It’s truly the age-old question: Can women have it all? Can career women achieve the same success at home as they can in the workplace? Everyone has weighed in on this subject, from political leaders to sociologists, media personalities to work experts, and even working mothers themselves. And yet, no one has come up with a definitive answer that addresses the issue for everyone.
Until now.
Work-at-home moms, here’s your chance to discover if you can truly have it all. The new documentary Having It All by Director Vlada Knowlton follows three professional working women throughout one year as they transition to becoming new moms—and more importantly, new working moms. Feelings of losing oneself and not having enough hours in the day are talked about openly, as is the idea that everyone pushes working moms to have it all—but no one explains exactly how this is achievable.
There are many theories as to how you can possibly have it all, though. Kelly Wallace, a digital correspondent for CNN, said in an exclusive interview with FlexJobs that working moms can indeed have it all—just not all at once. “I don’t think you can have it all at once—sometimes you may have more of what you want in the personal realm but you have to give a little professionally, and sometimes you may have more of what you want professionally but you have to sacrifice a bit on the personal side,” says Wallace.
Jennifer Owens, editorial director of Working Mother Media, also agrees. “Life isn’t about having it all. It’s about making decisions about what you want to focus your finite resources on,” says Owens in an interview. “No one has it all—nor will they ever. Life is an endless circle of opportunity and obstacle.”
But what does it even mean to have it all? At the end of the day, that answer varies depending on which working mother you ask. One person might want to continue on in a high-octane, 60-hour workweek and still care for her children, while another might find that working from home is the answer to work-life balance. It might often seem that there is a pressure to have it all—from society, from the media, from other moms who proclaim to possess it. But really, you need to ask yourself what having it all means to you. You might discover, shockingly, that you don’t want to have it all—that having enough is all you really need.
FlexJobs, the leading online service for professionals seeking telecommuting, flexible schedule, part-time, and freelance jobs, invites you to join its online movie premiere of Having It All on Thursday, March 3rd, 2016. The documentary will be followed by a fascinating online panel with leading experts in the field of work-life balance for working moms from 4:00-5:00 p.m. ET. CNN Digital Correspondent Kelly Wallace, Editorial Director of Working Mother Media Jennifer Owens, Director of Having It All,Vlada Knowlton, and Sara Sutton Fell, founder/CEO of FlexJobs and 1 Million for Work Flexibility, will all talk about “having it all” and what it means to them—and working mothers everywhere.
