Palin's another working mother

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - As I consider Sarah Palin, mother of five, candidate for vice president of the United States, I see myself toting kids to football practice with their cleats untied, eating a bowl of cereal and my office ringing me on the cell phone and wondering _ how can she do it?

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But I'm not that different from other working mothers trying to balance work and family. Across South Florida, women hold some of the top positions in business, government and politics. As the buzz over Palin increases, I asked some of them how they manage to balance work and family life, what they are up against in terms of stereotypes, and ultimately their thoughts on Palin and the challenges ahead for her.

The facts of life for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin are fascinating. Her children range in age from 18 years to 4 months. The baby, Trig, was born in April with Down syndrome. Daughter Bristol, 17, is pregnant and is going to get married, her parents announced Sept. 1. Palin leads a hectic lifestyle in which she has her kids around her while she works and relies heavily on the support of family and friends in rural Alaska to help with the children, The Washington Post reported.

"Getting the job will be her challenge," says Fort Lauderdale, Fla., attorney Donna Berger. "Once she gets the job, she will be able to manage the challenges."

Berger herself has risen to the challenge. She confronts the balancing act each day as she steers the growth of her South Florida law firm and raises a son and daughter, 15 and 13. When her kids were younger, Berger, 43, worked part time. Now, as managing partner of Katzman, Garfinkel in Fort Lauderdale, she puts in long hours and struggles to leave work behind when she walks through the front door. "When my kids were little I couldn't have done it." But Berger believes women adapt, seeking support from family, friends, even paid help, to excel at the high-level jobs they hold.

"People are going to be knocking themselves over to help her," Berger says of Palin.

Tere Blanca, a 20-year commercial real estate veteran and regional director for Cushman & Wakefield of Florida, finds the debate over Palin's ability to balance work and family misguided.

Blanca, 47, manages more than real estate _ 40 brokers in three South Florida offices plus two teenage daughters. "My kids have grown up with a working mom." Still, life gets hectic as Blanca travels at least two weeks out of every month, and attends evening events as chairwoman of the Beacon Council, Miami's economic development agency. "You have to have the proper support system around you." In Blanca's case, she's had the same baby sitter and housekeeper for 15 years. And, she's careful to block out times in her calendar for events important to her kids and her new husband. "We have to be disciplined to go on dates."

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Blanca calls Palin's priorities "a private decision" and adds, "I don't hear anyone asking McCain if he can balance his life."

Julie Goldman, 55, general manager of The Falls shopping center, held the traditional role of breadwinner in her family for several decades while her husband held a flexible job working from home. "I have always worked crazy hours and traveled all the time," she says. She says having her husband, her mother and a housekeeper to pitch in with child care allowed her to hold high-level positions in retail. "It was a finely tuned system with safeguards or it never would have worked." Along the way, Goldman says she turned down promotions that required relocation and would have made it difficult for her family. Her children are 28 and 26.

Of Palin, Goldman says, "there's no question her husband or her family will raise those children."

Like Goldman, Sharon Kreutzer, vice president and branch manager of Coconut Grove Bank in Miami, has the benefit of hindsight. Kreutzer raised two children, now 30 and 26, while holding executive positions in banking. Trying to balance work and family, she says, "I was torn a lot. I was tired at the end of the day."

But she went through various child care routes before she was able to rely on her husband, who eventually worked from home. "I never felt I was shortchanging my children because I was working."

With her kids now adults, Kreutzer says she is grateful she stayed in the workplace. "I give Palin a lot of credit for being able to juggle because I know men have it easier," she says. "Mothers wear more hats."

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(Cindy Krischer Goodman is a workplace columnist for The Miami Herald and weekly television guest on Miami's CBS station. She can be reached at cgoodman@MiamiHerald.com or (954) 538-7138. Read her blog at miamiherald.typepad.com/worklifebalancingact.)

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© 2008, The Miami Herald.