Let me set the scene.
It’s 7:07 a.m. PST. I’m on Zoom. I’m 47 minutes into a breast-fed only two-month-old’s day and 7 minutes into a mainlined espresso coffee. The baby is wearing a onesie that says “Party My Crib 2AM,” and wow, does she mean it. I’m wearing a shirt that may or may not have both spit-up and dirt (I bought a garden so the kids could grow up around vegetables hahaha) on it.
I’m giving a presentation to Very Important People™️ at work. The kind of presentation where I use words like “synergy” and “pipeline” and pretend I’ve slept since May. I’ve got the slide deck, I’ve got the bullet points, I’ve got confidence, and for a moment, I feel like I’m crushing it.
And then…
I forget I’m speaking.
Like, mid-sentence.
Just… stopped.
Gone. Hahahahaha.
Not like, “Oh no, I lost my train of thought,” but more like my brain packed a suitcase, called an Uber, and LEFT THE BUILDING. I stared off into the void, eyes unfocused, like I’d just been unplugged.
Meanwhile, my coworkers on Zoom are all smiling politely, possibly unsure if this is a dramatic pause or if I’ve transcended corporate consciousness. One guy slowly muted himself and went off camera like I was about to start channeling the Oracle.
My baby, not wanting to miss out, used this moment to scream like she was being exorcised.
The chat box lit up:
- “Are you okay?”
- “Is this part of the demo?”
- “I think you’ve lost the thread.” (Had I ever, LOL)
Eventually, I blinked, came back online (mentally, spiritually, emotionally), and said, “Anyway, as I was saying, pipeline.”
Reader, I had not been saying “pipeline.”
So if you’re a working mom, trying to hold it together with caffeine, dry shampoo, and sheer chaos—just know: you are not alone. Sometimes we space out mid-sentence. Sometimes we cry into a mug we thought was full of coffee.
But we show up.
In our stained shirts.
With our blank stares.
And we own it.
…Or we will. Eventually. After a nap. Or five.
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