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Anna McKay Finds Her Calling in Helping Parents Get Back to Work

“A parent helping parents.”

That is one way to describe Anna McKay, a career and leadership coach who helps parents reenter the paid workforce after time away — a demographic she calls “returners.”

The mother of two daughters, ages 13 and 10, and former accountant became a professional coach in 2008 while living abroad in the Philippines and China with her husband. “I was inspired by the women I saw who stopped paid work and moved overseas to be with their spouses.”

When Anna and her husband moved back to the United States, settling in the Houston area, she began encountering women who had taken time off from work to raise their kids and were ready to rejoin the workforce — but many didn’t know where to begin.

McKay knew that coaching could help. “I was doing career transition coaching and helping people figure out their transferable skills,” she says. “That’s the way I see parenting: It’s just another kind of career. You’ve got transferable skills (McKay cites fundraising, volunteering, and community building, among others), but how do you convey them to an employer?”

Putting her expertise to use

She put together her first group coaching program for mothers where she had a half dozen attendees. “I had my first cohort, and it was really well received,” she says. “I got so much energy from that first group — I had never known that before.”

“I want to be part of creating a world where it’s OK to be a parent.

Anna Mckay

Founder, Parents Pivot

That’s when McKay realized she had found her calling. “This work is powerful, and it can impact so many women and lift so many people up.”

She continued to host in-person coaching sessions, and the response was so positive that she formalized them under the banner “THRIVE Like a Mother” (recently renamed “THRIVE Like a Parent”). Since then, McKay has supported more than 100 people through THRIVE.

In mid-2019, McKay launched Parents Pivot to broaden her offerings. (THRIVE now lives under the Parents Pivot umbrella.) In addition to group coaching sessions, the organization offers resources for working parents, returners, and caregivers, including one-on-one coaching for parents and their managers; training for managers of parents and caregivers navigating parental leave or caring for children or aging parents; and parents considering career transitions or desiring more work-life balance.

One ingredient that makes her work successful, McKay says, is that it comes without an agenda. “We are thought partners for parents who haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about what they want,” she says. “We act as an advocate for them.”

A process that empowers

Much of McKay’s work centers on helping clients uncover not only what they enjoy but the skills they developed during their time off and how those translate to the workforce. She also teaches them how to communicate their value and negotiate salaries to prospective employers.

One of the first questions McKay asks clients when she meets with them is: “Where did you choose to spend your time during unpaid work?” From there, she digs deeper, pressing them to think about how everything they’ve acquired translates to paid work. Did they coach their child’s hockey team? Set up payment systems for fundraisers? Lead the PTO? All those experiences are relevant to career development and finding future work.

Getting ready to re-enter the workforce, after being out of it for years, from a skills standpoint is hard enough. But McKay’s clients must also clear the mental hurdle that they are doing the right thing for not only themselves but their families. “When moms return to paid work, they often think about what they are giving up,” McKay says. “But there are so many benefits that they’re also giving their family.” Financial support is the most obvious one, she notes, but there’s also the chance to be a role model for “how to move past challenges, learn, grow, and try hard things.”

“I want to be part of creating a world where it’s OK to be a parent,” McKay says. “It’s OK to take a career pause for whatever reason, build skills, and come back to work and have your skills be recognized for the value they bring. … I mean, who wouldn’t want an employee who really wants to be working?”

Life in the NICU ‘Incredibly Rewarding’ for Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, Mother of 5

Kate Lanoue adores children. That is apparent not only in her work as a neonatal nurse practitioner but as a mother to five kids, ages 7 to 17. And just as her job in the NICU requires her to be a source of caring and compassion, when she gets home to her family, she takes her role as “mom” just as seriously.

What are your duties as a neonatal nurse practitioner?

I work for Pediatrix, and our team is contracted at several hospitals in Jacksonville, Florida, to care for term and preterm infants in the NICU and newborn nursery. I work 16-hour or 24-hour shifts and am responsible for the daily management of and care for infants, as well as attending deliveries as needed.

What made you want to go into such a high-stress profession?

My passion for nursing was always in critical care because of the advanced nursing and problem-solving skills needed to be successful. The NICU was a natural fit for me because I have always enjoyed babies. It is an incredibly rewarding role in which I am a key member of the team and gain a lot of satisfaction from being able to have a strong voice and advocate for one of the most vulnerable populations.

The most enjoyable part of being a mom is hearing my kids laugh and seeing them smile.

Kate Lanoue

Neonatal nurse practitioner & mother of five

Given the high-stress environment, how do you keep your emotions in check at work?

My role at work is incredibly stressful at times, but in most cases is also incredibly rewarding. The key for me is to always try to focus on the bigger picture and the outcomes we are trying to achieve — a healthy baby that is discharged to a loving family.

I am tasked with needing to keep my emotions grounded for the sake of not only the babies but for the family members. I need to be a source of comfort and reassurance when they are handling a lot of unknowns and facing a very stressful situation.

Having a great team that is always available as a support system is also key. I always find comfort in discussing a rough shift with a coworker; having a sounding board is incredibly beneficial in this role.

How are you able to separate your work life from your home life and role as a mother?

I know when I walk away from the hospital that one of my other coworkers is taking care of the babies and families just as I would. I am able to step away and concentrate on myself and my own family. As a nurse, I am not sure you are ever capable of not worrying or thinking about cases at the hospital, but knowing that the oncoming care team is going to do an amazing job makes stepping away much easier.

How has your role as a mom affected how you approach your job, and vice versa?

My role as a mom has definitely impacted my role as a nurse practitioner. I have had the experience of having a baby in the NICU [Cash, her second oldest, developed a pneumothorax (collapsed lung) after delivery], and I know how incredibly scary and unnerving it can be. I pray that I can be a source of comfort for all my families and help them to adjust to a period in their lives that is most always unexpected and unfamiliar. I want to always have the time to communicate clearly and have as many conversations as needed to ease their discomfort.

My role as a nurse practitioner has changed my outlook on parenting and the things I choose to focus on. I have had the unfortunate experience of seeing families in the worst grief and in incredibly hard situations. Knowing the circumstances that some face has been beneficial for me in my own life because it allows me to step back and see that some of the small issues that seem to be catastrophic as a mom really are just minor bumps in the road that might mean you just need to take a different path. I have been able to take a few breaths and remember what I want the final outcome to be in my children’s lives: to be healthy, happy, and productive citizens.

Kate Lanoue Family Mothers Day Jacksonville Beach — Kate Lanoue and her kids at Jacksonville Beach last Mother’s Day.

Lanoue Family Vilano Beach Ponte Vedra — The Lanoue family at Vilano Beach near St. Augustine, Florida.

What do you enjoy most about being a mom?

The most enjoyable part of being a mom is hearing my kids laugh and seeing them smile. I can be having an incredibly challenging day, but they always seem to make it better when I see them happy and living their best lives.

What part of motherhood do you find the most challenging?

The most challenging part of motherhood for me is letting my children make mistakes so that they can learn how to cope with failure and overcome it. I would love to swoop in and save them every time I see them making choices that are not what I would choose or think is their best option, but I want them to be independent and learn that it’s OK to fail as long as you can make a plan to correct it.

What special “mom” skills do you possess?

My special mom skill is that I see every child as their own person and try to respect their different personalities and choices. I am a firm believer that it is hard with large families to “blanket parent” every child the same. I have come to appreciate how different our five are and embrace the different ways that I have to reach each of them.

What special things do you do for your kids to let them know they’re your top priority?

I think our children know that they are my top priority because I am always available for them, even when I am not physically home. Although I work and carve out time for myself each day to exercise, they know that if they need me, I will rearrange my calendar to make room for them. I never let a day go by without asking about their day and saying I love you.

Cookbook Author Caro Chambers Uses Platform to Help Military Spouses in Need

Food has been a foundational part of Caroline Chambers’ life journey. The author, influencer, podcaster, and mom of three started in catering before moving into developing recipes for brands and magazines, which led to her first book deal, for “Just Married: A Cookbook for Newlyweds.”

But after the birth of her first child, Caro (as she prefers to be called) recognized the vast difference between cooking for two and cooking for two while parenting an infant. That’s when she was inspired to write a second cookbook, “What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking” (available now for pre-order). Her first publisher, however, rejected the idea on the premise that her social media presence wasn’t strong enough to support the title.

When the pandemic hit, Chambers’ freelance recipe development work dried up. Seeing it as an opportunity rather than a setback, she built her social channels while creating easy, approachable recipes. “Everyone’s in quarantine, nobody is going to the grocery store,” Chambers says. “It became my thing to write recipes that included substitutions for every single ingredient.” She then began creating “What to cook when you don’t feel like cooking” content through a subscription newsletter. “Overnight, I got like 500 paid subscribers,” she says. “I was like, whoa, this could work.”

Since then, Chambers’ followers have skyrocketed; she has more than 210,000 on Instagram and 152,000 on Substack. She also has 20,000 paid newsletter subscribers, and the book idea that started it all is due to publish this summer.

SEE: Caro’s Mother’s Day Picks

Growth for the greater good

As Chambers’ online influence has grown, so have her interests. Her social accounts, once only devoted to food, grew into other areas, such as motherhood tips and lifestyle-focused topics. “I love sharing other parts of my life,” she says. One such part she is particularly passionate about is her support for military families. (Her husband, George, is a former Navy SEAL.)

Over the years, Caro and George have held small fundraising events to help military families. But Caro saw a real chance to help when, in February 2020, the United States announced it was pulling its troops out of Afghanistan over the next 14 months (the evacuation wasn’t actually completed until August 2021). That decision resulted in more soldiers, including George, being sent overseas to provide support and security during the withdrawal. “It really disrupted lives,” Chambers says.

Chambers shared her thoughts about the situation on social media, and soon her inbox was flooded with messages from concerned military spouses. She was especially moved by the stories from pregnant women who were days away from delivering and whose husbands would miss the birth of their child.

My community is so generous — it’s become something so much bigger.
Caro Chambers

Chambers wanted to help, so she reached out to her online community asking for donations. Her followers responded in kind: In 24 hours, she raised $80,000.

That’s when she and Heather Looney — a fellow military wife and one of Chambers’ social media followers — got together to locate pregnant military spouses in need. “My husband has three family members who served with Caro’s husband,” says Looney, who also took a cooking class Chambers taught. Chambers asked Looney if she knew anyone who was activated to rapidly deploy for the Afghanistan withdrawal.

“Caro is truly remarkable,” Looney says. “She uses her platform to bring awareness to the sacrifices our soldiers and their families make every day.”

Serving those who serve

While the withdrawal from Afghanistan was the catalyst for the two women coming together to raise and distribute funds, Looney stresses that military families are often in need of support and resources year-round. “Many in the military community struggle financially,” she says.

Looney devotes much of her time to supporting the military community through her work with nonprofits and other organizations, including Santa’s Castle, which distributes toys at Christmas to children at Fort Moore in Georgia; Battle Buddy Resources, which provides food assistance to Fort Moore families in need; and Operation Deploy Your Dress, which helps offset the costs of formal military functions for military families.

Chambers also continues to be active in raising money for military families, including holding an annual Christmas fundraiser. “We raise close to $100,000 every year,” she says. And as her community has grown, so too have her initiatives, which include providing financial support to families who have lost servicemembers in on-duty accidents and sending ice cream and toys to families. “My community is so generous — it’s become something so much bigger,” she says. “It also shines a light on the sacrifices [military families] make.”

Oregon Mom of 5 Strives to Improve Lives of Foster Children

“Where are the vulnerable children?”

That was the question Jillana Goble, author and founder of Every Child Oregon, and her husband, Luke, asked themselves after living for a time in Guatemala, where they worked in an orphanage.

Jillana already knew the drill: She’d worked at the same orphanage a couple years earlier after graduating college. When she returned with her husband the second time, the couple offered respite services to staff on the weekends — that is, they’d stay with the kids so the employees could get some rest. “That was where our hearts began to be cultivated,” Jillana says.

I have a lot of hope that our small and humble offerings collectively add up to something greater than themselves.

jillana goble

Founder, Every Child Oregon

The couple was on the plane heading home to New York when they began thinking about how they could help at-risk youth, such as those families who were affected by mental illness, domestic violence, or incarceration, in their own community. They found out that many children in those situations end up in foster care. “So, my husband and I, at age 25, with exactly zero parenting experience and no biological kids, signed up to do respite through a local agency.”

But the agency had other plans.

“They told us we’d be really great regular foster parents,” Jillana recalls, “So we said yes.” It would be the first of many yeses for the couple, whose story of caring for children continues to this day. “I became a mom through fostering, birth, and adoption — in that order,” she says.

Building a family

Jillana goble Royal x — Jillana Goble and and her oldest son, Royal.

The couple fostered their first child in 2002, a boy in early elementary school who lived with them for a year. When he left their care, the Gobles lost track of him; however, they reconnected eight years ago and are now in each other’s lives. “We count him as our oldest,” Jillana says.

The Gobles went on to have two biological daughters of their own. A few years later, after relocating to Portland, Oregon, Jillana called to inquire about fostering there. “I was just gathering information,” she says. A week later, a call came: A 6-month-old baby boy needed a family. “We said yes to him,” Jillana says.

That was 15 years ago, and it began an extraordinary relationship between Jillana and Luke, their foster child — whom they later adopted — and the boy’s biological mother, one that continues to this day. A few years after that, Jillana and Luke were asked to pick up a baby from the hospital just for the weekend. That baby is now their 12-year-old adoptive son. In all, the Gobles have five children they call their own.

Jillana says the journey that has brought her children into her life has enriched her. However, she’s honest about the challenges that accompany fostering and adoption, and the impact of those choices on a family’s dynamics. “We get called, we’re asked to say yes, and we really don’t know what we’re saying yes to,” she says. “It’s been fulfilling on a personal level, but there are days when it’s discouraging. Even though there are moments I wouldn’t choose, they have great impact.”

Every Child Oregon

In 2012, Jillana founded Every Child Oregon (previously Embrace Oregon), a movement that supports the foster care system by helping reduce the impact of the trauma on foster children in a variety of ways. That includes supplying tangibles, such as clothes, shoes, and personal-care items; educating the community about the need for foster families; supporting foster families through resources and initiatives like the Foster Parents’ Night Out program; and even conducting office makeovers to make the spaces where children go between placements more welcoming and comforting.

“I have a lot of hope that our small and humble offerings collectively add up to something greater than themselves,” Jillana says. “That is the story of Every Child Oregon, and that is the story of what I hope is happening underneath the roof of our home.”

May is National Foster Care Month. For more information, visit www.childwelfare.gov/fostercaremonth.

At Home with Pia Baroncini and Family

Pia Baroncini — entrepreneur, creative director, and podcast host — lives in her childhood home in the historic, leafy Los Angeles enclave of Pasadena, California, with husband Davide, daughter Carmela, mother Margit, and a new litter of puppies. Mama energy permeates their household, and that suits Pia just fine. “I appreciate spending more time with my family,” she says. “I’m learning that the practice of finding ways to implement quality time in your everyday life is key to maintaining happiness.”

A poignant homecoming

This idyllic, old world life comes from a confluence of happy and sad events. After the couple met in the most modern way — Davide DM’d Pia on Instagram with a message that read “You look interesting,” she recalls, smiling — their courtship was quite traditional. Davide, who was splitting time between Sicily (where he was born) and New York City, came to LA, and the pair recognized they were kindred spirits.

After a whirlwind romance, Davide moved to LA. Two weeks later, Pia’s father passed away. The couple quickly decided to purchase her childhood home, moving into the house with Margit, who had lived there for 37 years. The couple married in the backyard in 2019 and settled into life and work.

And there’s no shortage of that. In addition to being the creative director of the fashion brand LPA, Pia oversees two companies with Davide: Ghiaia Cashmere, a clothing brand, and Baroncini Import & Co., which sources Sicilian olive oil.

Carmela arrived in 2021.

Becoming a mom reaffirmed Pia’s choice to live in a multigenerational home. “It honestly feels natural,” she says. “Being around others and navigating through various personalities and opinions is important to me and important to the growth of my daughter. She is so loved. Hopefully, it will teach her the value of family.”

“We care for each other. No one is more important than the other — it’s a unit.”

Davide is equally at home. “The first baby that we made together lives in this house, and Margit is the connector of the previous life that this house had,” he says. “I would not want to live anywhere else.”

While many might see this arrangement — living with one’s mother as an adult — as being fraught with complications, Pia sees it as a gift and an opportunity. “I know most people would never consider something like this, especially after we were just married and so soon after my father passed,” she says. “But having a child ourselves, it is everything. Carmela has a grandparent present to share in so many memories, even if it is simple things like doing her hair.”

When asked what being a mom means to her, she responds, “Being a mom means having an expanded heart, and expanded patience (lol).”

SEE: Pia’s Mother’s Day Picks

The evolution of home

The house’s aesthetic, which Pia describes as “meaningful,” is a work in progress. The original structure was one story with three bedrooms and two baths. Pia’s parents eventually added an upstairs primary suite to accommodate a blended family of seven.

Pia and Davide are committed to keeping the original details they love, such as a cozy living room with a fireplace and the kitschy Virgin Mary artwork. At the same time, they are eager to update some rooms, including the expansive kitchen and primary suite. (Pia is not a fan of the brown backsplash tiles and is testing new paint colors.) But, overall, she has come to appreciate the house as a whole in a way she could not while growing up here. “I think I took a lot of things for granted,” she says. “Like the bathtub. It has become a special place for me to escape.”

The couple and Margit are slowly updating the home with items they source from auctions and from Italy, as well as vintage pieces to blend in with what exists. “It’s a cool combination of everything that’s very meaningful,” Pia says.

A celebration of family

The home is the site of most holidays and reminds Pia why she wants to live there. “I am the youngest of five kids, and Davide is the youngest of six,” she explains. “The first thing we thought when we moved here was, ‘How do we keep these holiday gatherings going?’”

The house continues to be the place where everyone comes to cook, drink, and hang out. Mother’s Day is a chance for the family to express gratitude while setting a layered, lovely table. The day’s main events are a yummy brunch and the exchanging of meaningful gifts. It’s a time to relax and enjoy each other’s company without distractions from work or other outside commitments.

Old and new traditions matter here. The table is set with the pieces Margit has collected over the years, from Royal Copenhagen china to an assortment of vintage glassware. But Pia and Davide will add more casual spatterware to keep things from getting too fancy.

The meal is full of family recipes and will include olive oil from Baroncini Import & Co. Heirloom vases and pitchers overflow with Pia’s favorite flowers, such as peonies, a perfect bloom to celebrate mother and May. A present exchange includes homemade cards from Carmela and some chocolate-covered strawberries.

The power of flowers

Even when it’s not a special occasion, the family fills its home with flowers. To Pia and Davide, they are a way to communicate and show gratitude. “Nature always gets me fired up,” Pia says. “I’m a big flower lover. On our refrigerator is a note about the flowers Davide gave me that happened to be on the day we found out I was pregnant. It was a huge bouquet of white flowers with a note that said “Ti amo” (“I love you” in Italian).

What makes flowers special to Davide is that they have the power to convey a wide range of emotions. “Whether it’s one flower or 300, they can express love, empathy, affection, or sadness. Flowers are great communicators.”

Pia has vivid memories growing up of flowers being a powerful expression of love. “My dad always got flowers for my mom and me. Not many dads buy their daughters flowers, because it’s seen as a romantic gesture, but my dad always did that for us. Before Davide, I never dated a man who gave me flowers.”

Davide adds, “Flowers have nothing to do with status or access. Everyone can give flowers.”

One Tough Cookie: Rosemary Alfredo’s Advocacy a Key Ingredient in Daughter’s Success

Collette Divitto has enjoyed baking for as long as she can remember. When she enrolled in a baking class in high school, she had no idea it would pave the way for her entrepreneurial journey as founder and CEO of her Charlestown, Massachusetts-based company, Collettey’s Cookies. “The teacher called three months into it, and I thought she was going to tell me [Collette] was struggling,” says Rosemary Alfredo, Collette’s mom, who is also the company’s director of PR and marketing. “But she told me Collette was her best student. She was teaching and helping the other kids in the class.”

Collette, who has Down syndrome, was born in 1990 into a family of determined and hard-working entrepreneurs. Rosemary explains: “My dad was an entrepreneur. It was important to my parents to instill in us an understanding that you get pride from work and self-esteem from making your own money. We all grew up having chores and having jobs.”

That’s a mindset Rosemary passed down to her children.

Living and learning in the real world

Although Rosemary attended college for a time, she ultimately relied on what she calls “street smarts” to get ahead in life. “Back when I went to college, the professors had been in education their whole lives,” she says. “Sometimes I would sit in class and think, ‘This is not what’s going to happen in the real world.’” That prompted her to leave college and take part-time classes, learning things like real estate development and construction. She went on to launch several successful ventures of her own in those areas, as well as an athletic club.

When it came to Collette’s education, Rosemary reflected on her college days and recognized the system simply wasn’t set up to teach her daughter the real-life skills she believed she would need to succeed. So, from elementary through middle school, Rosemary partnered with educators to develop projects and lessons that would help Collette develop confidence and self-esteem while she learned. Collette flourished.

As a parent, she has always been my best friend, my rock, and my hero. I wouldn’t be here without my mom.

Collette Divitto

Founder & CEO, Collettey’s Cookies

In high school, however, things changed. Unable to keep up with the rigors of standardized education in her peer group, Collette began to spiral. Rosemary had to start from square one. “Every time you hit these different schools, you have different leadership, different principals, who have different mentalities,” she says.

After several meetings with school administrators, Rosemary was able to make the case that Collette would be better off with a specialized curriculum that incorporated facets of traditional learning with valuable life skills. “I asked for all the textbooks, and then I wrote the curriculum,” Rosemary says. “It was about voting for the president, traveling, creating a budget, banking. Whether it was global history or science, I wrote her curriculum [about] what she needed to learn.”

Rosemary then looked to electives to augment the rest of Collette’s education. And that’s when she enrolled Collette in a baking class.

Building on a foundation of success

After high school, Collette went on to graduate from Clemson University’s LIFE program and was intent on living a life of independence. She moved to Boston and applied for job after job, but the responses from employers were always the same: “You’re not a fit for our company.”

Never one to give up — it’s a trait that runs in the family — Collette charted her own course. With Rosemary’s assistance, she combined her love of baking with business and launched Collettey’s Cookies, a profitable online bakery that also employs others living with disabilities.

“There are so many amazing things about my mom,” Collette says. “She has taught me so many incredible things and is so inspirational to me. As a parent, she has always been my best friend, my rock, and my hero. I wouldn’t be here without my mom.”

Adds Rosemary: “I’m glad Collette believes in me, because I believe in her.”