Quotes from Catherine Reitman

I knew how to come up with jokes at someone's expense really fast.

When I first got pregnant, my husband and I were huge consumers of premium cable television, and we were watching all of these shows, and it would either be the B-storyline of a show like 'Homeland,' where she's a working mother, or you have even smaller C-storylines on a show like 'Mad Men.'

There's a different expectation, not just on mothers but on women. We're expected to do it all, to have it all, and look good through the process and have a smile on our face, and that's not always the case.

Breastfeeding takes a toll on your body... your spirit.

Part of being a mother - part of the comedy of it, anyway - is what happens to your body.

It took me a long time to blossom. Everyone else understood how to socialize and how to look. I didn't get the memo.

Unfortunately, it's the new normal to get divorced - and divorced with children is its own soil rich with land mines. There's a lot of comedy but a lot of heartache, too.

Having children is messy and easy to judge.

I had such a crush on Sasha Mitchell from 'Step By Step.'

When people stop me to say they love 'Workin' Moms,' it's not just that the show makes them laugh or is a great escape - they tell me my, or another, character's story is their story.

I love my kids more than anything. I love them more than me in some ways.

There's so much dishonesty with motherhood in general... The truth is it's just a lot of embarrassing, humiliating moments.

'Workin' Moms,' obviously, is about mothers who also work. But we're also expected to remain graceful when we return to work, and that's just impossible.

There's just an incredible amount of loneliness as a mother, all this solitude no one really speaks to.

I don't have a perfect meal on the table most nights. Any night!

Stay-at-home mothers, working mothers, people are very tough on each other. I don't see that in the world of men. I don't see working men who have children, and those who don't, judging each other. I think there's a different category of expectation.

You can have a career and kids who love you. But you have to nurture yourself and find a way to be fulfilled so you're not resentful.

I really enjoy working. I really enjoy telling stories. I really enjoy acting. The idea that I would have a baby and stop doing that was unrealistic to me.

Because there is less female storytelling, especially motherhood storytelling, there has been immense pressure on my storytelling to represent more people, and to do so in a sort of unrealistic way.

We should go after our dreams and not be apologetic about it, but it's scary. Whether you want to work or not, you have to do what makes you a fuller person. You have to love yourself.

Taking lunch by myself every once in a while and slowing down - that helps me a lot.