I had an epiphany last night while watching Chelsea Clinton deliver a heartfelt introductory speech about her mom, Hillary Rodham Clinton. As the child of a working mother who took on various roles in her career since the time I was five until adulthood, I started to think about Chelsea’s personal stories about her mother and how they seemed to parallel my experiences with my own mom. While my mom never logged close to a million miles as Secretary of State, she did accomplish some amazing things in her career as an educator. If you’re the daughter of a working mom, I bet you’ll see some similarities too. For now, here’s mine…
10 REASONS WHY I SEE MY MOM IN HILLARY CLINTON
1. THEY BOTH WROTE US NOTES
My mom used to write notes for me every day and put them in my lunch bag. She used to start each one: To My Favorite Daughter (I’m her only daughter).
Hillary used to write notes to Chelsea every time she went out of town and dated each of them so that she had a note to read for as long as her mom was away.
2. THEY BOTH HAVE THE SAME HAIRSTYLE
For as long as I can remember, my mom has always had a short haircut and wears it pretty much like Hillary. She’s not a blonde though — except when she gets highlights!
3. THEIR HUSBANDS ARE GREAT TALKERS
While my mom has always been the person who can get any job done, she’s also kind of shy and doesn’t really like speaking in front of crowds. That’s because my dad has been the one who is always larger than life. He still performs to this day with his theater troupe in Florida and is an amazing speaker. Mom on the other hand works behind the scenes (she’s the wardrobe dresser for my dad’s show). But the one thing about my mom is that while she doesn’t like to be the center of attention, her reputation and work ethic is second to none.
4. THEY HAVE BOTH LOST BIG JOBS AFTER A HARD FOUGHT CAMPAIGN
While my mom didn’t run for President, she did run for Superintendent of her school district. Sadly, she didn’t get the job because the heavily political school board decided to select someone else who wasn’t as qualified but promised to do the things they wanted throughout the school year.
5. THEY ARE AMAZING PROBLEM SOLVERS
Back when my mom was at the top of her game, you could throw anything at her and she’d get the job done. When I was growing up, my mom always seemed to continually be promoted on the job – she was the person people looked to for answers and guidance and became one of the most well respected educators in her school district.
6. THEY DON’T HAVE TIME FOR B.S.
Throughout my mom’s life, she was always known as a super nice person and sometimes people took advantage of her good nature. As she got older, she got stronger and oftentimes if someone pissed her off, she took them to task for it or froze them out for a long time. The ones who were frozen out of her life truly regretted it and oftentimes came back apologizing for being so stupid. That’s the thing about pissing off a good person. They may forgive you, but they never forget.
7. THEY HAVE DAUGHTERS WHO GREW UP THINKING ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
While Chelsea is now a mom of two and is overseeing the Clinton Foundation, I am a mom of two overseeing a PR and social media business. I’m also married to a guy who had a career in finance (hedge funds to be exact) but left to pursue his love of kids sports. You never know, Chelsea’s hubby could ditch the hedge fund trade one day too to pursue a passion he had as a kid. Either way, our values completely align when it comes to valuing the importance of helping working moms balance their home life with their careers.
8. THEY HAVE BEEN MARRIED FOR A VERY VERY LONG TIME
Luckily, my mom hasn’t had to deal with a husband who has made many mistakes with women over the years. The only women my dad plays with are the ones on the tennis court. Other than that, he’s been a one woman man for over 54 years. Sure my mom and dad fight a lot but at the heart of it, they are each other’s cheerleaders and are both so proud of one other when they both achieve great things in their lives both personally and professionally.
9. THEY ARE BOTH THE PRODUCT OF STRONG MOTHERS
Hillary’s mom was abandoned at a young age and started working at 14 years old. My grandmother came from a very large family and oftentimes became the caregiver to her younger siblings. Like Dorothy Rodham, my grandmother was fearless — she chased mice from our summer house in the Poconos and even bludgeoned a fish to death that I had caught from a nearby lake. Grandma also stressed the importance of getting a job to help support your family. And she made a mean matzoh ball soup but I guess that’s where the similarities fade. 🙂
10. THEY BOTH GAVE COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES AT THEIR SCHOOLS
While Hillary gave a commencement address at Wellesley, my mom was the valedictorian of her senior class who gave the commencement address at Thomas Jefferson High School before she went on to pursue a degree in education at Brooklyn College. The funny thing is, my mom actually wanted to become a lawyer but went into education because at the time, that’s what most young women did. Something tells me that had she pursued the law, she would have been a kick ass attorney.
At the heart of it, as the daughter of a working mom, I am so proud of everything my mom accomplished in her career and am sure that Chelsea felt the same way last night as she spoke about Hillary’s passion for service and for making the world a better place for our sons, daughters and grandchildren.
You see, you really can have it all. You can even raise daughters who look up to you and inspire their own children to pursue their dreams.
Happy Mother’s Day from Role Mommy
In honor of Mother’s Day, we’ve got some links to some incredible essays about moms – and two of my personal favorites (my own mom and my grandma) are a part of this list! If you’ve written a tribute to your own mom, we want to hear it! Comment on this post with a link to your blog or share an anecdote here about the special Role Mommy in your life!
A Tribute to Moms…
A Tribute to My Grandma by Beth Feldman
Like Mother, Like Daughter? by Beth Feldman
Walking as Healing by Jeanne Muchnick
Remembering Mom by Dayle Herstik
My BFF by Lenore Stoller
Being a Parentless Parent by Allison Gilbert
And one more incredible anecdote from Melanie Notkin, author of Savvy Auntie: The Ultimate Guide for Cool Aunts, Great-Aunts, Godmothers, and All Women Who Love Kids
“The day my nephew was born, I promised him I’d love him twice as much. My mother had died many years before he was born and I immediately felt like it wasn’t fair to him, to have one less woman in his life to love him unconditionally. I try to give him, and now his sisters, more love, more time, more inspiration… and yes maybe a few more gifts since my mother can’t be here to give it to them. She would have loved her grandchildren more than I can even imagine.
My mother had had a heart attack at age 42 (my age now). Her cardiologist brought her back to life, and in her mind, gave her more priceless time with my brother and me. So for the next decade, until she passed away, she sent a gift to her doctor’s children on their every birthday. She had never met those kids, but was so grateful for the time their father had given her and her own children to be together, that she became their Fairy GodAuntie, sprinkling a little Auntie magic on their lives. Now, with Savvy Auntie, I think how fortunate I am to have been inspired by my mother, a woman who knew that loving and celebrating children not-your-own is a gift. And every time I look into my nephew’s and nieces’ big brown eyes, I know she’s proud.” – Melanie Notkin
Add your link to your Mom tribute below or comment now! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Mother’s Day!!!
Pamper Me Please!
When I was a network television publicist, I spent most of my days catering to the outrageous demands of B-list celebrities who sometimes thought they were a lot more famous than they actually were. There were times when I was taken to task by a nasty personal publicist who literally made me cry when I didn’t put his client in a suite at a swanky SoHo hotel. Then there was the day that one actor told me I had put him in a clown car for the day (it was actually a Lincoln Town Car) and he was annoyed that I didn’t have the foresight to arrange for him to be carted all over town in a stretch limo.
My all time favorite horror story of a completely irrational celebrity, took place when I was nine months pregnant. As I attempted to coordinate a cover shoot for TV Guide with two actors and their female co-star, she proceeded to scream in my face because she did not like the way she was being treated during the 5 hour photo extravaganza. Meanwhile, that same actress was actually put up in a massive suite at one of the most expensive hotels in Manhattan and was pretty much given everything she wanted just because she was an evil shrew, and her personal publicist was even nastier than she was….if you can believe that!
After more than 11 years of dealing with unruly celebrities and evil personal publicists, I ditched the glamorous life to venture out on my own and what I’ve found as I’ve been building my business, is that I have learned a lot from those years of pampering ingrates. I actually like pampering people who appreciate the effort. And so, I’m making it my mission to pamper those moms who have never experienced what it’s like to be treated like a star.
At one of my most recent events, called Moms Night In, we actually brought the pampering right to my house with massage therapists, manicurists and free product demonstrations and giveaways from Slendertone, 4Real Foods and Karito Kids. You should have seen the smiles on the faces of our moms as they left the party. In my eyes, they were all stars that night and it made me realize that while I may have left the high life behind, it is so much more rewarding to connect with women who are finding a way to do what they love while raising a family – even if it means giving up that fancy corporate title so I can lead a balanced life on my own terms. If you’d like to see a video from our Mom’s Night In event, then check out the video below. We may be coming to a city near you so if you like what you see and want to be treated like Cinderella (even if it’s for one night), then email me at beth@rolemommy.com for details.