Working Mom
Growing up in Sussex County, Dr. Angela Caswell-Monack remembers the struggles her parents faced as they worked to get their family business off the ground.
“We didn’t have a lot of money and I remember there being hard times, but I also remember my mom being incredibly strong through everything,” Angela said. “It was my dad’s business, but my mom ran a lot of the back-end – doing the books, answering phones. At the same time, she was raising her kids.”
Being a working mother herself, Angela now has a better understanding of the struggles many mothers face when balancing work and a home life. Those struggles are only magnified when you consider that Angela is also a physician, working as an OB/GYN at Bayside Health Association, which is affiliated with Beebe Healthcare.
“Growing up, my mom’s motto was ‘always do your best,’” Angela said. “It didn’t matter what you were doing – whether it was sports, academics, or anything – she just wanted us to do our best.”
Angela hopes she is passing on the same motto to her children, Ethan, 3, and Molly, 8 months.
“It’s incredibly hard being a working mom. There are bad days at work and there are bad days at home,” Angela said. “I just try to focus on what I am doing. When I am at work, I focus fully on my patients and the tasks at hand. When I am at home, I put all that aside and try to be in the moment for my children and my husband.”
There are never enough hours in the day to be everything you want to be to everyone in your life.
Angela’s favorite day is Saturday. “I love it when the kids wake up on Saturday mornings and they know it is a family day. We get to stay in our pajamas and snuggle and take our time,” she says. “We love to all be in the kitchen together and make waffles for breakfast. That’s when I get to enjoy them the most.”
All mothers aim to provide their children with the best life possible. All parents want their children to be happy and healthy. And, when you are a working mother, those goals can seem more difficult to reach, especially when the weeks are long and extremely busy.
“I am blessed to be able to work as a doctor – to help women and bring new life into the world. I am also blessed to be the mom of two amazing kids. It’s a matter of balancing it all. I am not always going to be perfect, and that’s OK,” Angela said. “I hope my legacy to my children is that I always did my best. I hope they see how hard I work – just like I saw how hard my mother worked – and I hope they also always do their best and that they know how much I love them.”