Calling All Moms, Mothers, and Mommies!

Are you a Mom who works outside the home, or who quit a full-time job to spend more time with your kids? Did you learn anything from your Mother -- directly or indirectly -- that influenced your career path? Professional Detours wants to hear from you!

We're working on an exciting feature for Mother's Day paying tribute to Moms from all walks of life. We're collecting your thoughts on being a working mom, quitting work to be a mom, or going back to work after spending a few months, years, or decades as a stay-at-home mom. Please share your thoughts in the comments, and we'll be compiling them (along with submissions collected via e-mail, Facebook, and through personal interviews.

A few questions to get you started:

1) What job(s) did you have before your kid(s) were born that they would be surprised to know about?

2) How did becoming a parent change the way you think about work and your career?

3) Whether you had a stay-at-home mom or one who worked outside the home, what did you learn from your mother that influenced your career path? (All are welcome to answer this one!)

Mom Week will begin on May 2 with daily bios on famous working moms from history and end with a special article based on your feedback on May 6. Thanks for posting, and don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for all our updates!

Professional Detours to Officially Launch on 3/4/11

After months of planning, we've got our first few interviews done and are exuberantly working on our inaugural posts. The full site will go live on Friday, March 4, and updates will happen every Friday thereafter. We've got some fascinating stories to share, including:

- A high school teacher who never steps into a classroom

- What to do with a biology degree when you realize you hate lab work

- "It's a Wonderland:" A programmer talks about going from a rat-infested basement office to the #1 company in the nation

And that's just a start! We've also got interviews lined up with a professional video gamer, a wedding photographer, and a former linguistics professor and zookeeper who abandoned both to write books.

Do you know someone who should be featured on Professional Detours? Email us!

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates.