I hope that intimacy and that closeness is what carries us afterwards my support system really hasn't changed a lot just because you know my husband is co-parenting with me and he's always had a really active role with the kids and he's always worked a pretty family

friendly job because I haven't really been able to talk to people about what it's like caring for these patients because you know it's no one's really gonna understand unless they're they're also in that role and I don't really have anyone to talk to about it luckily because this

is such a crazy time it's fine you know I haven't really had time to really sit back and relax like oh my gosh like you're caring for like you know an entire patient load that's got you know this virus and you know it's it's killing a lot of

people and it's you know it's it's it's been really hard for me the hardest part for me has been the patient's having no family by their side so you you as the nurse become like the sole person that's you know able to talk to them and able to

like you know encourage them you know obviously the biggest change for me is that her dad isn't here with us my mom is 84 will be 85 in July so she lives by herself in Tampa and we had already been scheduled to come for spring break and when

they said that the airport's may close literally close the business and left the next morning because the idea with my daughter and because the idea of her being down here and sort of riding out in isolation by herself was like too much anxiety you know I won't go

back to New York until I know my mom is okay and that you know my daughter isn't stuck in a small apartment she misses her dad a lot like we have to you know we're on FaceTime with him a lot and you know FaceTime has even become he'll

just be in the room with us on an iPad while she does other stuff just because you know his presence is important I think that support is important and for me it feels good to know he's involved and I don't have to communicate it I kind of tell

like everyone's in the same boat like managing especially mom's like figuring it out managing day-to-day I think that my parenting style before is the same as now I'm pretty you know I'm not a helicopter mom you know sort of you know like let's figure it out day to

day and I think whoever you were as a mom before this is probably who you still are gonna be through this you [Music]