Parent Profile: Lauren Mackey

Tell us about your family? Kids, pets, etc. 

I have been married to Dan for 15 years!  We have two girls.  Addison is 10 and Avery is 8.  We also have a labradoodle named Mia.

What do you do for a living and how long have you been in that position?  

I am a CPA.  I currently work as a Senior Accountant at Gibbs Die Casting.  I have been in this position a little over four years.

How do you find balance between work, home and raising two kids?

Is there such a thing? Dan and I very much work as a team when it comes to parenting duties.  We both work full time, so we try to split parenting tasks.  There are days we are picking up each kid from a different activity that ends at the same time.  We also make time for our own hobbies and interests so we stay sane!  I like to run and workout.  I try to schedule my workouts either on my lunch hour or on a night the kids have the same practice, and Dan can take them. 

What have you enjoyed most about having to work from home? The least? 

The best thing about working from home has definitely been not having to get ready to go anywhere or put on nice clothes!  It’s a little more relaxing way to start the day without having to rush to get everyone ready and out the door.  The hardest part of working from home has been having the kids home with me.  They aren’t used to having this much solo together time, so there has been lots of fighting and just generally being loud.

What hobbies does your family enjoy taking part in? (Both before the pandemic and now during social distancing). 

We were definitely very busy before social distancing went into effect!  Between the two girls, we were always at somebody’s practice or game.  We enjoy watching the kids do their activities.  Now we have being doing lots and lots of walking!  Mia is so tired at the end of the day she can’t hold her head up.  We have been mostly walking in our neighborhood, but we sometimes hike at Audubon Park, ride bikes at Sandy Watkins Park, or walk on the Riverwalk downtown.

Homeschooling. Has this been challenging? 

Very much so!  Work for me has been really busy, so the girls tried to work through a lot of it while I worked, and then either Dan or I would help after work.  One of the girls has done really well staying on task, but the other one not so much!  There has been quite a bit of whining and complaining (and googling for the parents).

What do you look forward to most once we are able to live life outside of our homes again? 

Traveling! Our family loves to travel and explore new places.  We have a vacation to the beach booked in June, and we are really hoping we get to go.

If you could give advice to someone wanting to enter the career field you are in, what would it be? 

I really enjoy my job and the people I work with, but the schedule is not very flexible. I am not able to take my kids on spring break or fall break because of important work deadlines at the beginning of the month.  Not all positions have this issue, so if that is important to you it’s something to be sure to check on.