She Left the Corner Office and Found Something Better
The question as old as time… Can Women have it all?
What I've discovered is… you can have it all. Just not all at the same time.
And by the time you finally can have it all? You won't want it all anymore.
The irony isn't lost on me.
I was on a call recently with a young mother of three. She was telling me about her life before kids — the career she built, the woman she was becoming, the dream she was chasing. She'd been working a high-profile finance job in New York City, away from her family, grinding toward something she believed was everything.
And then her boss — a woman who had walked the same road years before her — said something that stopped her in her tracks:
"If you plan on climbing the corporate ladder, something has got to give."
She was already a mother of two with a third on the way. And her boss laid out the story we've heard for decades — the one nobody wants to believe until they're living it. You can't be the mom you're going to want to be while simultaneously being the driven career woman you want to be.
*sigh* So she made the choice. She left the job. She packed up her life and moved closer to her parents.
"I needed my mom."
That one hit me. As someone who's raised three kids far away from my entire family — my big, loud, wonderful family — I felt that in my bones.
She moved home to Boston, started over, and built something entirely new. A thriving moms network — over 3,000 members and growing — created from the quiet, messy, in-between space of being a stay-at-home mom who still needed something that was *hers*.
We talked about what it's really like trying to stay home AND work from home at the same time. And we both agreed — having that balance is everything. Because the truth is, being a stay-at-home mom gets lonely. It gets boring. And it's okay to say that out loud.
It's nice to have other women to connect with. Women who get it. Women who are building something while also building tiny humans.
This conversation reminded me why I do what I do. Not just the photography — though that's the vehicle — but the *seeing*. When a woman sits in front of my camera, she's usually in the middle of one of these chapters. The reinvention. The becoming. The "I left the thing to build the other thing and I'm still figuring it out" chapter.
And she deserves to see herself clearly in that moment. Not the polished, filtered, has-it-all-together version. The real one. The one who chose something hard and beautiful and is making it work.
That's what I photograph. That's what I'm here for.
If you're in that chapter right now — whether you're building a brand, starting over, or just trying to remember who you are outside of "mom" — I'd love to hear from you. Head to my contact page or find me on Instagram @aprilkphoto. ✨
With Love,
April
April K Photo 2012 - Building babies and a business!
April K is a Boston-area photographer specializing in in-home newborn sessions and personal branding photography for women entrepreneurs. She has been documenting women at moments of becoming since 2011 — serving families across Westwood, Needham, Wellesley, Newton, and the greater Boston and New England area.
If you're expecting, or if you're finally ready to show up as the brand you've already become — get in touch
