Some things about being a lawyer

1. I like being a lawyer. I like puzzling over complicated legal questions. I like to wear suits and heels (on occasion), and I like being an "expert" in a field. I like the view from my office and the heavy tables in the firm's library.
2. We talk about work life balance a lot, but it's not really about balance so much as it is about choices.  This morning, I chose to put together a train track for R.J. The "counter balance?"  I will need to find a .5 somewhere in my day to make up that time. My choices may not necessarily be career friendly, but sometimes inner peace is the real key to success. I know a lot of unhappy lawyers. I choose to be happy and to make the choices that keep me that way.
3. My day is tracked in six-minute increments. I hate that. I hate the billable hour. But, after countless hours lamenting the billable hour, cursing the billable hour, and looking for alternatives, I've come to realize that the billable hour, in some form, will be part of my life.
4. Being a lawyer is hard.  The bar exam was hard, but if I failed, I failed myself. As a lawyer, I am the person that is trusted with other people's problems...and they expect me to come up with the solution. I am a maid that cleans up others' messes; a counselor expected to sooth tattered nerves; and a sounding board for everything that has gone wrong. I take the blame for messes I didn't make, and I smile when judges tell me I'm wrong (even when I so very clearly am right).
5. There are very few mistakes that can't be fixed if you 'fess up right away. We miss deadlines. We make typos. We forget. We are human.
6. I like talking to other lawyer moms. We talk about whether a breast pump can be heard through the walls of our offices and how to handle a hearing date, a play date, and a gymnastics recital all in one day.
7. Most days are gauged in accomplishments: a brief finished, discovery responses out the door, dreaded phone calls returned. Some days my accomplishments are simpler: grocery shopping finished early in the week (so I don't have to go on Saturday morning); picked up hubbsie's shirts from the cleaners on the way in to work; the laundry chair emptied.
8. Being a lawyer isn't for wimps. Or weak stomachs. I don't get sick before entering an appearance in court anymore.  Particularly nasty discovery disputes can still make me queasy. But, with every fight I get stronger, and lately I've started to look forward to the next one.
9. Feedback is awesome. I'm a senior associate. Not a baby lawyer but not experienced either.  I know just enough to keep myself out of trouble. Or how to get into it. So, I appreciate feedback from the great legal minds up the hall.
10. Sometimes I tell other moms that I "work at a law firm" because I'm afraid they'll judge me for being a lawyer.  I fight the stereotype. I don't wear suits every day. I'm not a frigid witch.  I take a morning off every once in a while to build a train track or rock my baby. And I cook in a crockpot.  Most of the lawyer moms I know do these things too. And sometimes we're more interested in cookie recipes and potty training than a motion to dismiss a lawsuit.