Famed Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett hid her pregnancy for six months

Obama Foundation CEO says the notion of work-life balance “sets us up for disappointment.”

Transcript

00:00This notion of work-life balance, I think, sets us up for disappointment.

00:04Life is full of chapters, and in different chapters there are going to be trade-offs that you're going to make.

00:09And some chapters are just really hard, like raising children.

00:12I have two. Don't hate me, but they're just the best.

00:16But when you are young, I felt, and I still obviously remember it quite vividly, searingly,

00:21like I was holding on by my fingertips.

00:23This is 38 years ago, but I just felt like I didn't tell anybody I was pregnant until I was six months pregnant.

00:28I gained so much weight, I was obviously pregnant, but I was afraid if I talked about it, people wouldn't take me as seriously.

00:35And that was the way the environment was back then, and so I was compartmentalizing.

00:39And if I had to take Laura to a doctor's appointment or anywhere else, I would just, oh, I'm going to a meeting.

00:44And why couldn't I just say, I'm taking her to a doctor's appointment?

00:48Because when the men would leave for soccer practice, everybody thought, oh, what a wonderful dad he is, right?

00:54In that era, I also felt alone, and I felt like I had to do it all myself.

00:58And I used to think about, well, what must it be like for moms who don't have the good-paying job

01:03and the health insurance and the great childcare and the support system that I have?

01:08And how can we take care of those structural and cultural impediments and legal impediments?

01:13What I'm trying to say is that during these different chapters in life,

01:17make informed decisions and don't feel like you're compromising.

01:22Make it intentional and own the decision.