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Inland Empire working momsPublished: May, 2010

Julie Ordonez
Corona
RN, Kaiser Permanente

For Julie Ordonez, a 26-year-old nurse and mother of a 14-month-old boy, being a working mom outside the home has a specific purpose and also makes her happy.
   
“I love being productive, making my own money, and I want to show my son the value of an education and working toward your goals,” says Ordonez. “I don’t like completely depending on my husband for all my income.”
   
Ordonez keeps extremely busy running after her son, Noah, when she’s not working as a registered nurse with Kaiser Permanente in Orange County. After earning her bachelor’s degree in nursing, she works in Kaiser’s nursing clinic in Anaheim and has been an RN for two and a half years.
   
“The greatest challenge with being a working mom is not being able to spend enough time with Noah,” says Ordonez. “I miss him every second I’m not with him.”
   
Ordonez’ mother, who also lives in Corona, watches Noah while Julie works.
   
Ordonez still finds time to do something for herself. Recently, she decided to try her hand at something totally new: writing. She started a blog at skinnyjeansmom.blogspot.com. On her blog, she covers a variety of topics relevant to mothers everywhere, including the endless lifestyle debate between stay-at-home-moms (SAHMs) and working moms.
   
“I just wish all mothers would stop picking on each other and try to be more understanding of each other and their lives,” she says.
   
On her blog, she writes, “Working moms, please understand that SAHMs work very hard as well, and that just because they don’t have a paying job doesn’t mean they don’t WORK. … Never make a SAHM feel less significant because she doesn’t bring home a paycheck.”
   
Likewise, she writes, “SAHMs, please understand that working moms have various reasons for working, and that not all of us are so blessed to be able to stay at home as we’d like. Yes, we miss our children terribly, but some of us truly enjoy working, earning our own pay and pursuing career goals, and we do NOT deserve to feel like any less of a mother for doing so.”
   
“We are all mommies, we all deserve to understand where the other is coming from,” says Ordonez. “We have enough to deal with – what with husbands, screaming toddlers, picky eaters, endless laundry, food all over the high chair and floors, and tantrums – to waste time cutting each other down. Please be supportive of your fellow mommy, and put yourself in her shoes; we’re all in this crazy race together!” 
   
Ordonez offers this tip to working moms: “It’s easy to feel guilty that you leave your children, but don’t ever feel that you’re somehow less than the moms who stay at home. You love your children just as much and appreciate them all the more, because absence does make the heart grow fonder.”