Catherine Reitman draws on her real life to create Workin' Moms

Catherine Reitman is the creator, executive producer, writer and star of Workin' Moms, CBC Television's latest comedy series. The idea for the show came directly from Reitman's real life. She tells host Tom Power that when she returned to work, six weeks after giving birth, she quickly fell into serious postpartum depression. Yet this low point in her life sparked an idea for a comedy on the absurdities of life as a working mom. 

"I'm the chick who's laughing at a funeral," she says. "Not because I disrespect the dead, but because I don't know how to process pain. I've always needed to laugh or find something bizarre about it and laugh through it."

The concept of working parents has been explored on TV before but for Reitman it wasn't about reinventing the wheel. Rather, she set out to keep the stories and characters as real and relatable as possible. "What helps me is if I just base my stories on things that have happened to me, things that feel authentic to me."

Workin' Moms is now airing on CBC Television.

— Produced by Beza Selfie