Project Manage This Mama: Hilarious Introduction (Blog)

A Journey of balancing work and life as toddler mom

Project Manage This Mama: Series Introduction

Let’s Circle Back After Naptime

Hello, my lovely readers,

If you read my last post about growth, resilience, and trying to keep it all together you might’ve thought: “That is some serious conversation”

And now you’re wondering how we got from raw vulnerability and real tears… to a blog series that sounds like it includes jokes about Post-its and potty training.

Let me explain.

I have developed an extraordinary ability to smile through the most incorrigible tantrums thrown by my toddler, all while juggling high-stakes deadlines, navigating leadership meetings, and suppressing the urge to collapse dramatically on the floor next to her.

 (Sometimes I do. She always makes sure she is falling on the soft rug. It helps.)

Somewhere between sliding into meetings mid-diaper-change and leading alignment calls with toddler snacking on lap, I realized: this entire phase of life is a masterclass in project management.

So, I’m turning it into my next blog and podcast series.

Welcome to Project Manage This Mama, a multipart series where I apply leadership frameworks, corporate experience, and just the right dose of dark humour to my everyday life as a working mother.

Yes, I’m going from Stressed to MOSCOW method.

From irrational breakdowns to high stake management presentations often within the same 60-minute window.

Because let’s be honest: raising tiny humans while trying to keep your professional ambitions alive is a full-scale, high-pressure, multi-stakeholder project, with no budget, minimal buffer time, and scope creep built into the contract.

You don’t get to file a change request. You are the change request.

 In This Series, Expect:

• Talking about timelines and tears, mine and otherwise.
• Takeaways post tantrums.
• And a LOT of bullet points, Gantt-chart metaphors, and friends who keep you from rage-quitting your entire life.

I’ll be writing about everything from Negotiating with my toddler (my toughest stakeholder) to imposter syndrome that mysteriously vanished after childbirth, the struggle to fit in as a working mom everywhere, to project budgets blown, timelines busted, and my unwashed hair in bun during daycare drop off.

It is so real that it is ridiculous.

And if you’re reading this while hiding in the pantry with a Lindor Kugel in your mouth, or are on your fourth big coffee against your better judgement, I have been looking forward to know you.

 Who Is This For?

Whether you’re:

• A mom learning to lead at work
• A leader learning the ropes of motherhood
• Or someone simply trying to figure out how school/ daycare pickup became your highest-pressure daily deadline.

You’re in the right stand-up.

So, grab your hot beverage. Fire up the ToDo list. Think of the I love you cuddle you got last night and let’s kick off.

Because while this season of life is messy, beautiful, and wildly unpredictable, it’s also full of insights worth sharing and laughing about.

And Project Mom Office is officially in session.

First up: My Toddler is My Toughest Stakeholder

Coming soon: Negotiation, conflict resolution, and snack-based diplomacy.

I have managed some tough automotive projects with the toughest deadlines of street releases and homologations. I have been part of programmes where we had conflicting deliverables all to be delivered at the same time by the same team, I have managed international teams during the height of pandemic.

None of them has challenged me the way my toddler has.

She is brilliant, mercurial, highly attuned to her and my emotions, resistant to going to bed on her own, demander of frozen fruits as snacks.

And she has uncanny timing. It is exactly the moment I am sharing my screen and speaking to a panel of senior management that her poopy diaper needs to be changed. Not a second before, not a second after. Or in the post diaper season, it is exactly when she will come with her snack demand, because she is so so hungry that she cannot wait a second more.

She is, without question, the ultimate stakeholder.

The Stakeholder Matrix Never Prepared Me for This

In Project management, we are taught to:

• Identify the stakeholders early on
• Assess their power and interest
• Manage expectations with clear communication.

I have always done a stakeholder analysis, developed SWOT analysis, created a power and interest matrix to identify what the key stakeholders want and develop my deliverables.

But what do you do when your high-power, high-interest stakeholder refuses to nap when you really need them to, on a sick day, so that mommy can get some work done?

Refuses to eat anything but beige noodles and demands ice-cream while coughing?

Has a zero-tolerance policy on mommy’s laptop in bed during naptime and refuses to reduce the scope of the cuddle time?

She will abandon the entire morning routine because mommy put her toothpaste in brush.

She will escalate conflict in public. Without hesitation. With no HR department in sight.

Lessons in Leadership, Delivered Loudly (And Possibly While Screaming)

Here’s what I’ve learned managing my most demanding boss to date:

1. Stakeholders don’t always want solutions — they want to feel heard.
   When she collapses on the floor because I cut her kiwi in the wrong direction, I’ve stopped trying to fix it. I just sit beside her and say, “Yeah. That is an intense situation.”
2. Overcommunication is key. But also: useless.
   I’ve given ample notice, reminders at fifteen minutes cadence, and strict countdowns. Still, she will act surprised that it’s time to leave the playground.  And she will register a formal complaint how she has never ever time to play. Every time. Adjust expectations accordingly.
3. Know when to pivot.
   There is no point pushing the original agenda if the team (read: child) has other priorities. Adjust scope, change direction, try again after a cuddle session.
4. Celebrate wins, however small.
   Did she put her clothes on today? Launch-worthy.
   Did she finish her breakfast? Promotion-worthy.
   Did I not cry before 9 a.m.? Victory dance-worthy.

Takeaway (Because This Is Still a Leadership Blog… Kind Of)

Managing toddlers, like managing teams, requires:

• Empathy
• Flexibility
• Clear boundaries
• An ability to find humour in the complete and utter chaos

It’s not about control. It’s about influence.

And influence, my friends, looks a lot like crouching on a sidewalk with open armed hugs, motivating your kid to take those last few steps uphill.

Reminding:  We can do it sweetie.

Sometimes that sweetie is her.

Sometimes it’s me.

But stakeholder management is just the beginning.

Because it’s not only about the big meltdowns and negotiation tactics; it’s also about the everyday rhythm of working motherhood: the rushed breakfasts, the overlapping Teams Meetings, the never-ending muting and unmuting while someone asks for more snack, or something or something.

Up next: we’re diving into the daily rituals, emotional detours, and the performance reviews you never asked for featuring a toddler, a toy laptop, and a meltdown in the hallway.

Coming in Part 2: Stand-Ups, Sit-Downs & Meltdowns.

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