All Things at Once

I recently read the book All Things at Once by Mika Brzezinski. I mentioned this book in a prior post. A friend had shared the article about this book with me which is why I purchased it. I valued the insight provided by Mika in the article regarding balancing family and work and hoped to find more of this insight in the book. I enjoyed the book which was more of an autobiography than a book about "having it all."

Mika's childhood was different from most in that she grew up as part of the Carter administration since her Dad was a national security adviser. Due to her high profile father, she was afforded many opportunities such as meeting world leaders and extensive travel that most of us are not privy too. Her parents, however, worked hard to instill values in their children and teach them the meaning of hard work. Mike refers to her parents throughout the book, especially her mother, and the lessons learned from each. From an early age, Mika desired to have a successful career while also having a family. She didn't want to put one on hold for the other, rather she wanted to have it all at once. Mika experienced highs and lows in both her professional and personal life which she reflects on openly, while also giving insight and advice through her experiences. She makes no claims of being the world's greatest Mom, and writes about the help she hired to assist her and her husband in raising their children. She admits that she doesn't make it to all of her childrens' events and talks about how she tries to make up for this by doing other special things for them and having an open and honest relationship with her girls. I found her parenting style, interesting....although I'm not sure I would mimic it; I can't imagine missing an important event that my child was involved in (my Mom never did). If you are working in the television news industry you may find her career path inspiring, as she has certainly achieved a high level of success in her field.

I was a bit disappointed in the book in that it didn't provide as much insight on work life balance as I expected. I'm not saying this is a bad book, and I would still recommend it, but save yourself a few bucks and wait for it in paperback. If you are looking for insight on being a successful working Mom, then the article mentioned above is probably just as valuable as the book. The words in the article are directly from the book and I believe the excerpts in the article are the very best parts of the book.