“I’m counting the time left before my oldest child leaves home. The time left that the four of us will live together, under this roof, intact as a family. The time left - let’s just come out and say it - for me to make a different choice. “
I’m Betty Martin with "Martin’s Must Reads" and those are some lines from the first chapter of Mary Louise Kelly’s book It. Goes. So. Fast. I’m sure many of you will recognize her as being the co-host for NPR’s All Things Considered for nearly two decades. She loves her job and is really good at it. We all learn a lot from her reporting.
This book is an honest look at the tension between balancing a career and parenting. She wrote this book while on leave from her reporting job. It was her oldest son James’ last year in high school. Her last chance to attend his soccer games that always took place when she was on the air. She’d always thought she’d have more time, but now the clock was ticking down. It wasn’t the first time she had taken time off to focus on her children. When Alexander, her younger son, needed some intense speech therapy she took a year off.
She also devotes chapters to her father who instilled the love of running in her and the fact that she is deaf - or close to it - with hearing loss in the severe-to-profound hearing range at high frequencies.
As she recounts some of the times she questions her choices, we get a glimpse into her life as a reporter: Baghdad to cover a visit by the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pakistan to report on terrorism and rising nuclear threats, a dressing down she received from Secretary Mike Pompeo and how she dealt with the lies he told about it.
If you’re a parent who has had similar work/family balancing issues, then you must read It. Goes. So. Fast. by Mary Louise Kelly.
