  When I was pregnant with my son six years ago, I read all the books, registered for all the gear, took a childbirth class. But not one piece of information I devoured talked about how to prepare to be a working mom.  "You just do it," was the most advice I received, albeit from a friend who would call me crying during her commute. "It's awful, but it gets better." That wasn't enough for me. Not then, and certainly not now that I have two children and have spent five years navigating my way in and out of law firms and in-house counsel positions.  I, like many of my peers, feel compelled to "do it all." This wasn't much of a challenge before I had children. I became a lawyer and landed a position at a prestigious national law firm. I inserted myself into a predominantly male practice group just to push the envelope a little further. I bought a house (on my own), got married and continued to get promoted. By all accounts, I had it all.  And then we added a baby to our growing family.  Once I was back at the office with a new title  -  working mom  -  my resources (time, energy and good standing) quickly wore thin. Yet I continued to pile it on: birthday parties, laundry, daily home cooked meals. I didn't outsource a single chore. I can do it all, I told myself, I am Superwoman.  Superwoman Syndrome  -  generally defined as the female propensity to look inside one's self for solutions, rather than seeking help elsewhere  -  is a real phenomenon, one that Betty Friedan tried to get women to say no to in 0000. Yet decades later, we are still trying and failing. A large part of this comes from the fact that society sees the question of how we do it all as an inherently private inquiry, one that must be answered for ourselves without support from either our government or our employers.  Many of us in the trenches know that this way of thinking not only puts an extraordinary burden on mothers, but it also lets many politicians, managers and fathers off the hook. Progress needs to come both from external sources, as well as letting go of the limiting belief that women need to do it all.  To prepare myself for the demands of being a working mother, I wish I had adopted one or more of the following strategies.  