Balancing Motherhood and Ambition: Redefining Success

Today, my cousin asked me a question that caught me off guard: “If you didn’t have younger kids, wouldn’t you be living in Australia by now, in a bigger position, achieving so much more?”

Without a second thought, I blurted out, “Absolutely, I’d have done this, that, and the other — lived around the globe, achieved so many things.” I painted this picture of what my life could have looked like without children.

But as I drove home, my mind circled back to our conversation. And I realized something important: why does nobody ever measure having and raising children as an enormous accomplishment?

Let’s be honest — raising kids is bloody hard. It’s more demanding than running most businesses or climbing the corporate ladder. You don’t get holidays, sick leave, or performance bonuses. The challenges are endless, and yet, so profoundly rewarding

There’s a fine line in motherhood between thinking, “I did this to myself” and “aren’t these children God’s greatest creation?” And maybe that’s part of the problem: society rarely frames parenting as the achievement it truly is. Instead, we often hear, implicitly, that ambition and career success are the measures of a woman’s worth.

Imagine if we were taught to view raising children with the same reverence we give CEOs, founders, and innovators. If ambition included nurturing, patience, and the daily grind of guiding another human life. Would we still see children as a hindrance to our dreams — or as one of the most meaningful achievements we could ever have?

Motherhood doesn’t have to mean giving up your ambition. In fact, for many of us, it sharpens it. It teaches patience, resilience, negotiation, creativity, and time management — skills any entrepreneur or professional would kill for. The challenge lies in redefining success: success isn’t only what you do in a boardroom or on a global stage; it’s also what you do in the quiet, messy, beautiful moments at home.

So yes, maybe I didn’t live in Australia by now or hold that “dream job.” But I am raising humans who will navigate the world with kindness, curiosity, and resilience. And that, in my book, is just as monumental, if not more so.

Balancing motherhood and ambition isn’t about choosing one over the other. It’s about honoring both, celebrating the invisible labor, and recognizing that achievement comes in many forms — sometimes it’s measured in boardrooms, and sometimes it’s measured in bedtime stories, scraped knees, and moments of growth that no one else sees.