Three-Ring Circus How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work, and Family

by Comer Jefferson, Dawn; Welch, Rosanne; Comer, James P.

• ISBN13: 9781580051026
• ISBN10: 1580051022
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-20
• Publisher: Seal Press

Summary

Today’s parents are supposed to enjoy the “freedom” to have it all—high-powered careers, passionate partnerships, and brilliant, well-mannered children. That’s the spin, at least, from those who have never tried to balance the needs of bosses, spouses, and those demanding little people. Unlike guidebooks or workbooks that simply replace stress with guilt, or that offer tips most parents don’t find applicable, Three-Ring Circus offers a variety of real situations and honest stories. Parents will find comfort—and genuine solutions—in this frank collection of first-person accounts that includes married paramedics who work tag-team shifts to care for their four children, confessions of a working mom who finds the challenges of her career infinitely easier than appeasing two kids home sick from daycare, and a dad who shaped his journalism career around his children’s lives and wouldn’t have it any other way. In all, thirty moms and dads weigh in on making it all work—and knowing what to let go in the name of sanity.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	v
Foreword by Dr. James P. Comer	vii
Introduction	xiii
Before by Kira Vermond	1	(8)
Love in the Time of Toddlers by Lynnell Mickelsen	9	(6)
From Super Bowls to Super Boys by Dan Howard	15	(8)
Home Day by Alisa Gordaneer	23	(10)
From Here to There by Dawn Comer Jefferson	33	(10)
It's About Time by Morrey McElroy	43	(8)
We Beg to Differ by Christopher Simmons	51	(6)
That's Not Farrah! by Christine Jahn	57	(8)
Mile-High Mom by Rosanne Welch	65	(6)
Dreams Deferred by James E. Brooks	71	(8)
Remember Who You Wanted To Be by Dallas Jennifer Cobb	79	(8)
Middle Passage by Yuliana Min Kim-Grant	87	(10)
Being There by Laura Porter	97	(8)
And Then There Were Three by Joni Boye-Beaman and Rick Beaman	105	(10)
34B by Misty L. Gersley	115	(8)
The Plan by Annie Gage	123	(6)
The Third Snow Day by Libby Gruner	129	(8)
Unemployment Benefits by Robin Bradford	137	(6)
Buffy the Family Slayer by Jeanne Miller	143	(10)
Dialogues by Him and Her	153	(8)
Sleepless in Southaven by Dessa Patton	161	(10)
Mommies and Me by Mimi Greenwood Knight	171	(6)
Two Bedrooms, One Kid by Lee Singer	177	(6)
The Accidental Parent by Andrea Butler	183	(8)
Confessions of an Unrepentant Father by Duane Johnson	191	(8)
The Search for Signs of a Passionate Work Life by Wendy Hunter	199	(4)
After by Kira Vermond	203	(4)
Contributor Biographies	207	(8)
Editor Biographies	215