Newspapers, unlike other products that can stick to the same formula for months and years, have to come up with a new product daily.

Mothers, too, require the same amount of creativity, having to daily deliver on a range of tasks and services that can be overwhelming at times.

I remember an editor, Sunity Maharaj, jokingly enquiring during one of those old-talk fun times when I worked at the Express, "Who came up with the idea that women should work?"

Perhaps, some of us who chose journalism as a career may still be seriously enquiring, "What I doing working here still?"

The answer for most of us would probably be, “only because we love and enjoy what we do.” It definitely cannot be because of the salary ¬ which is the same in 2023 as it was since ten years ago.

As a young mother, I wanted to quit many times to devote more time to my family but as the main, and at times, the sole breadwinner, that was not an option.

I began working at the Guardian, mere months after leaving school, and for the past four decades have worked at the Express and Newsday, and back again. Apart from newspapers, I spent one week at a radio station and fled. I also taught mass communications and media-related courses at the Costaatt for over two years, when I made a career change. But, I ended up right back in the newsrooms.

For me, journalism always presented a conflict between profession and family. Balance was a difficult thing for many years. I worked some Sundays and public holidays, so going anywhere for a family long weekend was a very rare thing.

When my three children were quite young and in primary school, I was reassigned to the Express night desk – the department that did final editing, headlines and page design. My workday began at 2 pm. My children's school day ended at 3 pm.

Working nights meant homework help was done over the phone and checked when I got home – while they were sleeping – and corrections fixed in the morning before they headed out to school.

[caption id="attachment_1016043" align="alignnone" width="768"] Newsday's Features editor Debra Ravello Greaves with her son, Koffy Greaves when he came to TT in April to spend time with his mother. -[/caption]

When I explained to the editor in chief the impact the night shift would have had on my children there was neither sympathy nor empathy.

"You still have a job," was the cold, unforgettable reply. I have had heartless responses through the years but that one cut very deep.

Editors in chief have a paper to run and they can sometimes appear to be devoid of human feelings. But, they have to make tough calls and if it falls to you, you either leave or fight on to the best of your professional ability. That’s how I have survived for decades – using both options. Challenges as a journalist mom are the norm.

I have also had sympathetic EICs who believed in me, like Kathy Ann Waterman, Lennox Grant and the late Therese Mills who showed concern over my family issues and my personal well-being.

Years later, with Waterman as EIC at the Express,