Don’t forget to get married – Photo: http://adorebynat.blogspot.com

Happy Wednesday! I know, I know, the title of today’s post may not go over well with some out there, but just hear me out…Yes, being single and childless certainly has its advantages, among others not wearing your food on your clothes, never having to worry about what the word ” compromise” even means, and definitely not having to put up with any suspect body odors invading your surroundings…

While it is certainly obvious that more and more women, especially millenials, wonder if it even makes sense at all to get hitched , others seem to question whether marriage helps women get ahead or not. It appears, according to a recent Gallup poll, that 9% of Gen. Y have never been married and frankly don’t aspire to be, as compared to 4% of Baby Boomers and 3% of Gen. X. And taking into consideration that married women may earn 4% more than unmarried women, the fact remains society, and women in particular, is increasingly putting off this major life decision.

I happen to think if you want kids, marriage and unending piles of laundry around every corner of your house, you kinda have to work on it sooner than really, really late in life. I thought having kids at 30 was too soon, that maybe I could have invested more and longer in my career, gotten the big jobs and the skyrocketing paychecks. I thought not having to deal with diapers and daycare pick-ups, instead working myself to the ground, would earn me the big corporate rewards. I thought, I thought, I thought…And while I was busy thinking, life happened, babies were born, milk was spilled everywhere and laundry turned alive…

Yet in the midst of the crippling uncertainty, the “I don’t know what the heck I’m doing” moments, the late commutes and stressful work meetings, I learnt the real value of work. I learnt my limits (not just how late I could work or how many times I could submit a revised audit report draft). I learnt who I really was, what I did not want (and incidentally what I did want with all that was left of my frazzled, uncombed self), and what didn’t matter as much.

Now all this may be different from anyone else, but at the end of the day, we all want to craft our own definition of success. And if for you, that remotely involves even a speck of a somber, far away idea of marriage, kids and learning to distinguish between poop and chocolate, don’t just bury it in a corner of your mind and forget about it. Don’t forget that as you think, strategize and plot your success, life, all of it, is happening…And don’t forget that this remote, archaic thing called marriage and family may also very well be part of your success map, maybe even somewhere near the top…Who knows?
 

The Corporate Sis.