Kathy Zucker

Award winning writer • startup founder • mom of 3

momlife

Create Celebrations That Satisfy Your Soul

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What do you want for your ‪birthday‬? my ‪husband‬ asks. The ‪kids‬ are asking for ‪dinner‬ out, but it’s supposed to snow, I reply. I would rather ‎cook‬ dinner and spend the ‪money‬ we save on a ‪shopping‬ excursion. The kids can decorate the ‪homemade‬ cake I ‪baked‬ and froze.

The day before the big day, I take the cake out of the freezer. Go shopping for dinner ingredients. Along the way, I stop at my favorite clothing retailer. There, I find exactly what I am looking for. A new ‪pink‬ handbag. A silver backpack for ‪sports‬ and ‪family‬ outings. A new set of ‪fencing‬ warm-ups. And? A ‪blue‬ shirt in exactly the color of my ‪college‬ sports ‪team‬ colors.

Two weeks ago, I traveled to Waltham, MA to watch my college win the fencing NCAA championships. While I was packing for the trip, I discovered something – I do not own anything in my college colors of pale blue and white. With no time to go shopping, I packed a bag full of black and white garments, and added in pink shoes and handbags. The result? Nobody could tell I was affiliated with my school except when they happened to notice the embroidered logo on my black quilted vest. Which, of course, I wore nonstop during the four day fencing expedition.

So when I spotted a pale blue v-neck top on the rack at my favorite store? My eye was drawn to it like a magnet. And when I tried it on, and it fit perfectly? I headed online to search for more.

Kathy Zucker is an international social media Shorty Award winner, mother of three and a startup founder at companies including the Metro Moms Network®.

Find New Adventures In Familiar Places – Liberty Science Center Summer Camp

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What are we doing with the ‪kids‬ this summer? my ‪husband‬ asks. Camp applications lie on the ‪dining‬ table, brought ‪home‬ in ‪school‬ backpacks. Can we decide tomorrow? I ask. I am racing between the bedroom and washing machine, carrying a load of ‪laundry‬. The ‪baby‬ just threw up and I am bracing for another night of waking up every thirty minutes to give her three sips of juice.

One week passes. Two. I check in with the mom ‪friend‬ who has hosted ‪swim‬ class every summer for the last five years. Yes, we are on for this ‎summer‬, she says. And then? An email arrives in my inbox from our favorite ‪museum‬. Is your ‪family‬ interested in attending ‪science‬ camp? the ‪marketing‬ representative asks. I cannot reply yes fast enough. Why? Because mykids have been begging to attend this ‪camp‬ for the last three years. And this year? For the first time ever, there are age categories that fit all three of my children.

Last weekend at fencing NCAA championships, people kept asking me the same question – do you make money at social media and blogging? And the answer? Is yes.

Do I make a lot of money? No. Do I have the opportunity to make a lot more money than I do? Yes. I turn down more than 90% of the paid opportunities that I am offered. Why? Because I am in this for the long haul. That means I think long and hard about every opportunity I am offered. Many of them are amazing, things that I would have been thrilled to accept in the past. But I know what I am doing and where I am headed. And that means I need to associate myself with places and events that fit my future, not my past.

One of those places? Is Liberty Science Center. Of all the places where I have been over the last ten years, that is one that keeps giving me everything my family and I need, and far more. LSC sponsors events that I host. They serve as a professional reference for work projects. They are a major part of the book I am publishing later this month. Every single experience I had had over the last decade with LSC has more than exceeded my expectations. So when the LSC staff invited my family to spend the month of July at their newly expanded science summer camp? The kids and I were thrilled to accept.

Every time I need something, LSC comes through. And the best part? Every experience is filled with joy. I only do things my children are excited about. And they have been talking for weeks about the fun they are going to have this summer.

Kathy Zucker is an international social media Shorty Award winner, mother of three and a startup founder at companies including the Metro Moms Network®.

Create Teams Everywhere You Go – Philadelphia Franklin Institute

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My ‪son‬ is an only child, the other mom says. He is not used to playing with other ‪kids‬. My ‪toddler‬ has just climbed onto a stool beside a stack of wooden blocks. The ‪goal‬? To ‪build‬ a pyramid.

The two kids carefully place block after block in the center of the diagram. The corners? Have them stumped. The other mom and I step in, pointing to shapes that match the outlined areas. My ‪daughter‬ defers to the older boy, letting him guide her in placing blocks. And by the end of the ‪play‬ session? He is protective of her right to build when another child arrives.

Every time I go places, I never know who my family is going to meet. Sometimes, I hear my name called in a checkout line. In front of the Liberty Bell. And other times? We make new friends. How do we do this? By sharing bonding experiences.

Whenever possible, I exchange email addresses. Connect with new friends on social media. And then? The next time we meet, we are old friends making another memory together.

Kathy Zucker is an international social media Shorty Award winner, mother of three and a startup founder at companies including the Metro Moms Network®.

Start Conversations That Last a Lifetime – Philadelphia Vacation

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Let’s go to Philadelphia for the kids’ spring break vacation, my husband says. We might be able to find the restaurant where we had our first date.

When my boyfriend and I were nineteen and twenty-one, we traveled together to the Temple Open, the first competition of the college fencing season. Our college team members begged him to go with me so they would not have to put up with three hours of nonstop fencing conversation. That train journey turned into a relationship that has lasted twenty-one years and generated three children. And also? Thousands of hours of fencing talk.

If you had asked me twenty years ago where I would wind up, I never in a million years would have said I would be where I am. Staying home was the last thing on my mind. And yet, when the moment came to make the decision to go back to work? I would have done anything on earth to stay home. Looking back, there were numerous clues. My desire to spend time with my dog. My tendency to work from home to avoid endless meetings that resulted in piles of work being heaped on my shoulders. Why did I inevitably wind up with lots of work after communal conversations? Because I get things done. And when you are someone who gets things done, everyone knows it and comes to you for help.

Over the years, my area of focus has simultaneously become much smaller and much larger. How is that possible? you ask. My focus has become narrower because there are five people at the center of it – me, my husband and our three children. But it has also grown much larger because the group of people who we interact with has become enormous. Fencers. Other families. Bloggers. Local friends. Every time a member of my family makes a deep connection with someone, we keep that person in our lives. We may only see each other once a year, but the threads of connection are present 365 days of the year.

And when we do see our friends in person? It is like no time at all has passed.

Kathy Zucker is an international social media Shorty Award winner, mother of three and a startup founder at companies including the Metro Moms Network®.

Find Yourself – 2016 #NCAAFencing Championships

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There are moments in every person’s life when you have the opportunity to make an impact on other people’s lives. And along the way? To find your place in the world.

I spent this past weekend at the NCAA Fencing Championships in Waltham, MA. And? I was there without my husband. I missed him every moment of every day. Every time I ran into someone I knew – and I knew probably half of the coaches and officials because I used to fence with them – they asked if Noah was there. My answer? I left him home with the kids.

Why did I go to the most prestigious college tournament without my husband, a two-time All-American and someone so synonymous with college sports that for decades, people have approached him on the street because they recognized him from our school newspaper? Because I needed to do this.

I had a stealth fencing career, primarily after college. I remember a fencer coming into the locker room at our club and saying, I took a look at the results list from a NAC and you are really good! She had no idea that I was consistently making the top 32 at national competitions. And she wasn’t the only one. People largely identify me with administrative roles in the fencing world. But the reality is that at the same time as I was serving on boards of directors and running tournaments, I was also training and competing at a pretty high level. My husband and I used to fence each other multiple times a week – when we started again this fall after an absence of a decade, the experience was so familiar and joyful that we both started laughing. We are competitive with each other, don’t get me wrong. We both want to win all the time. But that doesn’t stop us from recognizing what the other needs to do, and getting out of each other’s way.

And that is what happened this weekend. Was my husband jealous that I got to watch our college win it all? Absolutely yes. But he also knew that I need to get out from under his shadow and establish my own identity. I can more than stand on my own in the fencing community. And now the entire world knows that.

Kathy Zucker is an international social media Shorty Award winner, mother of three and a startup founder at companies including the Metro Moms Network®.

Recap – Day One of 2016 #NCAAFencing

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It was ladies first on Thursday, March 24th at the 2016 NCAA fencing championships at Brandeis Gosman Athletic Center. Rounds one through three of women’s épée, foil and saber were fenced. Rounds four and five are set to begin tomorrow at 9 a.m. EST, with the individual finals to be fenced beginning at 1:30 p.m.

The day began with foil.

Epée was the second event to be fought.

Saber closed out the day.

Team rankings at the end of day one.

NCAA_day1_results

Click here to see live results, or watch on Periscope.

Kathy Zucker is an international social media Shorty Award winner, mother of three and a startup founder at companies including the Metro Moms Network®.