I am a woman who values my career and having children. I've spent years doing internships and entry level jobs in my field (environmental science), so that I can get ahead and get my dream job. I really want to have kids. I think about being a mother everyday.
Obviously, I am relatively young to be thinking about these things. My vietnamese immigrant father taught me that in order to survive in this society, you have to plan ahead. I want to be closer to my kids in age, so we have more things in common and I won't be a burden during their young adult/adult years. I've come to the realization that I basically have two options.
1) I finish my degrees first. This leads me to have babies while I'm trying to also start my career. I could fired or not hired because I'm either going to get pregnant or I'm already pregnant. Even if they don't fire me, I'll only have 6 weeks of maternity leave. That is unacceptable. No where near enough time.
2) I have babies while attempting to get my masters. While this would be extremely difficult, at least my schedule could be more flexible and it's more acceptable to bring a baby to school than work. I could end up not being able to manage school and potentially risk losing all of hard work it took me to get to this point. My partner could end up not making enough money to survive off of one salary.
I'm upset that being an involved mother while also working my dream job has to be so hard. Both of those roles are net positives to society. Why am I being punished for trying to do both? Other countries have it figured out. We deserve better.