For many women, going back to work a few months after having a baby is overwhelming and unmanageable. As strange as it may seem, things get even more difficult for a working mom after the second and third baby arrive. By that time, the romance of being a modern ’superwoman’ wears off and reality sets in.

Brzezinski highlights the often-understated strain of returning to paid work soon after childbirth, emphasizing that the challenge can intensify with subsequent children as responsibilities compound. The quote critiques the cultural ideal of the “modern superwoman”—the expectation that women can seamlessly excel at career, motherhood, and domestic life without structural support. By contrasting “romance” with “reality,” she suggests that early optimism or social praise can mask the ongoing logistical, emotional, and physical demands of caregiving. Implicitly, the passage points toward the need for more realistic narratives about working motherhood and for workplace and policy changes (leave, childcare, flexibility) that reduce the burden placed on individual women.