Page 2 / News, Trends, Gossip and Stuff To Do : Lifestyle : Help With Your Juggling Act : No, other moms are not doing it better than you, says author Mary Lyon, who fled the fast track.

Mary Lyon, author of “The Frazzled Working Woman’s Practical Guide to Motherhood” (Starburst Publishers), has this to say to frazzled moms everywhere: “Forget about trying to hold yourself up to perfection and all of the allegedly perfect people because--trust me--they ain’t.”

Indeed, she makes it clear in her book: “There is no such thing as a superwoman.” She added, in an interview, “You think everyone is getting it so much righter than you. They’re not. And if they are, it’s only in spurts and stages.”

Lyon, for more than 20 years a news and entertainment reporter for ABC, NBC and the Associated Press, and husband Bruce Gossard are parents of Elizabeth, 9, and Michael, 7. Having left the rat race, Lyon is now a home-based jewelry designer.

She said, “All my life I had been all-career all the time and--guess what?--something changed one day. I thought, ‘When I’m 50, will I regret I didn’t do this [have children]?’ I realized I probably would.”

A baby, she writes, is “the ultimate attitude adjustment.” In businesswoman’s terms, “Having a baby is the ultimate merger and acquisition, because someone’s about to move in and take over you.”

She offers both nitty-gritty advice on matters ranging from maternity leave to breast feeding. But some of the best counsel, served up with a dollop of humor, is about putting work and motherhood in perspective.

She writes, “You may soon realize you’d rather be an upper-level mother than an upper-level manager.” (Think mommy track.) Further food for thought: “Your baby will love you no matter what you do on the job.”

Lyon went through two pregnancies during which she looked “like the Michelin tire man” while holding down a job as an entertainment reporter, sometimes so exhausted she snored through screenings.

On the road to motherhood she learned a few things that aren’t taught in management meetings:

* “You may actually lose a friend or two, or eight . . . who turn unsympathetic when they find that you’re no longer shoulder-to-shoulder together on the career-devotion track.”

* “Barbie’s likely to be far better dressed than you’ll be for years.” At least as long as you’re apt “to sit down on a puddle of pudding or a smear of SpaghettiOs.”

* “Every possible substance that can be excreted from any part or orifice of the human body can and will wind up on you after children have come into your life.”

For those new moms who, like Lyon, opt to work at home, she stresses the importance of having a childproof work space. A noise-proof space is best: “Regardless of their size, children have the vocal power of the Three Tenors combined.”

If clients will be coming to your home, Lyon advises, “shove stray toys, sneakers and science experiments under the closest available dust ruffle.”

To keep their kids occupied while they work, Lyon and Gossard, a computer consultant and musician, came up with such strategies as plopping them in the bathtub with finger paints or Play-Doh. Any mess “will provide an exquisite delight to your child and for a stretch of time too.” Lyon also tears brown grocery bags into strips to create a giant “leaf pile” in the living room in which her children can jump and roll.

When Lyon was pregnant with Michael, she interviewed Barbara Walters, her idol, and asked how she dealt with the working mother’s omnipresent guilt. Lyon recalled, “She heaved this huge sigh and said, ‘You know something, you never get over it.’ ” Lyon decided, “If Barbara Walters can’t get it right all the time, I shouldn’t feel so bad.”

Beverly Beyette can be reached by e-mail at beverly.beyette@latimes.com.