“When moms first come back to work they need someone to tell them, ‘You are going to feel crazy. It’s ok to feel crazy. You won’t always feel crazy.’”

With Mother’s Day coming up this week, I wanted to write a post specifically about how motherhood affects the financials of women. This article comes from my perspective as a new mom, but I know there are other people out there (dads, aunties, grandparents, etc.) playing the role of mom so this article goes out to you as well.

The Motherhood Penalty is defined by AAUW as the “phenomenon by which women’s pay decreases once they become mothers”. This is a contributing factor to the current gender pay gap.

There continues to be economic and social benefits to having children, but women should stop being penalized for having children.