Court reporters who want to be mommies

[Kyung]

Well, here are some fun facts for the court reporters out there who want to be mommies and still be court reporters. YOU CAN DO IT.

This is a great job for those of you who want to have kids and want to be court reporters. This job is very flexible. You'll be able to take time off for field trips. But there are a lot of adjustments to make and it won't be easy. Oh, no.

Pregnancy - The fluid volume of your body will double or triple. I forget which. Doesn't matter. Basically this means your ankles will swell and your fingers will swell and your wrists will swell. This means you may experience signs of carpal tunnel induced by pregnancy. Drink lots and lots and lots of water. Stay away from salty foods. Take your restroom breaks during your pregnancy. Take meals and snack breaks.

After birth - Take time off. Take as much time off as you want or can afford. That's the great thing about this job. Enjoy being w/your baby. If you plan on breastfeeding, go for it. When you go back to work, you can always pump. I have pumped in a majority of the parking structures in downtown LA. Some of the attorney's offices are very nice, and you can pump in there in their bathroom lounge area.

Workload - Get ready for a lot more work. You will be doing a lot more work in the early morning and evening after the baby is asleep or during naptimes. Naptimes are a Godsend for working court reporters.

[Tami]

Guess I should share a little about my juggling experience.

Goes back to before I got pregnant for the first time when I was 24. I made sure -- not counting lightning striking -- that I never had to work again. We paid off our house and cars by then. (Probably was way easier back then.)

So I had my first baby at 24 and was supposed to take off three months. Well, three months came around, and returning to work was just not going to happen. So I go to my judge -- who was truly my second dad -- and told him I couldn't come back yet. He told me I could have as much time as I needed as long as I promised to come back.

When Haylee was about five months old, I finally started missing work. I returned when she was six months old. Every day until she was a year I drove up to my daycare provider at lunchtime and breastfed her.

Clay was born two years after Haylee, and I returned in four months. I had the same judge with the same agreement. I returned because we were all on the verge of going on computers, and I was so excited about it. (I was spearheading a group to go on software, getting computers built for a group rate, etc.)

Shortly after I returned, I started taking Fridays off, also with the permission and understanding of this wonderful judge. I never left them at the sitter's house past 4:35. I raced up there to get them when we adjourned at 4:30. If I had work to do, I would take it home and do it after they went to sleep. (I did have a wonderful notereader for those years.)

Went out with a severe case of CTS three years later, when Haylee and Clay were five and three, had two more children because I wasn't busy enough -- HA! -- and then slowly made my way back into court five years later.

With my number five baby, who is seven, (I was 41) I took off eight months. Different judge, same story. As long as I promised to come back, he told me I could take whatever time I needed. I spent the next four months after returning driving 20 minutes back to my home city to breastfeed him at lunch and back to work again. It was a bit of a rush, but worth every minute to me.

I couldn't do it without my husband. I really think that's the key. He's always been so supportive, and he's such a wonderful father/husband He would have loved to have had a stay-at-home wife/mother for all these years, and yet he supports me doing what I love to do. He leaves out in the wee hours of the morning every day, so he is able to pick up our kids from school and be there with them in the afternoons. I cover the mornings and evenings. He cooks more than I do. Found out quite a few years back that gourmet cooking classes was a great gift for my husband. He loves to cook, AND he does it well.

So, yes, it can be done.

One day when Clay was coming out to my work at lunchtime to learn theory, we ended up going to lunch with some of my CR friends. My friends always made comments to me like my son/daughter would never be a CR. They always saw how hard I worked and want no part of it.

So one of my friends asks Clay, "Hey, why do you want to be a CR?? Don't you realize how hard your mom works??"

And his response was "No, I always felt she had a regular 8:00 to 5:00 like everybody else."

I just sat there grinning.

[Katy Cuellar]

I can remember my son being the last kid in daycare, sitting there with the principal when I showed up at 6 p.m., after which time it was $1 a minute, then taking him back to court, sitting him in the back of the courtroom on the hard wooden benches, where he'd fall asleep without dinner while I continued working. Then there were the days where he wet his pants at school, but I could not get off to get there. Or a school outing where I had to pick him up at 12:00 sharp, and could not. Sick days where I took him to school sick because I couldn't leave him home alone and had no one to cover for me at work, or going to work sick myself because I'd used all my sick leave on him. Days before cell phones where I was doing depos over 50 miles away, worried about an emergency, like perhaps a big earthquake (no kidding) and I wasn't sure he was all right, or my car breaking down on the way home and I had no way to get a message to him. Then there's the daily transcript where you don't see your child till 9 or 10 p.m., or the weekend where you could have gone somewhere with them but you have too many transcripts. Playdates so you can get the weekend free to work. It's heartbreaking. My son's grown now, and I still can't say my being a court reporter was worth missing those minutes of his life. In retrospect, I wish we had been poorer but had more time.

[Elizabeth A. Willis-Lewis]

Thank you so much for the encouraging words. Being 36 weeks pregnant with twins this little pep talk is just what I needed!

[Judy]

There's a gal in SoCal that's a heavy-hitter realtime reporter. Once she started having kids, her schedule changed, but... her husband takes half the load. It's probably ~the~ fairest arrangement I've ever seen as far as splitting the responsibilities. Now, I know nothing about her husband, but from outside appearances they've taken childrearing on as a 50/50 responsibility. That's always a consideration.

[Cynthia S. Bicad]

I love being a court reporter, but I really love being a MOM. Freelancing is great in that aspect as far as when there's a field trip and parent/teacher conferences etc. The only downside is the benefits as mentioned before. I keep going back and forth as far as court, because that will take away all my flexibilitt, But my son is getting older and wanting more independence. Who knows. All I know is I love my job.

[Judy]

Ask Tami about having kids while working in court. She has five (even raised one to become a CR!). I'd say she's got it down fairly well and can give you any advice you'd need concerning the subject.

[Kyung]

I suggest getting pregnant while you're working for the courts. Remember, you've got benefits, so you'll get FMLA leave and paid time off. Whereas, if you're a freelancer you take a day off, there's no pay. You can always freelance after the baby is born.