Pointless thoughts

Something a friend quoted on her fac.ebook wall has been in my thoughts recently. Something to the effect of “I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.”. So true I remember thinking and then over the past couple of days I have been chewing on it to figure out why it affected me so. It is easy to be dismissive and say it is social conditioning or write it off as clichéd.

I guess the reason I keep going back to it is because I think of K and wonder how he manages it all. There is never a question in his mind about whether it is career or family. For him it is not a mutually exclusive choice. For me, I make it mutually exclusive. I continue to work and seek career advancement with a niggling feeling that I would give it all up in a heartbeat if needed. I look at MBA rotational programs knowing I will never have the courage to pursue one because it would mean travel or relocation. Strangely enough, I do not even bother to raise this with K. Perhaps because I know if I pushed hard enough, he will go along for the ride?

Even as we celebrated 100th anniversary of the International Women’s day, I wonder if we will be brave enough to get rid of the shackles that bind us from within. The weight of assumed expectations. The unexplored power of choice. The imagined fear of consequences.

How will we know if we can do it all unless we try? And so my mind meanders.