The article is an autoethnographic account written by three Italian academic researchers and mothers with children of different ages. The authors engage in a reflection starting with their experience as working women committed to the work–family negotiation process while facing the COVID-19 health emergency that has affected the whole world. This article focuses on how we, as middle-class, heterosexual, white mothers working in a privileged employment context during the period of the pandemic lockdown, negotiated the complex mother and worker roles, balancing work and family time while smart working (teleworking from home). We start with a reflection on the use of autoethnography as a research tool and then propose an analysis of work–family balance strategies in an anomalous situation, such as that of the lockdown, highlighting the tensions in gender roles within dual-career families.

这篇文章是由三位意大利学术研究人员和有不同年龄孩子的母亲撰写的自传。作者从她们作为致力于工作与家庭谈判过程的职业女性的经历开始进行反思，同时面临影响整个世界的 COVID-19 卫生紧急情况。本文重点介绍了在大流行封锁期间，作为中产阶级、异性恋、白人母亲在特权就业环境中工作的我们如何协商复杂的母亲和工人角色，在智能工作（在家远程工作）的同时平衡工作和家庭时间）。我们首先反思自我民族志作为研究工具的使用，然后提出对异常情况下工作与家庭平衡策略的分析，例如封锁，