A recent study has found that those biological clocks are ticking faster than you may have ever imagined: Around 90 percent of the average woman’s eggs are gone by the time she celebrates her 30th birthday, according to recently published research from the University of St. Andrews and Edinburgh University in Scotland. But as [...]]]> So interesting!

A recent study has found that those biological clocks are ticking faster than you may have ever imagined: Around 90 percent of the average woman’s eggs are gone by the time she celebrates her 30th birthday, according to recently published research from the University of St. Andrews and Edinburgh University in Scotland. But as we balance biology with modern goals like a fulfilling career, some semblance of a social life, and a happy marriage, is there ever really a perfect age to have a baby?

Recently, TheBump.com set out to answer that question by joining forces with ForbesWoman to create the Working Moms Survey. And here’s what we found out:

Timing of first child

•  76% of respondents feel that the “sweet spot” for a working woman to have or adopt her first baby is between ages 25 and 34. And 42 percent thought that 25 to 29 was the best time.
•  The top reasons that people chose these ages was because it would allow enough time to establish career/financial security and because it is more likely that they would be ready to become parents.
•  More than 17% of women said that there is no ideal age.
•  Non-mothers were more likely to think that 30 to 34 is the ideal range.
•  The majority of moms surveyed (42%) had their first baby between the ages of 25-29, while 11% had their first child after age 35.
•  68% of moms are satisfied with the timing of their first child.
•  82% of moms who had their first child from 25 to 29 were content with the timing of their first child — the most of any group.
•  35% of moms who had their first child at 30 to 34 wish they’d had their child at a younger age.
•  57% of moms who had their first child at 35 to 39 wish they’d had their child at a younger age.
•  Only a quarter of moms surveyed said they felt pressure from family, friends or partner to have or adopt a child, but women in their 30s were more likely to feel that pressure.

Planning for multiple children

• More than half (56%) of women plan to have or adopt two children, and more than a third (35%) plan to have three or more.
•  At least 57% of respondents had employers with family-friendly benefits. 23.8% had paid maternity leave and 23.2% had flexible hours.For women planning to work and have multiple children, 20% said that they will start having children earlier, 13% said that they will start having children later, 41% said it won’t affect the timing and 15% aren’t sure yet. 12% said that they don’t plan to work and have multiple children.
•  56% of respondents said they wanted two children, 27% said they wanted three, and 8% said they wanted four or more.

Deciding to go back to work after baby

•  59% of women felt that they had to return to work — even though 73% of them didn’t feel pressure from the people around them.
•  93% of the women surveyed worked full time before they had their first child. 76% worked full time after they had their first child.
•  4% of women worked part time before they had their first child and 15% worked part time after they had their first child.
•  63% of working moms had working moms growing up, but only 30% said it influenced their decisions to also be working moms.

Motherhood and careers

•  71% of non-moms and 56% of working moms think motherhood negatively impacts a woman’s career. But only 30% of working moms said motherhood had negatively impacted their own careers.
•  64% of working moms feel like they have a strong support network in case of an emergency.
•  66% of women work the same number of hours post-baby. 29% worked fewer hours, while 4% worked more.
• At least 57% of respondents had employers with family-friendly benefits. 24% had paid maternity leave and 23% had flexible hours.

Feelings about work after baby

•  The leading emotions of working moms who’d returned to work after their first child were feeling guilty, overwhelmed, stressed, sad, and anxious.
•  60% of women at least somewhat agreed that they were happy to be back at work after having a child.
•  59% of women at least somewhat agreed that they no longer cared as much about work after having a child.
• 50% of women at least somewhat agreed that returning to work was harder than they thought it would be.
• 37% of women at least somewhat agreed that returning to work was easier than they thought it would be.
• 38% of women at least somewhat agreed that being a mom made them better employees
• 34% of women at least somewhat agreed that colleagues viewed or treated them differently after they had a baby.

Looking for more results? Find them here!

We kicked off the challenge in September at a meeting on [...]]]> Our grand finale event happened on Saturday, October 24. We gave the Greenlake Mom’s group 6 weeks to accrue points toward winning an outfit from lululemon. The winners Jen Longtin and Sherry Jaqua  had a total of 1380 points total!  An amazing number!

We kicked off the challenge in September at a meeting on September 12 at Lululemon University Village Store. Our challenge looked like this:

You choose your BHAG (big hairy audacious goal)!  Accumulate points and WIN a TOP and BOTTOM from LULULEMON!!!!

Here is how it works:  We start off our morning with coffee and goal setting.

Set your goal(s) for 6 weeks

Specific
Measureable
Attainable
Realistic
Timed

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3.

Now, list the roadblocks you see that could keep you from attaining your goals:

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2.
3.

Next, List how the Greenlake Mom’s community can help you overcome your road blocks:

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3.

What can you offer someone else to help them meet their goals? (This will come in handy later).

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3.

Now! Pick a buddy.  Yes, that’s right; you will be working in teams, because everyone can use a nudge every now and then.

Here is how you and your buddy earn points:

Meeting one BHAG goal:  100 points
Meeting two BHAG goals:  200 points
Meeting three BHAG goals:  300 points
Healthy Goddess Class: 30 points
In store Lululemon class:  20 points
Coffee/Tea date with a GLM you do not already know:  20 points
Girl’s night “in” with another GLM:  15 points
Playground Date with another GLM:  10 points
Walk around Greenlake with another GLM:  5 points

The teams with the most points WIN!! (You accumulate points individually, but win with the highest combined point score).

Here is an email we received from our winners (read on, this will inspire you!)

Thanks again to you and the Lululemon team for sponsoring the Greenlake Moms Fitness Challenge this is very generous of you all.  I was drawn to the kick-off event because I love to see my mom friends, such as Melissa Benaroya,  and to meet new people and I love Lululemon.  However, I had so much going on at the time, I thought it was a little crazy to think of adding more activities to my life, so I thought I?d just go the first event and check it out?  I loved hearing everyone?s goals and set 3 very realistic goals for myself:  perform my physical therapy exercises 4-5 times a week (for my knee), add ½ a mile a week to my 3 mile runs to achieve 6 miles (hopefully with no knee pain) and do 2 relaxing things per week such as yoga, acupuncture, massage, etc.  I heard Jen Longtin, whom I did not know, mention that one of her goals was a 10K, so I asked her to be my buddy   I was very inspired by her huge goal of meeting 500 people!

Thanks to my goals:  with the consistent acupuncture appointments  I’ve been  able to take care of some skin and headache problems I’ve had for a long time.  By attending the Healthy Goddess classes, I met some great participants and instructors, learned a bunch of new things (I became a certified group fitness instructor in May of this year) and have talked with Christi about possibly being a sub teacher.   I’m extremely excited that I can now do longer runs again without knee pain it’s been over 3 years since I’ve been able to run a ½ marathon, and I?m excited about the possibility of running more.  This running goal has also led to running with and getting to know my new neighbor, who is an avid runner.  I’ve applied my goal setting to my nutrition/Juice Plus+ work and I’ve added 8 new customers over the last 6 weeks, thanks to doing just a little bit of work on my business every day   I am gaining momentum!  Lastly, the best part of this challenge is having Jen Longtin as a friend!  She’s amazing and an inspiration!  It was so great to have Jen to talk with and to have her interested in my activities and vice versa!  We are ready to set our next 6 week goals ? I’m excited to see what we will do!!  This challenge has had a big effect on my life because for the first time, I’ve successfully set and achieved realistic goals and I know I will continue to goal set consistently!  I am thrilled.  And I sure will love wearing my new outfit!!

Thanks again!  My best, Sherry

and her challenge buddy:

I was SO happy to get the call from Sherry saying that we won the challenge yesterday!  I was running around much of the day yesterday organizing a mommy/kid event inspired by the challenge, and was sad I couldn’t stay for the entire class.

I am truly grateful to Lululemon, Healthy Goddess and Melissa Benaroya for organizing the event because it helped me achieve goals that I have written off for years as not being able to achieve.  And it gave me a way to combine fitness goals with other day to day career goals.

My first goal was to be able to run a 10k without stopping…I kept telling people my body just wouldn’t run that far anymore that 3 miles is about all I had and in 6 weeks I can not only run 6.2 miles but my overall times have decreased.  This was in part due to running with Sherry and a huge plus was from all the classes I took through Healthy Goddess, Lululemon and others that strengthened my whole body, not just my running muscles.

My second goal was to be able to do 50 pushups.  I must tell you I was getting grandma arms and thought genetics was taking over.  Well after 3 weeks I noticed my “guns” (as my husband and son so lovingly call them) were getting toned.  Again because of the classes and having to do over 100 pushups, downward dogs, planks, etc, 50 pushups were not only doable but they were a small goal in retrospect (so I made it 50 in a row, which I did this week).

Third was my crazy BHAG goal of meeting 500 new people.  I recently lost my job and for weeks I had tried to figure out a goal that would help me take the first steps into exploring new industries vs. what I have spent the past 10 years in.  I decided on a goal of meeting new people.  Well, I knew I could meet 100 people in 6 weeks so that wouldn’t be very challenging, so, driving to the challlenge thinking the goal had to be audacious as well as listening to some crazy fun song that got me all energized (the kind that makes you start singin in your car…even when you are NOT a singer), I decided 500 sounded not only audacious but incredibly hairy too.

Some things I did to reach this goal were; I set up an open house for our block, so I now know all of my neighbors by name, I went to several exercise classes where I could meet people as well as get a great work out in to train for my other 2 goals, I went to community meetings, took my dog to doggie romps to meet other dog owners, I introduced myself to everyone I met, and organized a bouncy castle party for moms and kids this last Saturday…I pretty much said yes to every invitation, fundraiser, meetup I got.  I ended up gathering 250 names (no dogs or kids included although I sometimes liked them more than the people I met).  This went far above what I thought was doable and even though I didn’t technically hit 500, I achieved what I wanted.  I feel like it not only made me put myself out there but it trained me to be more outgoing…which is what I used to be like but over the course of the past 15 years, I have done less and less of.

I can say with 100% confidence that I would not have achieved what I did without setting goals, having a buddy like Sherry who was equally committed and a joy to get to know, and to have the incentive to get an outfit from my FAVORITE STORE!  Sherry and I would talk regularly and knowing the winner would get an outfit from Lululemnon and it helped us get over the hump and get moving whenever we started getting comfortable.

I have a regained passion for goal setting, for surrounding myself with like minded go gettem people, and truly appreciate what you have created for the GL moms group.  There is something on your bags that I looked at regularly as I was facing my goals which is “do one thing every day that scares you” and I would!

If there is any way I can help support this movement/challenge to others so that they get the same chance we got, please do not hesitate to ask.  I am so impressed with the commitment your store has for community and hope the success of your stores continue!  And I can’t wait to wear my new outfit…every day at first I am sure…I promise to wash it in between (:

Thanks and sincerely,

Jen Longtin

PS. The bouncy castle party I was running around for yesterday went incredibly well, so all and all yesterday was a smashing day!

New group led by local parent educators. An opportunity to share experiences and get support around what matters most to you as your child hits the “two’s” in a private and confidential setting:

• Learn behavior management strategies. • [...]]]> A group for mothers of toddlers

New group led by local parent educators. An opportunity to share experiences and get support around what matters most to you as your child hits the “two’s” in a private and confidential setting:

• Learn behavior management strategies.

• Gain insight into toddler development.

• Nurture & strengthen relationships with self, child(ren) and partner.

• Feel confident about your parenting choices!

Six Wednesdays, July 8 – August 12

10:00 – 11:30 am

Mosaic Coffee House

4401 Second Ave. NE

OR

7:00 – 8:30 pm

The Hearthstone – Boardroom

6720 E Green Lake Way N.

Cost for each six-week series is $150.00.

Pre-registration is required.

Mommy Matters Facilitators:

• Melissa Benaroya, MSW, Certified Gottman Educator-Bringing Baby Home

• Robin Dowdy, M Ed, Love & Logic Facilitator and Leadership Coach

To Register or for More Information, please call or email:

Melissa Benaroya at (206) 226-6707 or Melissa@benaroya.net