Ellen O'Neill

The Woika Family

Heidi and Jon Woika have three sons, Jonah, Henry, and Ethan. Heidi works as a Rodan and Fields cosmetics consultant selling products from home while Jon works as a reserve pilot for the airline JetBlue. Each week Jon is gone for multiple days at a time leaving Heidi home with the “minions.” Jonah, who is seven, and Henry, who is five, both go to school throughout the week which runs from 8:25am to 3:25pm. Heidi makes the boys stay in bed until 7am and they have a slow morning of breakfast and getting ready for school. In the afternoon while the boys are at school and Ethan, who is 10 months old, is down for a nap, Heidi uses her time to do housework and to work on her cosmetics business. The time she is alone with no one around is very limited. She says, “The most frustrating part of parenting is constantly getting interrupted.” She regularly has a large load of laundry to fold and while she keeps an eye on the baby.

When the boys get home from school, they have a snack and play games inside or outside until dinner. During the evening the family Skypes with Jon while he is away and they eat dinner together. When Jon is home, Heidi tries to make at least one nice dinner with sophisticated foods such as butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and chicken. Then she eats on the leftovers throughout the week and makes the boys “kid” food, such as mac and cheese. Jonah and Henry are “selfimposed vegetarians,” and only eat a select number of fruits and vegetables. They eat peanut butter and jelly and peanut butter and nutella sandwiches everyday for lunch. After dinner, Jonah and Henry continue playing around the house while Heidi cleans up.

“4:30pm to bedtime is a shitshow.” Heidi says, “The sooner the bedtime routine begins, the sooner the boys make it to bed.” Every other day the boys get baths from one or both of their parents then they spend time together as a family. However, on the off days Heidi gives the boys each a good “wipe down,” which includes their hands, mouths, and bottoms. She brushes and flosses their teeth then reads them a bedtime story before they go to bed at 8pm. When she gets all three boys to bed, she has a glass of wine and at 9pm she has a weekly video conference call with her Rodan and Fields team discussing upcoming promotions and events. She says, “The goal is to be in bed by 10pm, but the reality is 10:30pm or 11pm.”