The Washington, DC area is full of amazing moms. There are working moms, stay-at-home moms, single moms, moms of multiples, foster moms, adoptive moms, etc. We want to highlight some of those moms like Caroline Gould. Each month we will feature one special mom as the Mom of the Month. Know a fellow amazing local mom here? Nominate them here!
Meet our December Mom of the Month: Caroline Gould
Caroline Gould is a mom, wife, middle sister, fitness instructor, adaptive rowing coach, real estate marketing consultant, (last three for hire) sometimes independent film actress, always favorite aunt, and never a reptile enthusiast.
She lives in Chevy Chase with her son Weston (3), husband Dale, and her very old yet very young-looking cat Ginger. Caroline moved to Washington, D.C. in 2008 following her graduation from Cornell University and has worked in various areas of multifamily real estate for the past 16 years including asset management, architecture, marketing, operations and development. In 2011 she received her master’s degree from Georgetown University in Corporate Communication and Public Relations. In 2021 she graduated Harvard University on Zoom with a master’s degree in Digital Media Design.
She has a love of sketch comedy, theatre, and independent film – working in front of the camera and behind the scenes in both writing and publicity. In 2017, she was awarded a grant by the Awesome Foundation which she used to bring Women in Horror Month to Washington, D.C. Caroline was part of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington’s Developing Leader Program and remains dedicated to the organization. On evenings and weekends, she is an assistant rowing coach with Capital Adaptive Rowing Program.
Here is our Q&A with Caroline Gould
1. How do you find the confidence to be the best advocate for your child and their wellbeing?
I don’t think I had to “find” it at all. My confidence is innate, unshakeable, and loud. I think that’s the case for any mother or parent. I am relentless in fighting for Weston. I am not afraid of facing any one or anything when it comes to my child.
2. How do you unwind or take time for yourself as a working mom and mom to a child with special needs?
You have to advocate for your own “you” time. Not every event needs attending, not every text needs answering (I currently have 641 unread texts…yet my life and the world still seems to be functioning just fine). Protect your peace and energy. No one is going to do it for you.
People with disabilities and their caregivers just do not get the same 24 hours in a day. (For example, Weston can have 25-30 medical appointments per month). Motherhood and parenting a child with disabilities has made me extremely possessive of my time with rock solid boundaries. As the great Kim Cattrall said, “I don’t want to be in a situation for even an hour when I am not enjoying myself.” I’d expand this to also include working toward my personal fulfillment and professional goals and supporting my family. If it’s not one of those three – it’s not happening in my free time.
I love to do all kind of things with my free time: foremost, I love to play with and be with Weston, I have the best friends here in the DMV and long-distance, and am very dedicated to fitness.
3. What do you want other moms and parents to know about your life?
I will start off by reflecting the question back and reminding the reader that this is a question about my life and caveat that my response is about just that, and not a treatise about the experiences of others or the world in general.
I will use a recent real-life example: don’t park in the handicap parking space. On one of the last days of school for my son, a parent, who I considered a friend, and who I know is not disabled or has a disabled person in their family, parked in the handicap space. Despite school security telling them not to park there, they moved the cone blocking the space and did it anyway.
Using this space because they wanted to for convenience is not the same as a disabled person or caregiver using it because they need it to attempt to gain some equity in their daily life. Every day, people with disabilities and their caregivers find themselves with additional hurdles, robbed of time, dealing with adverse impacts and being pressured to, if not, forced to accept “less than” despite clearly advocating for ours needs.
Call it what you want, being an “ally” or just a good person does not take grand gestures and heavy lifts. Just start with not parking in the handicap space if you don’t need it.
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