Hi everyone! Lindsay here! I’m so thrilled to be part of this amazing community of Chicago parents both in the real world and this little fun-fangled place on the internet brought to us by the folks at Chicago Parent.
I’ve spent the vast majority of my life in and around Chicago. I grew up in Wheeling/North Arlington Heights where I was a nerdy kid and wannabe bad-ass teenager wearing weird clothes and dyeing my hair purple all while I played the oboe and rocked the captain spot of the debate team. But that was eons ago, and now I’m a cool mom to 1 little boy who is my personal super nova lighting my universe. Between the purple hair phased and my current rockin’ mom phase I graduated from Northwestern (another leg of my suburban Chicago tour), lived “abroad” in NYC for a year (2001, bad timing), came back to our wonderful city in 2002 (living in the CITY) where I got “set up” with my dreamboat husband, and have held a wide variety of cubicle jobs steadily climbing that corporate ladder.
In 2008 I earned an MBA at night from the U of C while working during the day. It was great prep for the whirlwind that has accompanied the earning of my M.O.M. degree which I was fortunate enough to obtain in 2009 with the birth of Eli, my aforementioned super nova. Shockingly Eli changed my perspective on how I wanted to spend my days, so I partnered up with a former colleague, Bo Johnson, and together we started mamaloot.com, Chicago’s first daily deals site for moms. That was in August 2010. We were acquired in January 2011 by FamilyFinds.com, a daily deals site for parents based out of LA. I now work from my home office in our 2-bedroom condo in the almost Ukrainian Village while other people get the pleasure of taking care of my little one. Sense any guilt there? Yeah, there is some. Not going to lie. Especially when I hear a nearly 2-year-old saying “Mommy HUG, MOMMY hug” to my parents, or my in-laws, or our nanny.
This whole experience has made me give up on the notion of achieving a balance, and I just work hard each day to do what I want to do for our family and for myself. I plan on writing about how I make that happen. Like breakfast dates with Mr. E, or waking up at 5 am to get some work done, or a business meeting where I get to bring the kiddo along. Can’t wait to share this wild ride with you!
