SUPERMOM
Before Stephanie Ruiz opened Eden Salon in 2015, she’d built a hairdressing career out of her guestroom at home, using it as a salon room to work on clients. It was an ideal set-up for her—especially when she was pregnant with her first child. All throughout her pregnancy, Ruiz kept working; and when her son was seven months old, she decided that she was going to take a leap and open her own full-service salon, outside of her home.
SuperMom
STEPHANIE RUIZ Story by Liesel Schmidt
“I went back to work five days a week when both of my girls were two weeks old; so for me, being home during those six weeks of quarantine is a time that I will cherish for the rest of my life!”
Over the next five years, Ruiz worked tirelessly at the salon—and then COVID forced her to temporarily close her doors. The next few months gave her something she’d never had: time off and a chance to shift her priorities. “Being a working mom has definitely changed for me in the last year. I had a chance to re-examine what was most important; and in the midst of it, I told my husband often that my time home was like the maternity leave I’d never had,” says Ruiz, who has been married to her husband, Donovan, for eight years this October. Together, the couple has three children between the ages of six and twoand-a-half. “I went back to work five days a week when both of my girls were two weeks old; so for me, being home during those six weeks of quarantine is a time that I will cherish for the rest of my life!” Now back at work, Ruiz only works two to three days a week rather than five, and she is always there to pick them up from school. The balance she now has may have been hard-won, but she knows that she’s showing her children something essential. “I feel that being a working mom enriches my kids’ lives by showing them that working hard is important, but it’s not more important than time with your family,” says Ruiz, 31. “Something that took me a long time to learn in my work is that it’s okay to say no. I missed a lot of Van’s games because I would be doing weddings on Saturdays. I missed my cousin’s wedding in California and a family reunion because of work. Now I set healthy boundaries with my schedule so that I have a good balance of both my work and my personal life.”
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