Working Through Maternity Leave

Three-week-old baby Z, 2009

Marissa Mayer, the 20th employee of Google, is the new CEO of Yahoo. Being female, being young and being young and female in the tech world doesn't really matter to me so I haven't really followed the news.

But my ears perked up, waaay up, when I saw that she is pregnant. Congratulations to her! She is due in October with a boy. She is believed to be the first pregnant CEO of an American company. Amazing that it took this long!

But the news made me kind of sad, too, because she says she is planning on taking a maternity leave of only a few weeks and working through it.

I realize it's tough being at the top, but a few weeks and working through it?!

Come on girlfriend!

That's hardly time to snorgle your new baby and get to know him and the new you. My maternity leaves were two of the most special, magical times of my life and went by waaay to fast. Granted I am most certainly not the CEO of a major company but I think every mother, not to mention every child, deserves that special, undivided attention.

Many people say the glass ceiling is self-created by women placing their families and children priority over  their careers, and I won't argue mine hasn't been slowed by my family-first choices. But there has to be a middle ground between slowing our careers and working through short maternity leaves.