Motherhood Didn’t End My Career—It Inspired a New One
Motherhood inspired Vered Benhorin to combine everything she loved into a marketable business that supports her family—and others.
If you’ve ever heard someone describe a pregnancy as a “career-ender” (for shame), Vered Benhorin’s story is the inspiring shift you need. This woman is a living example of the beautiful transformation that often takes place in motherhood when we allow ourselves to follow our curiosities and take creative leaps.
In the years before she had children, Vered worked as a music therapist and a singer-songwriter, playing shows, recording albums, and dreaming of building a career as a musician. Then, she became pregnant and everything changed. Vered yearned for more stability and applied for a Ph.D. program in psychology, convincing herself to leave her musician days behind her.
“I fought being a mom at first. There was so much I wanted to do! So many career plans, so many places to travel,” Vered remembers. “When I got pregnant, I thought I could seamlessly fit having a baby into my busy life as a Ph.D. student and a therapist.”
A rocky transition into parenthood
But life had other plans, and, consumed with caring for her baby, Vered soon learned it was no longer possible to pursue all of her interests—motherhood, psychology, and music therapy—individually. So, she turned to songwriting to help her make sense of what she was going through. During this time, Vered wrote a song entitled “Something Other Than a Mom,” recalling the parts of herself she missed after becoming a mother.
During that process of merging my identities as a therapist, musician, and mom, I stepped fully into the role of mother.
“Eventually, those songs became the seed of my new career,” Vered says. “During that process of merging my identities as a therapist, musician, and mom, I stepped fully into the role of mother.”
By the time Vered’s oldest was 8 months old, she was in the thick of studying attachment theory at school. She would go home after class and write short songs with her son—soon realizing that her lyrics resonated with other parents of young children.
A creative leap that changed everything
When her second baby was born, Vered took a leap. She decided to host a class for parents that blended music therapy, attachment theory, and music she herself had written. What came next for Vered was Baby In Tune. This program was a direct outgrowth of Vered reconciling her new identity as a mom with her old one as a musician, therapist, and psychology student.
“The curriculum seemed like a natural and necessary blend to me, but it was born out of my unique career path,” she recalls. “Word started to spread. My pediatrician and OB gave my CD to their patients, parents were asking for more classes, and I started performing the music.”
Over time, Vered’s confidence grew and she saw her unique classes as a necessity for new parents—one that offered real tools to help them navigate the early years of raising little ones. As word spread and her classes filled up, Vered hired a team of managers and instructors to help her meet the demand from new parents.
Even though I thought I was saying goodbye to music as a career, my baby helped me bring it back in another way that I couldn't have imagined.
While her career journey has been full of surprises, Vered—now a mom of three—admits that her younger self would “balk” at where she is now—singing and playing music for children and families.
“In my mind, I had given up music for motherhood and I had a complicated relationship with it. Luckily, together with my baby, I found a way to do both,” Vered says. “I think art finds a way to survive, just like life does. Even though I thought I was saying goodbye to music as a career, my baby helped me bring it back in another way that I couldn't have imagined.”
Read More:
How I Found the Courage To Downshift My Career for Motherhood
Editor’s note: A version of this story originally appeared in 2021.
