My name is Karen. I’m thirty-two, married to Ben, thirty-four, and mother to Melissa, who is three years old and firmly believes the world should adjust to her volume level. A month after Melissa was born, I went back to work. Not because I was ready. Because bills don’t pause for postpartum recovery. We needed two incomes, so I returned to full-time shifts while Ben continued working. Then this spring, Ben got laid off. He handled it calmly—at least on the surface. “It’s temporary,” he told me. “I’ve got Melissa during the day. You focus on work.” And I believed...
Continues…