What I Really Want for Mother's Day

Originally shared on LinkedIn, May 2025. Expanded for the blog.

My family asked what I wanted for Mother's Day.

I could say a hug. I could say a hand-made card. I could even say nothing. But what I really want is so much more.

Fifteen years ago, I went back to work after having my first child. She was two days shy of four weeks old. To this day, my heart hurts when I think of that time. It felt unfair to be separated for more than an hour, let alone an eight-plus hour workday.

I was 23, just out of college, with barely any PTO.

I had prepared as best I could, but life came with an unexpected challenge... a preeclampsia diagnosis. I did everything I was supposed to do, but it wasn't enough to avoid mandatory bedrest. This eventually landed me in the hospital, using up all the PTO before she ever entered the world. Fortunately, I delivered a healthy baby girl just a few weeks early and we were both released with a clean bill of health.

But the relief didn't last long.

I had used all my PTO and several weeks of my 12-week unpaid FMLA while in the hospital. I was a young professional with terrible (and expensive) insurance and no paid maternity leave. A soul-crushing decision had to be made. I had to return to work.

I was fortunate enough to have a wonderful, loving place for her to be while I was at work. But to this day, I still carry so much guilt. She was robbed. I was robbed. We were robbed. They had me back to work, but I am 100% sure I was not the dedicated employee I had always been. I was distracted, hurting physically and emotionally, and struggling to keep my head above water in this new routine.

I recently read that 49% of new mothers in the U.S. take four weeks or less of maternity leave. The majority of those mothers... 33%... take zero weeks off. ZERO.

That's the thing that makes me tear up the most. My story isn't the only one.

So many mothers are without affordable insurance and only offered unpaid leave. Many are making the choice to go back to work far too soon for the same reasons I did. The U.S. is one of only seven countries in the world that does not guarantee paid parental leave.

Although I am not up against this challenge anymore, the importance to me of affordable healthcare and paid leave does not waver. I am incredibly thankful to work for a company that pays my insurance and offers options for my family at an affordable rate. But more than anything, I am incredibly proud to work for a company that offers paid parental leave.

To those companies that don't... do better.

So if you ask me what I want for Mother's Day, my answer is paid maternity leave.

Not just for me. For every mom who has had to make an impossible choice.