Ashley Chang is the founder of Sundays, an executive assistant service designed specifically for working parents. Living in the Bay Area with her husband, eight-month-old son, and their Husky, Ashley is navigating the early stages of parenthood while scaling a company dedicated to giving parents their time back.
I am the founder of Sundays and mom to an eight-month-old baby boy. I live in the Bay Area, just outside of San Francisco, with my husband, our baby, and our five-year-old Husky.
I started Sundays about three years ago, before having children myself. I was inspired by my own mom, who was a computer scientist in the 80s. When she had kids, she felt she had to choose between family and work. As I got further into my career in the tech industry, I saw so many of the smartest women I knew still struggling to balance the two once they became parents. I always knew I wanted to have both a career and a family, so I started thinking about how I could help solve this problem.
In the first few months, I spoke with over 300 parents. I realized that what they really needed was time back. The best way to give them that was to pair them with a trusted partner who could serve as their right hand. Today, we have over 30 executive assistants—all caregivers and moms—supporting hundreds of clients.
I am still pretty early in parenthood, but I would call my approach “Curiosity-Based Structure.” I love watching my baby explore the world and figure things out on his own. At the same time, I believe that having structure is important for setting him up for success. That structure also enables me and my partner to be present parents while maintaining the work lives we want. We both started companies a few years ago, so having predictability in our schedules has been essential.
There are two main ways. The first is empathy. When a baby is upset, you immediately run through the basics: Did they eat? Did they nap? Are they cold? I now think a lot more about what it takes to holistically set people up for success at work. I find myself asking: What does it look like for this person to show up today? Are their kids sick? Did they get any sleep? The second shift has been around time. Before becoming a parent, I could always “make” more time by working late or skipping dinner. Now, my time has hard boundaries. It has forced me to be much more intentional—I have to prioritize the work that truly matters and be thoughtful about where I put my energy.
Success in this season looks like showing up to work and doing focused, high-value work while empowering my team. It means giving them real ownership instead of trying to micromanage every detail. I am learning to run a company as a team rather than as one individual.
Practically, it also means firm boundaries. I spend the first hour of each morning fully present with my baby. After work, I spend another meaningful stretch of time with him before deciding whether to hop back on my computer. It’s about creating space for family, my husband, and a small amount of time for myself just to feel healthy.
If it feels hard, that’s because it is hard. Giving yourself grace and patience to figure out what works for you as a parent is the most important thing.
I would ask companies to define success based on results and impact, not on how quickly someone responds to a message or how many hours they spend at a desk.
Many companies push people back into the office because they haven’t clearly defined what success looks like, so they fall back on measuring “face time.” Once you have outcome-driven definitions of success, you can give employees the flexibility they need to balance family and work. In-person time can be valuable, but it needs to be weighed against whether employees can truly show up as their best selves.
Knowing I wanted to have kids in a few years actually pushed me to leave my full-time role in tech earlier. I felt that taking the risk to start my own company would be easier without the added responsibilities of parenting yet.
Now that I have a family, I feel even more motivated to grow Sundays. Parenting makes you realize that life stages are fleeting; it has made me more intentional about how I spend my time. I want to maximize my time with my baby while pursuing the impact I hope to achieve with the business.
I worked with the Josie team, which was incredibly helpful for thinking beyond the logistics. During my first trimester, I focused on mental prep; in the second, I concentrated on delegating responsibilities; and by the third, I was coaching my team to fill the gaps.
My coach helped me realize that my priority for leave was to be present and learn how to be a mom. That mindset shift—moving from “productivity” to “presence”—allowed me to approach leave mentally prepared. For the transition back, I actually found a “part-time ramp up” quite challenging. In hindsight, I’d recommend taking more time fully off and then returning fully, rather than attempting a partial schedule.
It is hard for everyone. That has been a grounding perspective for me. When things feel chaotic, I remind myself that almost every parent I have spoken to says that balancing family and work is difficult. It is a constant learning process, and you are going to keep adjusting and evolving over time.
