The Rise of the Alpha Mom

My best friend Kim is pregnant with her first child. This has had me thinking about mommyhood. On the one hand, I am 25 years old and feel as though there is some sort of mandate set by society now and society's past that says this is the age to have a baby. I've heard my friends say "I don't want to be old when my kids graduate high school". On the other hand, I'm 25 years old. Though I may live in a small town, and am only now getting my ass in gear to start a real life - there is much to do. I can't help but think of how a baby might cause a few obstacles in terms of my career. I can't very well think about playing peek-a-boo if I'm visiting war torn areas in Africa. I also think about the kind of mother I would be. Would I be a good one? I'd like to be, but I need guidelines. Tell me what it means to be a "good" mother and I'll do it. I'm not really one to go by "feeling". Enter Alpha Mom. 'New York' Magazine recently ran an article on the rise of the new On Demand cable channel Alpha Mom TV. According to the article our generation favors having children after their careers are in full swing. I will be the first to admit that when I first heard this I thought the same as I always had - why have a kid if you're not going to devote your life and soul to it? I'd thought that based on what I'd seen all my life - and never really felt - that mommyhood is a sacrifice. But it no longer has to be. The Mommy behind Alpha Mom TV is Isabel Kallman a New Yorker who sleeps four hours a day and says that being a mother didn't come naturally to her as it does to some. She realized that there was a lot of expert advice, data and reports available to make it possible for mothers to be perfect mothers without losing their sense of self. She believes it takes a village to raise a child - and she's hired one. Her son has a nanny and a babysitter and Isabel feels no guilt when she goes to work. It's a new concept and a contradictory one, but one that embraces the idea that it's not impossible to be a perfect mother, "a go-to mom, leader of the pack"... Balance the job, the colic, the breast feeding, the diapers, the project meetings, dinner and playtime. Have it all and be the best at it. Alpha Mom TV provides instructional and informative programs for everything from conception to full fledged mommyhood - and the fact that it's a 24 hour cable channel means that busy moms can get the information they need whenever they have a chance - be it two o'clock in the afternoon or three o'clock in the morning. Check out Alpha Mom TV at www.alphamom.com - (I think it's still a site in the making).