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Why the idea of 'leaning out' is resonating with thousands of moms

NEEDHAM, Mass. — Sarah Friedberg is a wife, mother of three and microbiologist for a medical device company.

Throw in a couple of cats and a dog, and the Needham mother has her hands full -- and she loves it.

In a now-viral post that's both tongue-in-cheek and extremely honest, she wrote about the difficulties of being a good mom, wife and career woman.

Her Facebook post touches on hot-button mom issues including: breastfeeding, working, losing baby weight, feeding the kids healthy meals and self-care.

"It was just one of those days and it was hard," Needham mother Sara Friedberg said. "Our life is great. We have these three wonderful kids. I work in a career that I love, in a job that I love. And all those things are wonderful. But some days it's a little bit hard to keep everything going."

Last Thursday was one of those days. Friedberg vented on Facebook about all the expectations she feels society places on working moms.

"Make sure to break the glass ceiling and excel at your job -- you can do anything a man can do! It is your job to show society this! Show the world that women can do it all," The post said. "Maybe go out after the kids are down for a glass of wine and a bite to eat. Make it a healthy bite though. And you may regret that wine at your 5:30 a.m. spin class."

"I think social media -- it looks like everyone is handling things flawlessly. I think that's what resonated. It's that I didn't handle it great that day and I talked about it," she said.

Her words were both frank and funny and ended with, "I don't know about you, but I'm ready to lean out."

Apparently, Friedberg isn't alone. One week later, the post has been shared 43,000 times.

"It made me feel better that other people find things hard sometimes too," she said. "And it's not just, you know, me."

She wants to make clear she's not complaining because at the end of the day, she wouldn't change a thing.

"I'll read them books at night every night and put them to bed. And the craziness of the day is in a little bit better perspective after that," she said.

Friedberg also says she has a wonderful husband who does more than his fair share with the kids and home. But she says sometimes the expectations all add up from how moms should look, how involved they should be at school, how they should parent -- sometimes you just need to press pause.