Greetings from Chaton's World in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania! In my world, my days often start with laundry, early-morning emails, and making my kids a hot breakfast. They often end with late-night homework checks, making Instagram reels, and appearing on Celebrity Court of Public Opinion. Somewhere in between, I’m navigating boardrooms, working towards deadlines, and immersed in the good, bad, and ugly chaos of motherhood and household management. As a working mom of three and a professional carving out space in corporate environments, I share my journey of balancing leadership with loving my family, and I sprinkle it with self-care tips. Here, you’ll find honest reflections, hard-earned lessons, and practical strategies for creating an authentic life that you enjoy. If you’re trying to do it all without losing yourself in the process, you have found your sister in the struggle! Continue reading to discover some thoughts, hacks, and/or lessons that I have learned from navigating...
Be Careful About Dancing at the Work Party...
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Working Mom doing "The Wobble" at an event
“We want everyone to be comfortable bringing their ‘whole
self to work.’”
If you have participated in any presentations from your company’s inclusion
office you know that there is an effort to get people to become more
comfortable being their authentic selves at work. Let’s be clear, I am here for
it. I think that discrimination against people for unlawful reasons is wrong
and should be stopped. I am supportive of the laws being passed to make clear
that people can’t be discriminated against for wearing their natural hair,
being in a same sex relationship, etc.
"Down with racism!" "Down with sexism!" "Down with ageism!" You get the picture. I am against all of the “isms”.
Still, I do question whether all of this “comfort” is going
too far.
I was recently at a work employee appreciation luncheon.
Because it was summer, they were grilling food. I guess somebody thought It would be
cool to make it feel like an old school cook out, like at your mama’s house
because they hired a DJ. As a working mom, I admired the efficiency of combining work and fun. However, in this case, I think it went too far...
You see, this DJ was L-I-T! He was a singing, rapping, dancing kind of DJ. He kind of reminded me of a Black version of the inappropriate wedding singer in the Hangover, gyrations and all! I’m not sure what he played later in the day. However, when
I was there he was playing “The Wobble”, the extended version. If you’re
unfamiliar with the song, I’ll share. It is a line dancing song that starts
like this, “Hey big girl won’t you back it up. Won’t you back it up!” This DJ
was doing the running man enthusiastically encouraging the “big girls” to back
it up.
The whole thing got me thinking. I should remind you that I
used to practice employment law. So, my mind started wondering things like, “Is
it OK that we are referring to women as girls and then calling them big and the
asking them to back “it” up??? Perhaps being called big is offensive. Maybe they
identify as small. What exactly are the parameters for backing it up at work???”
All that thinking nearly got me worked up in a tizzy.
And while, I did not find comforting answers to my
questions, I did know one thing for certain. Even though I LOVE the song and
LOVE doing “The Wobble”, there was no way I was dancing to it at my work
employee appreciation luncheon. I was comfortable leaving that part of myself
at home. After all, it was not my mama’s cookout!
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