This mom's viral approach to balancing family and career is so on point

Paige Turner (@sheisapaigeturner) is a 33-year-old working mom from Massachusetts who has gone viral for explaining why she isn't as interested in career advice from men.

In a TikTok that has been viewed over three million times, Paige explains: “I don't tend to take a lot of advice from men, even the most successful men, and I give my advice in the form of self-help books and podcasts with successful ones.” to take her advice with a grain of salt because I believe it is not applicable to women and mothers in particular.

She then discusses an example of what she means, summarizing the story of a successful man who does a podcast about how he made it in business. His story began with becoming a parent at a young age. “He was about 15 years old and had his first child. And after he broke up with his girlfriend at the time and the mother of his child when he was 17 or 18, he moved away from her home in Connecticut and moved to New York.”

She goes on to share the “lesson” the man learned from the experience. “He talks about how this journey required him to be fearless and take risks, you know, to be willing to take risks. He persevered. He was patient, but he was willing to do even the most difficult things. He was sleeping” on someone’s couch. He lived in a halfway house.

Paige then explains her problem with his advice. “And the whole time I’m listening I’m thinking: Where is your child? None of this is possible with a two-year-old baby. You can't sleep on someone else's couch with your two-year-old baby. You can’t stay out until 4 a.m. with your two-year-old baby.”

She continues: “This child is probably with his mother. This child is probably with his mother 90% of the time. She probably does 90% of the work, pays for 90% of the things and essentially raises it on her own.” That's not to say he's not a good father, that he hasn't contributed financially, because I don't know. And that's why I can't follow his advice. “

She then points out how different the same story might look if it came from a woman's perspective. “If it was a mother telling this story, would you know what she did for childcare, how she paid for everything for the child where they lived, who supported her, what her village was like? You would know these things because these things were crucial to her success if she succeeded.”

“But it didn’t matter to him because he had it. Men have women. That's the biggest lesson I've learned when they give us advice on how they became successful. That's because they had wives to support them.” Furthermore, a woman would most likely be judged differently if she left her young child with her father to pursue a career.

You can watch the full video here:

@sheisapaigeturner / Via tiktok.com

In the comments, people share their own personal stories that reflect exactly what Paige is talking about.

And they also point out certain books written by men that they found completely useless as mothers.

And chimed in to agree with Paige's point.

Paige told BuzzFeed: “I made the bold statement that I don't take advice from men, or if I do, I take it with caution. “I didn't mean to say that men don't have good advice, that's the problem That they are often like this does not apply to women. As long as men and women do not have equal opportunities at home and in the workplace, this is likely to continue to be the case.”

“As long as women bear the burden of child-rearing and housework, this will continue to be the case. That doesn’t mean successful men are wrong, but in many ways they don’t add value to women.”

And she shared that her biggest flaw when it comes to advice for men is the way they talk about how they use their time. “They never talk about using their time to serve others, and very rarely do they talk about taking care of their family. Do they help children prepare? Are they dropping her off? Often they talk about being fully devoted to their children's goals at work, but very rarely do they elaborate on who manages their family so that they can do this.

Finally, she listed a few women who she finds really inspiring. “I am a big fan of Eve Rodsky and her work. She has had a huge influence on me. I also enjoyed advice from Brene Brown, Shonda Rimes, Bozoma Saint John and Rose Hackman.”

Now I'm curious: Do you agree with Paige? Are there any women you would recommend for really useful career advice? Let's talk about it in the comments.