It's a balancing act.
 
Being a mom isn't easy, and a working mom? Well, don't forget to hang your superhero cape up at the front door.
 
It takes a village, you've heard the saying time and time again, but until you are a part of if, you don't understand how important, how necessary, the village is. 
 
Luckily, the village within Oakland's Athletic Department runs deep, spanning from expecting moms, new moms, and the seasoned moms, you know, the ones who can give you all the tips and tricks because they have done this a time or two. 
 

Until you are a working mom, you don't realize all you have to tackle before the work day even starts, you don't know about the sacrifice, the pure exhaustion and the constant juggle it takes to do a great job for your kids and at the office (or in our case often times the field, track, course, court, pool… you get the point)
 
And after a day at work, there is a rush to get home to start the second part of your day, where you are cooking dinner, throwing in a load of laundry, vacuuming with one hand while there is a baby in the other hand glued to your hip. 
 
The ironic thing about being a working mom is sometimes going to work feels like a break, while other times it feels like it breaks you. There is a constant struggle of feeling like you are never devoting enough time to your kids or to your work and the endless battle of feeling like you need to be two places at once.
 
Mom guilt is real. And that guilt intensifies for the coaches who spend countless hours practice planning, planning travel arrangements and meals for their team, prepping for competition, the list goes on and on. When they are at work, it feels like they should be with their kids, and when they are with their team, you guessed it, they feel guilty for not being with their kids.
 

 "The biggest challenge is feeling like when I am away (at work) I am not doing my part at home," new mom and Head Coach of the women's golf team, Alyssa Guss said. "Being on the road makes it even harder and you just feel torn that you should be at two places at once." 
 
Heather Redshaw has been at the helm of the Oakland tennis program for 21 years and has two grown boys in their 20s.
 
"It's okay to have a career and its also okay to have children, but you have to balance it and you have to make time for both," Redshaw said. "It's easy to get caught up with one, but if you surround yourself with a good network of assistant coaches and people in administration who understand all the different nuances of being a mom it works out really, really well."
 
Luckily at Oakland, those coaches, and employees that are moms are surrounded by a support staff that understands. Understands there may be some kids crashing your next zoom meeting, or a little one following mom around at practice – but that is just part of the juggling act.
 
The unique thing about working in athletics is your coworkers often feel like family because let's face it, between the late nights, road trips, and crazy hours, you often spend more time with your coworkers than you do with your own family. For coaches especially, there is certainly a special bond between them and their student-athletes.  
 
"I thought my student-athletes would always be my children, I didn't really think kids were in the cards for me, so I kind of was in shock," expecting first-time mom and Head Coach of the men's and women's track and field team, Katrina Brumfield said of finding out she was going to be a mom. "It rocked my world, I just cried with happiness because I didn't think this was ever going to happen for me, I thought my athletes would always be my kids. Now that I am going to be a mom I feel things I never thought I would feel, and now I understand, wow, I really could have missed out on something really special and beautiful."
 

Brumfield went on to say, "I think the greatest gift I get out of coaching is the deep relationships that go beyond the sport. You really carry their emotions, when they are sad, you just want to fix it, you want to help them, and make sure they are happy. When they are happy, you are happy, you feel everything they are feeling and then more, and you just want to protect them. It's indescribable how much I care for my athletes and that makes me really excited because if I have this deep of a relationship with my athletes and get emotional about seeing their growth and them coming into their own, I can't imagine what I will feel for my own son. They arrive on campus as young boys and girls and then developing into really strong and gifted young men and young women and to see that transition and to be a part of that, and now to have my own kid, man, I don't even know the roller coaster of emotions I am about to embark on If I am this attached to my athletes."
 
Moms out there could take a page from assistant softball coach Jenna Blythers' book, who juggles two little boys under three in Malachi and Noah.
 
"I do try to always just go with the flow because at the end of the day, me stressing about something is only going to make it worse. I learned it from my mom seeing her juggle five kids," Blythers said.
 
We can learn a lot from our moms. Often times they are our first role models, biggest cheerleaders, and first friend. And if you are now a mom yourself, you certainly can appreciate all the sacrifices your mom has made for you.
 
"My mom taught me to really just roll with the punches, life continuously throws them at you, especially when you least expect it. I really think that's the greatest lesson I learned from her. Nothing is too hard and nothing lasts forever," Blythers said.
 
"When I think about my mom, she just loves unconditionally and just supports no matter what," Brumfield said. "Talking about my mom gets me emotional, we are very, very close. I hope I can be half as good of a mom as she is. If I can be anything like her from the tough love to the nurturing, the biggest fan, she is my best friend. I am hoping I can be like that to my son, be a parent but also be a best friend."
 
Being a mom changes you, it changes you in the best way possible and it introduces you to a love you've never experienced.  
 
And for softball's Head Coach Lauren Karn, after becoming a mom to her one-year-old son, Mickey, it has also shifted the way she looks at her team. 
 
"Females can do it all, we can do a lot of things. I look at my girls now and think, you can do so much and don't even know it yet. Looking at them in that way has changed me a little bit too. You girls don't even know what you are capable of, you are going to be doing so many things in your life and don't even know it."
 

This season of life doesn't last forever, in fact, it goes by too fast. The days are long but the years are short and pretty soon baby bottles won't be lining your kitchen counter, little socks won't be scattered across the floor, toys won't fill the bathtub, you will be able to drink your cup of coffee when it's hot and tiny messy fingerprints won't find their way onto your windows and walls. 
 
For all the moms out there, you are achieving more than you even realize and your hard work doesn't go unnoticed. Not by your kids, and certainly not by your coworkers. 
 
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, you are appreciated and so loved.