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Question of the Week:
Who won the 1970 Academy Award for Best Director? (Hint:
The star of the film also won for Best Actor, but didn't show up
to receive the honor.)

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Why some mothers opt to
eave full-time careers for full-
time work at home.

Karen Jacobs: "Ashlee needed me, not a baby-sitter."

Cari Waldman.
Special to AppleTree

Motherhood and a career: Two
roles many women balance
every day. For some it's a
choice, for others a necessity.
Here, Karen Jacobs, a critical-
care nurse, and Amy Lazare,
former vice president of sales
with Michigan Industrial Finish-
es, talk about their decisions to
leave successful careers to stay
at home raising their children.

Karen Jacobs: When I married
my husband Randy eight years
ago, I knew the most important
priority in my life was going to
be raising kids, keeping a
home and being a wife. Yet, I
have always been extremely
dedicated to my field. Enjoying
the intellectual and personal
challenge of the critical-care

environment, I love being at
the bedside of patients and
making a contribution to their
well-being.

back at the bedside of patients
and realized I was ready to
utilize the skills I worked so
hard to perfect.

Q: What changed in your life
where you needed to choose
between
career and
im
E
rearing chil-
im
dren?
a le

Q: How did you put things into
perspective about going back
to work?

troenterologist, would care for
her, feed her dinner and put
her to bed after his own full
day of work. By the time I got
home, Ashlee would be asleep.

Ss

0: Was there any time left for
you?

E

KJ.: I took a job
at West Bloom-
a.
field Henry Ford
nuo former career women
KJ.: I
Hospital in the
find staying at home chal-
worked at
recovery room,
lenging at times, but ulti-
Beaumont
where I had a
mately
rewarding.
Hospital in
schedule that
the critical-
allowed me to
care depart-
work three to four
ment up until the very end of
days a week, beginning in the
my pregnancy with my daugh-
afternoon so I could be home
ter Ashlee, who is now 7.
all morning with Ashlee. A
Enjoying motherhood and my
baby-sitter came into the house
new baby, I delayed going
around nap time, and I walked
back to work for almost a year.
out the door to go to work. My
But by then I longed to be
husband, Randy, who is a gas-

..:.ti:Eg4Egt="

KJ.: Actually, no. When I was
home, Ashlee was often,
"Mommy, Mommy," and Randy
was "Honey, honey!" I found
myself exhausted balancing
home life and career, and real-
ized I was not doing my wife
and mothering job to the best
degree I could. My thoughts
never changed that they were
my No. 1 priority, but I was
battling with deep feelings for
my career. I had made a com-
mitment to the hospital.
Q: When did the picture
become clear that you were

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