Jean Brown is a mother to 13 children, 11 of whom she and her husband adopted. One day, she was feeding two of her sons lunch at home. They had eaten a full box of prepared Kraft Macaroni and Cheese between them but wanted more.
Brown told her sons there wasn’t any left, and the boys ran off to play. However, Brown said she never wanted to be in that position again.
The mother said she then realized it was time for her to go to work.
“We could have survived financially, but it would have been really challenging, so I wanted to contribute to my family,” she said.
Using her background in nursing and business, she then founded Jean Brown Research, a center that conducts clinical trials to determine if medicine is safe and effective.
While Brown grew successful in this business, she also struggled with guilt and faced judgment from family and others around her.
“It’s sort of a catch-22 to me,” she said. “We encourage women to get an education and be successful, but then we frown on them if they choose to use their education to do something in addition to full-time mothering and to earn money.”
Brown is not alone in this experience. In Brown’s book, “Prayers and Paychecks: A Guide for Mothers Who Work,” Brown gathers the stories and comments of 60 working mothers, many of whom face the same difficulties she did.
“It was the book that I longed for, because I wanted someone to understand my dilemma,” Brown said.
Brown is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The author and mother said she found comfort in God.
“You’ll have your times when it’s very hard, but that will sustain you, is that knowledge that God is with you, and then you are capable of anything,” she said.
While there is not a set release date, Brown plans to publish the book as soon as possible, hoping that her wisdom can help mothers in the same situation she was in.