Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer Expecting Identical Twin Girls

This makes me so sad. Being pregnant is an amazing experience not given to all women, you will have 2 newborns and you take 2 weeks off from work? “Taking limited time away and working throughout”. Is this the example you set as the CEO to your staff? Why? I am a full time working mum, I thoroughly enjoy my job, but love my children. You are entitled to maternity leave. So again: why?

Cornelia. She’s a CEO of a major company not the manager of a grocery store. She needs to keep her company going. It’s a major responsibility. She’s not just responsible for three lives, she’s responsible for all her employees and their families. That’s what it means to be a CEO.

I had twins when I was 37 turned 38 the next month. I worked full time, up to that Friday, delivered them on Sunday. They were perfect, no NICU, no nothing. I think having a busy life made for a smooth labor and delivery. Congrats to them, and blessings. Twins rule 🙂

She must have some kickass nannies!

As a previous poster said, this is sad. Hopefully one of her nannies will form the necessary bond with the babies. 2 weeks off? if you have good people working for you, you can ensure the job is getting done while you are home with your newborns.
She actually sets the wrong example in this case. WP.

It is very likely that the babies will be with her or close by with appropriate care. Just because you are present doesn’t mean you are a present, if you know what I mean. If it works for their family then great. Maybe the father provides the child care, or a nanny. Whatever works for them and if they raise well adjusted successful human beings then great.

I can’t imagine having only two full weeks off with my son before going back to work. The time spent with him before he went to Kindergarten was some of the best of my life. Glad I wasn’t on a fast business track.

For God’s sake stay home with your KIDS!

I agree that women should take time off and bond with their children normally, but this is a different case. She doesn’t exactly have to punch the clock at 8 am every morning. She can set her hours and she also has a whole nursery set up at Yahoo and can take breaks to breastfeed. She will bond with the babies just fine. I guess it would be nice if she clarified that in any statements and assured regular employees at Yahoo that they will still get maternity leave as usual.

Sad she doesn’t feel the need to take some time off and bond with her babies. What’s the rush? In regards to being a role model, she should be leading the charge for work/life balance.

Yes, it’s her prerogative but she should have management under her to take the helm AND given this total technological world we live in, she could take more time off if she chose to and not at the detriment of all the employees at Yahoo. As someone who does work, if your business can’t stay afloat with one person out of the office, even for weeks at a time, then that doesn’t say much about the other employees there. So give me a break to all those that are acting like Yahoo will go belly up without her there.

Secondly, for all the other working women in the world that really would like more time off with their newborns this really sets back that as acceptable. Yes, it does. Because this will get media attention and other managers and bosses will think “well she only took off two weeks for twins, why do you want off six weeks with your one baby?” Trust me, it will happen. So, not she’s not a great positive role model for working women who are doing their best to balance work and home and who have their priorities in the right place. And 99% of the working women I know, don’t work because it’s a choice, they work to make ends meet.

2 weeks off? No one is that indispensable!

Why are people jumping up and down on this woman? Families can decide to take whatever time they think they need or want after having kids. And you know what? It’s no one else’s business but their own. People need to mind their own business. I am not a parent, but my best friend is and she can’t stand it when people give her “suggestions” on parenting. If they wanted your help they would ask for it.

Congrats to them. @Jen, me too. I had them at 39 and turn 40 the following month, they weighed (boy was 7 lbs 10oz, girl was 7lbs. 2 oz) .

I am sad to see that she is taking only two weeks off. Other managers will show her as an example to their employees and encourage them to take limited time off as well. As women, we fought hard for our maternity leaves. I am very disappointed.

Ladies.. Please stop attacking other women!! Stop!!! Just stop!! There’s so few executives at this level that are female.. it’s her CHOICE to go back when she wants.. and it’s not like she’s a firefighter or something very physical. She’s a CEO.. I’d bet (and I’m not criticizing) she has a maid, cook and all other assistance to make this easier.. heck if I could, I would too!

I hope she is able to do that. Identical twins are usually mono/mono or mono/di (shared placenta, sac, or both) and the last few months of pregnancy could be rougher than she is anticipating. I get that she is going to treat it just like her first (which she should). But, she has to understand that carrying twins (especially identicals) is NOT the same as a singleton. There are more risks (not that they will happen, it’s just the likelihood is higher.) I have twins (fraternal – not identical) and was incredibly grateful for my time off and that they had no time in the NICU. (Although I must admit, I thought I’d work from home too during maternity leave and it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be! 🙂 ) I’m sure she has to announce limited time off so shareholders and the Board don’t freak out. Good luck to her and prayers for big, healthy babies and being able to juggle it all!

This is not sad. This is what she wants to do. There isn’t only one way to raise a child, and women’s liberation is about women being able to make the choices that work for them. My mother was a CFO in the 1950s and my brother and I were just fine with a nanny (and then school) during the day and our parents to help us with our homework at night. Sometimes it would only be one parent because both of my parents had demanding careers and travel. But one of them was always home at night except for a couples vacation a twice a year. They balanced it all and raised stable, happy kids who excelled in their own careers and lives. Choice is good.

Congratulations to her! I see nothing wrong with her going back to work after only 2 weeks. I doubt she will stay the entire day and I am sure she will have plenty of time to bond with her girls. I am not the CEO of a company such as Yahoo, but I run several local businesses in the DC area and I am due in April. I plan on going back to work after 2 weeks, but I am fortunate enough to be able to bring the baby with me a few times a week. Every family runs differently, but they find a way to make it work.

Ladies, calm down! As mothers, we know nothing goes as planned. And as a mom of twins myself, I know. Respect her choice, we know it not a choice we would make. And that’s fine.

As someone who is now in her 70’s, had my children when people were fighting for it to be acceptable to have children and a job at the same time. and also was part of the drive for women to be able to CHOOSE to be able to do both, here’s my 2 cents. Melissa Mayer has a nursery at her office…she can, if she chooses, hold a baby and lead a meeting, and people will understand. She will be able to nurse her children, if she chooses, and do her job from home, as well. Her situation IS unique from yours; as CEO of a major company in transition, she is responsible for many jobs, and this is not the time to say, “Well, hey, no biggie, but I’m sure everything will run just fine while I take 6 months and just sit around in my nightgown and hold the babies…” Internet companies can turn on a dime these days. She is choosing to have a family and work, and to our knowledge is doing fine at both…some people can. She can hire excellent people to help her and she can work from home part time and the office part time. Yes, she has options you don’t. Some people have more money than others and you know what? That’s okay! She’s worked hard to get where she is, and just because she made a different choice doesn’t mean yours is wrong (which is the msg you are afraid of), nor does it mean everyone should make the same choice. She has announced no initiative of taking away maternity leave for Yahoo! employees, nor has she indicated her way is the only way, or better than yours. When employed by a large company, one of the problems with women getting ahead is the idea that if they have a family, they won’t be there for important steps ahead for the company, and that drifts down all the way to the minions no one thinks about. Her family, their choice, and congratulations on your twins to come, Ms Mayer! Hope you continue to have a great pregnancy and 2 lovely babies!!

Cornelia, there is a HUGE difference. I highly doubt that you are the CEO of a huge corporation. While she has a responsibility to her family, she also has a responsibility to her employees and their families as well. It’s not quite the same thing.

She is a terrible mother and role model for women. Handing your newborns off to various nannies so she can return to her job is not something I ever wish to emulate. She has millions of dollars and could take as much time off as she wants. The fact she chooses not to tells me where her priorities lay.

She can take minimal time off MUCH more easily than other mothers of newborns because she has her own private nursery built into her office. And she had it built at the same time she banned telework at Yahoo. She has the money and power to bring home to her in the office, but she won’t let anyone telework. She’s not the great role model for women people think she is.

I am happy for her, but do not agree with emphasizing how little time she will be away from work. It is well-proven that long-term productivity increases with parental leave. CEOs should set examples. And many CEOs do, especially in the tech world. It is a disgrace that America is the only developed country in the world with no mandatory parental leave.

@Cornelia, I so agree. Sometimes woman that have it easier than others make me barf!

Newsflash CEO, it’s a “unique transformation” in the lives of those 2 babies!!!! Spend the time now or you will regret it later.

Really? This is what it’s come to with motherhood? Bragging about the “limited” time she’s taking off and working throughout? As others have said, she’s doing a grave disservice to other mothers who actually want more time off to bond with their child (thank God I live in Canada, the country that gives a full year off, the best decision my dad ever made to move here!!!) and will never get it because their bosses will tell them to “suck it up” and do as Melissa Mayer did. Of course she neglects to mention all the flexibility and help she’ll get because she can afford it and can demand it as CEO (nursery in office, nannies galore, working from home) so the little time off really means nothing in terms of the supposed “sacrifice” she’s making for her job. What a reprehensible woman.

I too, was pregnant with twins at 40, with a 3 year old a home. I hope it works out the way she plans, with no complications. My body needed more rest than work at 30 weeks, and I delivered at 34 weeks. One twin the in NICU for 6 weeks. Then we had 6 months of 90 minutes a sleep per night. Good luck!

I had a very, very difficult birth (we both nearly died) and I stuck to my 2-month (pre-emergency) maternity plan to get back to work. Worse, I started teleworking early after only a couple of weeks, then nearly all the time. In retrospect, it was a bad decision. I’m still not healed up (c-section). Baby’s doing great. But, seriously…with twins… no harm in padding in extra time just in case! I developed eclampsia 5 weeks before my due date. Never planned on the c-section, etc.

Couldn’t imagine not staying home with my son. If given the opportunity why wouldn’t a mom want to be with her babies? Why have children if you’re going to leave them at 2 weeks. Sure hope her job is worth it.

Congratulations to Marissa and her family.

She is Yahoo CEO? Yeah could more nannies if she needs!

She has a huge support staff and the resources to do this. I think if it works for her family, that’s great! Would all of you be freaking out if a male CEO said he was going back to work 2 weeks after his twins were born? I have no doubt these babies will be well taken care off.

As long as she is not requiring such a short maternity leave from her employees (who don’t have the resources she has), I’m fine with it. She is the CEO of Yahoo and her job is quite important.

I still believe we should have paid maternity leave in this country.

Marissa Mayer loves all the attention that she is now getting. Now that she is pregnant once again. But for Marissa Mayer getting attention is what it is all about. She was hired to be the face of Yahoo! because she is such a pretty face.

But she is not the woman she is portrayed to be. Nowhere near the woman she is portrayed to be.

She is portrayed as the woman who has it all. And the woman who is capable of doing it all. But the only thing she has is beauty. And the only thing she does is be beautiful. Her career is a make-believe. And so is her family life.

At Yahoo! she is purely an image. She is the face of Yahoo!. She has no business acumen or managerial skills of any kind. Anything she can do can be done ten times better by someone way below her in the company’s hierarchy. And she knows it.

She is viewed as a role model. And she certainly wants to be viewed as a role model. But she is only a model, not a role model. Nothing more than a model.

And she is certainly competitive as a model. She is competitive with any female model that you see on the cover of a magazine or in a TV commercial. She is as beautiful as any model who has ever endorsed a product. And that’s exactly what she is: A beautiful model endorsing Yahoo!. That’s what Yahoo! expects from her and that’s what Yahoo! gets from her. It is why she was hired. And her salary is commensurate with the going rate for a top model endorsing a product.

And Yahoo! is certainly getting their money’s worth as far as image. She has been so good with the PR and she has made Yahoo! classy and sexy. She certainly has her fans. And the obsessed will argue that there can be no Yahoo! without Marissa Mayer. That’s how big she has become. She has revolutionized the image of Yahoo! with her grace and her sexuality.

But that’s what a model does. That’s exactly the job of a model. That’s how Maria Sharapova makes her money. That’s how Kate Upton makes her money. And that’s how Marissa Mayer makes her money. It is all about agreeing to endorse a particular product. But for Yahoo! beauty wasn’t enough: they needed a woman who was also educated. And what they got was a well-educated woman who is stunning in her beauty.

And so she is a model. Not a role model, but a model. Everyone will keep saying that Marissa Mayer is a role model. She is not. She gets paid a huge salary because she is a model who is endorsing a product. The product is Yahoo!.

But it is ludicrous to think that Marissa Mayer has it all. Her career is a farce. So is her family life.

As far as her career, she is not a real CEO with real CEO powers and real CEO duties. She does absolutely nothing to advance Yahoo! on the technical or managerial front. Because there are real experts who take care of those things for the company. They’re not going to let some sexy chick decide the optimal outcome to highly technical and abstruse dilemmas. So the idea that she is this career woman making day-to-day decisions is pure fiction. But a beautiful woman can create any image she wants.

Nor is she much of a wife or mother. Her wealth guarantees that she will have babysitters around the clock and her duties as mother will be completely transferred to paid help. She will see and hold her children only when it is convenient for her to do so and only when she feels like it. But that is not a real mother.

And she is not much of a wife. A woman with her beauty and her prominence is getting propositioned by men non-stop. Everyone wants to try her. Everyone wants to undress her. Everyone wants to see just how good she is in bed. To think that she will be able to resist the enormous pressures on her to take her clothes off is ludicrous. Not when those pressures come from men who hold the key to her success. Nor will she resist the advances of men whom she finds attractive. A woman can have many partners. She can have sex more than once a day. And there can be little doubt that Marissa Mayer is extremely active sexually. Her marriage is a farce.

What gave her away was when she said that her priorities are “God, family and Yahoo!, in that order.” You can tell just by looking at the chick that she has no religious framework or religious feelings or religious ties of any kind. So when she mentioned God and put God first on the list you knew right there and then that she was hiding something. She is covering up the fact that she is a loose woman. Unless the woman is visibly religious, that reference to God will give away the woman every time. That’s when you know she’s a whore. A promiscuous woman will always find a way to bring God into the conversation. And that’s what Marissa Mayer was doing. No slut will ever say that she is a slut.

This is so sad! One of the biggest issues today is leave for working parents. Does she know what her selfish choice is doing? Not only is she missing precious time to bond with her children, she is giving the movement for other working parents (that wish for leave) a black eye.

Of course she can afford to hire as much help as she needs, she may even put them in her companies campus daycare but what other choice do we all have compared to her? People will look at her as the example when her choice, in the public eye like this is rather toxic.

Shame on you Marissa!