Cocoa Beverages West Africa at Mondelez International head of marketing and full-time mom Ifeoma Chuks-Adizue opens up about the benefits of choosing your family over career. As a working mom, she says she was worried when she had to take a break from her work.
Chuks-Adizue told Good Morning America that a person has to make hard career choices for the family sometimes. She explained that it could be very painful, especially for a career-driven person, but admittedly, she said that it pays off in the long run.
Taking time off from work to care for her son
The mom from Lagos, Nigeria, shared that her son OJ was having a hard time with speech at school. She wrote alongside a now-viral post in LinkedIn that the school informed her of her son's need to repeat his class because of challenges in speech in June 2015.
Chuks-Adizue said that she had to focus on her son after the school highly recommended that the child take therapy abroad for one year. She also shared that it was a very significant time during that time because she was leading the biggest brand at work.
Struggling to decline a big brand
She then asked herself how it would benefit her if she declines the big brand, but her son would have a psychological problem. Chuks-Adizue knew she had to resign from her job, so as a working mom, she did not take it very well and cried a lot.
The executive mom was working at Procter & Gamble as the senior marketing manager at that time. She chose to take ten months off her job to care for her son. Now, OJ is ten years old, and Chuks-Adizue is working at Cocoa Beverages West Africa at Mondelez International as the head of marketing.
How it made a difference in her life and career
On OJ's tenth birthday, Chuks-Adizue shared a post on LinkedIn to reflect on how far her son had come. Apart from that, she also reflected on how far her career had come too. She realized that her life had changed dramatically after taking time off, which had not affected her long-term career.
Chuks-Adizue shared with the outlet that working moms struggle with guilt. She said that many take time off from work to focus on their family while battling with themselves if they could still catch up with their career. She shared that her post would show working moms like her that they could so long as they are happy with their jobs.
Nearly half of working moms take a break
In 2020, Bizjournals shared that nearly half of working moms take a break from their career to care for their families. Over 43 percent believe that staying at home to take care of their children helps them save more than working and then paying for child care.
Over 35 percent of working women with children want to go back to work because they believe it was the best for them mentally. While four out of ten needed to earn money for financial stability, 64 percent would want to have a longer break.
