DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MOMMY
© NaimaLett.com/blog

© Glamour Magazine, photo by Brigitte Lacombe

Meet America’s Next Top Mommy: Marissa Mayer

Monday’s headlines read that Google’s “IT” Girl VP jumped cyberspace to be Yahoo’s new CEO.
Tuesday’s headlines read that she’s pregnant. Really pregnant. Like due in October.

Marissa Mayer, 37, has had many titles including:
Google Employee #20 & first female engineer (starting when Google was an upstart in 1999)
Glamour Magazine’s 2009 Woman of the Year
Fortune Magazine’s youngest on America’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, 2008-2011
Walmart Board of Directors new member
Stanford University alumnus, B.S. and M.S. specializing in Artificial Intelligence
And wife to venture capitalist Zachary Bogue.

But her role now as first-time mommy is taking center-stage in the blogosphere because she’s one of the first-time ever pregnant women hired to lead a Fortune 500 company.

One working mom blogger in Boston asked “Is there a right time to have a baby?” and named it the Marissa Mayer Dilemma. She expressed support that “It’s fantastic that Yahoo hired a pregnant CEO,” but lamented, “for all her success, she’s clearly unprepared for the reality of caring for a newborn. After pregnancy, you’re emotionally drained, you’re tired, you’re wrung out. Parenthood has a way of leveling even the grandest ambitions.”

This was in response to Marissa’s comments to Fortune that “My maternity leave will be a few weeks long and I’ll work throughout it.”

Another writer in New York asked, “What Does Marissa Mayer’s Pregnancy Mean for Other Pregnant Women?” She questioned if Mayer’s plan goes the way she wants it to, “will employers be even less accommodating to women who need more than a few weeks of maternity leave and can’t work immediately after giving birth? Will employers point to Mayer saying, she did it, why can’t you?”

I’m not a mommy yet, so mommies please feel free to comment.

Can the woman, who is responsible for approving and overseeing the creation of GMAIL, Google Maps, Google Earth and the design of the simplistic Google page that is seen at least 7 billion times a month, not figure out a way to have a child and assemble a support team to help her through her first months of mommyhood and CEO-dom?

It sounds like Marissa is going with a best-case-scenario here, but shouldn’t we wait to start weighing in on whether the company she just took over will tank because she’s juggling nighttime feedings with daytime jet-setting?

Shouldn’t we give her the benefit of the doubt before we pass the conclusion that she can’t handle bottles and board meetings?

Is she being unrealistic?
She’ll be the first to know.

And Yahoo must’ve agreed with whatever defense she gave because they’ve put their $1.22 billion revenue in her hands.

Again, I’m not a mommy yet, but I, for one, think mommies make incredible CEOs. Do you know how many balls we can juggle? My mom ran an entire unit as a full-time nursing administrator while earning a Masters degree, running several church ministries, being a phenomenal wife AND keeping her four children from burning down her house (well, one child in particular, but we won’t name any names… though it wasn’t me :=) It may not have been running a billion dollar company, but she may as well have. She did what needed to be done, family first, then her other responsibilities.

At the end of the day, don’t mommies do whatever mommies have to do for their children?

Remember Moses’ mom, Jochebed in EXODUS 2.

Against Pharaoh’s murder decree, she gave birth to Moses and hid him for 3 months. When she could keep him hidden no longer, she put her baby in a basket destined for the Nile, trusting that God would take care of him. In God’s sovereignty, He arranged for Pharaoh’s daughter to find Moses. And she ended up paying Jochebed to nurse Moses and care for him for years in preparation for his time in the palace.

I’m always inspired by Jochebed’s story and her faith.
She did whatever she had to do for her children.

I don’t know Marissa. But I hope, like all other mommies I know, when her son makes his divine entrance on this earth, she’ll do whatever she has to do for him, not just Yahoo. And based on all the roles she’s already juggled, I think she’s got a pretty good start so far.

Let’s take a second today and pray for Marissa, ourselves (if we’re mommies), our own mothers, and the other mommies we know. That God will give each one what you need for today. And that you can rest in a Heavenly Father, who is not just a Father to you, but a Father to your child as well. His provision is always on time.

Go mommies!
Naima

What do you think? How has mommyhood been for you?
How was your mommy? Did she work and raise you?
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