Project Manager Mom

Chapter 3 What Moms Do All Day Mom’s roles • Doctor Mom Moms not only track every medicine for every kid in the house, but theirs and sometimes daddy’s also. They know from experience, having spent the most time with kids when it is time for Tylenol and when it’s time for anti-acids. They know the dosage for each child, which medicine needs to refill, when to refill, and where they are located. And they have most of this detail memorized! They can tell dad or the baby sitter over the phone exactly what to do if any of the kids got sick while they are out of the house. But being a ‘doctor’ is more than just administering medicines; it also involves soothing words in case of injury, consoling the sick, knowing when to consult other specialists, such as local pharmacist or kids’ real doctors when necessary. Mom The Supply Manager, Marilyn Gettinger, in her article, “Supply Management Versus Supply Chain Management” on Thomasnet.com [April 13, 2013], described a supply manager as follows: “The main objective of a supply manager is to purchase goods and services to support the vision, mission, objectives, goals, core competencies, critical success factors, and business model of the organization. He or she focuses on lowest ultimate cost -- including the best material -- at the best price, at the best quantity, at the best quality, from the best supplier, with the best service, and at the best inventory level” If we forget about the fancy corporate lingo of ‘critical success factor’, ‘business model’, etc., and substitute ‘family’ for ‘organization’, I think she defined mom’s role quite well. • Mom The psychic My kids used to say, “I think mom is psychic! She knows everything! That’s because moms make it their business to know what’s going on about everyone in the family. Not only with regard to the kids as far as predicting their behaviors, suspecting when they are lying, or knowing when they are pretending to be sick to avoid going to school or performing their chores, but also with regard to dad. Any dad who has had his been told exactly which pocket his keys are – to keep him from patting himself silly looking for them – knows what I’m talking about. • Mom The nutritionist Many moms pack lunches for their kids to take to school every day. Moms don’t take special pains to pick what goes in the lunch box. Even where finances force limited choices, mom still make care selection among available alternatives. And it is not just a matter of selecting what mom believes it best for the kids, they also know the kids preferences and throws in a few treats here and there. Beyond school lunches mom’s makes the same choices for meals at home. We’ve all heard to the lengths the moms go to trick kids into eating healthful meals that they don’t particularly find tasty and minimize what they do prefer to each, which are usually not good to their teeth or stomach. To accomplish this feat, moms had to be spending a lot of time doing research, formal or informal, purring through recipes, referring to what they had learned from their moms growing up, or learning from each other. Even in situations where lunch is provided for kids at schools, mom go through the menu provided and ask for exception if they don’t believe the school menu is in their kid’s best interest. As a side note: On the USDA Food and Nutrition Services, website, there is a link titled, “Especially for Moms”. I was a bit disappointed to notice that there wasn’t any for dads. • Mom The cheerleader Literally and figuratively moms are the number one cheerleaders of their kids. As part of nurturing kids they encourage, motivate – with varying degrees of honesty. They assume the duty of appreciating and lauding every effort even if no else does. It is not unusual to here mom yell out in a kid’s football game, “You are doing great, honey” even if the child in running in the opposite direction. Or “You look beautiful in that dress, honey,” when just about everyone else would have a different opinion. It does not mean the dads and other members of the family don’t. But generally moms do it more. Our surveys showed that it didn’t matter if mom was working outside the house or not. Starting with when babies start to sit up straight, crawl, walk, run, and until children become grown-ups, moms generally do not give cheering for their kids, sometimes out of pride; other times to encourage and motivate. • Mom The CFO Even if dad brings home the money as it is in many regular families, mom is still the one the manages the household budget. According to the description on Focus CFO, WHAT DOES A CFO DO? “A CFO is responsible for overseeing a company’s financial activities and operations. This includes helping your business address short-term needs and day-to-day analysis — think establishing performance measures and understanding the drivers of cash flow — in addition to long-term ones, such as assessing financial risks and opportunities.” Clearly a CFO of a multimillion dollar company has a lot more responsibility and accountability to shareholders than a mom has to a family, but as far as the core responsibilities go, we could easily swap the words “company” and “business” with “family” it comes pretty close to mom’s financial responsibilities at home. Whether only one parents work outside or both, mom is usually the one makes the budget work, making the tough choices of what to buy, what to forego, what to substitute in other to make available fonds last. And no matter how hard times are, many moms are known to secretly put something away for ‘rainy’ day, thus managing risk and planning for long term. • Mom The Chief Communicator Communication is extremely important in any organization whether it is in professional setting or domestic. Communication doesn’t mean tell it all. It also means controlling that needs to be shared, with whom and when. Mom knows not to swear in front of the kids or lets anyone else do. She knows how to put the point across when adult language won’t do for kids, and even tell a ‘story’ to avoid having to explain a difficult or inappropriate topic. The two key elements of good communication is effectively passing on the needed information to who needs in a manner that it makes sense and the receiver can act on it. There’s an entire chapter dedicated to project communication later. Mom is also very good at repeating the information until the point is across. If kids are good at repeated and unrelenting “Are we there yet?” questions that can drive parents up the wall, moms are about as good with “Have you done it yet” that drive kid nuts as well, especially teenagers. “I get it, mom! You don’t have to remind me every second!” is a common cry from kids. On the other hand every family member benefits from mom’s communication skills, including Dad. Mom remembers on only all the stuff she has to do, but what everybody else is supposed to be doing and reminding them. Long before electronic organizers and automatic reminders, there was mom! • Mom The Event Planner Most Parents-Teachers Associated (PTA) volunteer work to support kids events at school are performed by moms. This is mostly because usually it’s mom that is at home and has the time to volunteer while dad is at work. But even when both parents are working many such events are still done by the mom because 1) Working moms are more comfortable with stay-home moms – they are all moms – than dad taking time off to work with stay-homes. Dads working with a group of stay-home moms to run a crab feed are not that common. Moms are also the chief organizers of home events ranging from birthday parties, graduation parties. They are also the chief trip planners. They think of everything for everybody. More of this is discussed later in the book. • Mom The Chef