Finding a Balance Between Work and Motherhood

Published 6:22 pm Tuesday, October 20, 2026

For many working parents, one of the hardest parts of the day isn’t getting to work. It’s saying goodbye to their little ones before the workday even begins.

Springfield native Lauren Southern knows that feeling all too well.

As a mother of several children, Southern has spent years thinking about the difficult choices parents, especially mothers, face when raising a family while building a career.

Now she’s hoping to make that decision a little easier for other families.

Southern founded and leads The Company Nanny, a business built on a simple idea: What if parents didn’t have to be so far from their babies while they worked?

But the idea didn’t happen overnight.

Local Roots and Family Life
Southern was born and raised in Springfield, where her family has deep community ties.

Her father, Richard Struckoff, served as Greene County Clerk, while her mother spent many years working for Mercy.

Southern left the Ozarks as a young mother when her husband, a Marine, was stationed at Twentynine Palms, California.

The family also spent time in Washington state during his military service.

Later, her husband’s work with Mercy took them to Oklahoma City and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

About 12 years ago, the family returned to Springfield, ready to settle down and put down some roots.

Through those moves, raising children and balancing family responsibilities, Southern began noticing something that bothered her.

Mothers often faced the same difficult decision after having a baby.

Would they keep working, or stay home?

For some families, there wasn’t much of a choice.

“I have several children and noticed pretty early on that essentially moms have this decision that comes up every time they have a child: are they going to choose a career, or are they going to choose staying at home with their children?” Southern said.

She felt the question itself was unfair.

Many mothers want to keep working while staying involved in their children’s daily lives. Others simply cannot afford to leave the workforce.

Southern wondered why there couldn’t be another option.

Keeping Parents and Babies Closer

That question eventually led Southern to create The Company Nanny.

The concept involves working with employers to provide on-site child care by placing a nanny at the workplace for an agreed-upon period.

Instead of dropping children off at a separate child care facility, the idea is to keep babies close enough that parents can visit during breaks.

Southern says the goal is to give families more flexibility as parents and babies adjust to life together during those early months.

“My mission from the beginning is just to get parents and babies closer together so they can have that personal touch,” she said.

She remembers how emotional it can be for a mother to leave a baby in someone else’s care for the first time.

For many parents, it’s a moment filled with worry, even when they trust their child care provider.

Babies are still learning to communicate, and parents can’t simply ask them how their day went.

Southern believes having a child nearby could provide some peace of mind.

It could also allow parents to spend a few moments holding or comforting their babies during the workday.

And for breastfeeding mothers, she sees another possible benefit.

Instead of spending a break pumping, a mother might be able to nurse her baby directly.

Southern says that’s especially meaningful for women who have worked hard to establish a breastfeeding routine.

She hopes the arrangement could allow mothers to maintain that connection while continuing their professional lives.

An Idea Years in the Making

Southern says she and her husband discussed the challenges of working parenthood for years.

The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to find a way to help.

She wasn’t looking to tell families whether working or staying home was the better choice.

Instead, she wanted to create another possibility for parents who felt caught between the two.

“I just wanted to create a way, I guess, a better way where we could bridge that gap, where we could say you don’t necessarily have to choose between the two,” Southern said.

The Company Nanny is her attempt to put that idea into practice.

Under the proposed arrangement, employers would contract for on-site nanny services as an employee benefit.

Southern hopes the concept will encourage more conversations about the challenges working families face, particularly during the earliest stages of parenthood.

While the business is centered on child care, the issue behind it is one many families understand.

Parents want to provide for their children. They also want to be there for the moments that seem to pass so quickly.

Finding enough time for both isn’t always easy.

Looking at Motherhood a Little Differently

For Southern, the idea comes from years of raising children, moving across the country, and watching other mothers wrestle with the same concerns.

She knows no single answer works for every family.

Some parents prefer traditional day care. Others rely on relatives to help care for their children. Some choose to stay home, while others continue working because they want to or because their families depend on that income.

Southern simply believes parents should have more choices.

And perhaps the biggest part of her idea has nothing to do with business.

It’s about those little moments during the day that parents often miss.

A chance to hold a baby. A chance to feed them. Or just a few minutes together before returning to work.

For a mother who has spent years trying to balance family and career, those moments are worth protecting.

Southern hopes her idea will help more parents discover that raising a family and pursuing a career don’t always have to feel like competing priorities.