You are not a Superwoman!

"You are not a superwoman!"
That's what my mom said, a working mother with 30 years experience and still working now as a Consultant, in her almost 60 years of age, in one of leading women magazine in Indonesia.

Her insight: You need to build a support system that could run by itself when you're not around. You could not concentrate and be productive at work if you keep calling home every 15 minutes.

My mother developed a neat supporting system at home. In her previous career, she was a senior manager in food industry for 15 years. At the same time, she and her friends released almost hundred recipe books and at the same time raised 3 annoying children successful with almost no major disturbances (one of them is me, of course... :P).

How she did it?

• Check on the resources that you have. Identify their area of expertise. Assign them to do that area. Let them handle it. Don't bug them. Reward them.
• If there's an area that need help and no resource available, find an expert. Let them handle it, reward them. 
• If could not find an expert, then develop whatever resources that you had, to become an expert. Put a close supervision while they're doing it. Reward them.

Her supporting system consist of:

1. Her beloved husband, our late dad. Since he's the geek of the house, he handle our homework. And since he loved car, he's in charge in transportation, including pick me up from the club at 3 AM.
2. Our grandmother. A babysitter was too expensive and not common at that time. So we lived in a house near our Granny's. Every morning she brought our baby sister there and after school we also went there. In the afternoon my mother would pick us up, then went home together. Only after I'm in high school, this routine's stop.
3. The servant. Usually we always had 1 servant at a time. She trained them very well to cook and clean, she only needed to supervise. They also helped to take care of the children.
4. The children. She always involved the bigger children to help the younger children and around the house. So when I was in high school, I took over my dad's assignment to look into my younger brother's and sister's homework.
5. The Teachers. She managed to meet the teachers several times a year to build relationships, especially when we're younger. It helped to keep the teachers close, so you could have their attention to the children and at the same time you'll always know what your children were doing at school.

By having these supporting system to be functioned well, my mom's able to manage her career. But it'd take process and patience to build it. Now I'm still trying to get a grip on that area. Build a supporting system that suitable to my available resources.

How do you build your supporting system? I'd really love to hear that.
It's a just a little share from a career mom.