To all the moms out there, I hope you had a happy Mother’s Day!

I had the chance to hear from some outstanding mothers at the 45th Annual Outstanding Mother Awards, held at the Pierre Hotel in New York City on May 11. The event, which each year honors female executives who have balanced motherhood with building impactful careers, is held annually by the National Mother’s Day Committee, an entity of the Father’s Day/Mother’s Day Council, a nonprofit, organization that donates funds to family-related charities. To date, the National Father’s Day/Mother’s Day Council has donated over $30 million to deserving family-related charities nationwide. This year, the awards luncheon raised a record $800,000 to benefit Save the Children’s U.S. programs.

The 2023 honorees were: Tracey Travis, executive vice president and chief financial officer of the Estée Lauder Cos.; Elizabeth Buchanan, chief commercial officer of e-commerce solutions platform, Rokt (and Women in Retail sponsor partner), and Monica Arnaudo, chief merchandising officer at Ulta Beauty. Natalie Pasquarella, the anchor at NBC-4 New York was the event’s mistress of ceremonies.

Each honoree shared their experiences balancing motherhood and work, and detailed the challenges they have endured and how gratifying their respective journeys have been.

“I’ve had many different roles in my life, but without a doubt, the one that has brought me the most happiness — and anxiety and worry at times — but mostly pride and joy, has been the privilege of being mother of my two girls, Alexandria and Adrienne,” said Travis, who added that they were both in the audience celebrating her.

She added that, despite being told that raising children and occupying a C-suite role were “incompatible,” she has found the opposite to be true: “My life is proof that a career journey can be a family journey too, and for me, each path has enriched the other,” she said.

She closed with a word of advice to the young mothers and future mothers in the audience. “Cherish the moments you have with your children. They go by much too fast. Treasure all the moments, even those that are challenging, find your balance and live your life to the fullest.”

Next, Buchanan spoke. She addressed each of her five children — all whom were in the audience —  as her “favorite child” in their own way. “My favorite child is Sarah, when you set the example for me of how to lead with love,” said Buchanan. Next, she said, her favorite child is Hannah, who gives her hugs when she doesn’t realize she needs them. Charlotte, she addressed next, saying she was her favorite child because she reminds her how to be a better listener. And Sophie, who was born with congenital heart disease and has endured several operations on her heart, has taught Buchanan “how to have courage to climb a mountain.” Finally, she addressed her only son Baxter, as her “favorite son,” because he taught her how to relish the small yet beautiful moments.

Next, Arnaudo took the stage. She spoke directly to her two children, Eric, who was in the audience and Kayla, who had joined the event on Facetime from California. “I’m so proud of the human beings you have become. I adore watching you evolve, grow and shine, and you’re everything to me,” she said.

She also said that from her perspective, all mothers  — and fathers — are outstanding because “together we bring precious lives into this world, our children. We love them. We raise them. We honor them and we do our very best to create loving human beings to continue the journey of life.”

But, she added, “let’s be real. It’s not always easy, especially when you are trying to build your careers. And while we have come a long way in supporting working parents, we can still do better. Doing better can be as big as making policy changes or making company benefit changes, but it can also just be simple things such as showing love, care, and empathy for the people you work with who are also trying to build a career.”