Me as Mom

I have 5 children. While this doesn't define me, it's a HUGE part of who I am and what I do. Motherhood is BY FAR the most difficult thing I've attempted to do. In the business and academic world your input generally relates to the result. The grade on that 5 page paper was directly related to how much time, study and effort you put into. Same with business, the deal that went through or trial or whatever had a direct result from how much you did or didn't put into it. 

Children, I've found are not things way. If there was a perfect parent who did everything "right" that child could still CHOOSE to rebel. Children are autonomous beings and raising them isn't an equation or validation on behalf of the parent. 

I can do the work for business and academia. The work in parenting is different brutal. Parenting may be raising the child, but the parent must grow as well.