Obama Foundation CEO says the notion of work-life balance “sets us up for disappointment.”
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00:00This notion of work-life balance, I think, sets us up for disappointment.
00:04Life is full of chapters, and in different chapters there are going to be trade-offs that you're going to make.
00:09And some chapters are just really hard, like raising children.
00:12I have two. Don't hate me, but they're just the best.
00:16But when you are young, I felt, and I still obviously remember it quite vividly, searingly,
00:21like I was holding on by my fingertips.
00:23This is 38 years ago, but I just felt like I didn't tell anybody I was pregnant until I was six months pregnant.
00:28I gained so much weight, I was obviously pregnant, but I was afraid if I talked about it, people wouldn't take me as seriously.
00:35And that was the way the environment was back then, and so I was compartmentalizing.
00:39And if I had to take Laura to a doctor's appointment or anywhere else, I would just, oh, I'm going to a meeting.
00:44And why couldn't I just say, I'm taking her to a doctor's appointment?
00:48Because when the men would leave for soccer practice, everybody thought, oh, what a wonderful dad he is, right?
00:54In that era, I also felt alone, and I felt like I had to do it all myself.
00:58And I used to think about, well, what must it be like for moms who don't have the good-paying job
01:03and the health insurance and the great childcare and the support system that I have?
01:08And how can we take care of those structural and cultural impediments and legal impediments?
01:13What I'm trying to say is that during these different chapters in life,
01:17make informed decisions and don't feel like you're compromising.
01:22Make it intentional and own the decision.