My entrepreneurial journey began 16 years ago, when I wanted to have the freedom to spend time with my children (one born and another on the way), yet be able to have a meaningful career as well.

For my two children, having a mother who is also an entrepreneur is just the way it's always been. My memories of their childhoods are intertwined with business experiences, both good and bad.

One of the memories that stands out was a parent interview with my daughter's Kindergarten teacher. With a significant look, the teacher informed us that Talia had told her class she wanted to be a "regular mother" when she grew up.

The teacher was not impressed. The severe, disapproving look that followed made it very clear that she thought that we failing our daughter. As young parents we left the meeting worried, pictures of our daughter hoping to grow up to be a Leave-it-to-Beaver character burnt into our minds.

A few weeks later, with that meeting still on my mind, it occurred to me to ask my daughter what she meant by "regular mother".

"Oh, you know," she quipped in the way of young, unconcerned youth. "Someone who works with computers, runs her own business and has kids."

Right. Not a woman in the kitchen letting her husband earn an income while she baked cookies with an impossibly happy smile on her face. A woman who is comfortable with technology and the business world, yet is also involved with her family.

As the way we work and communicate evolves, so must the way that we define traditional roles.

It is difficult to calculate an exact number of 'mompreneurs', but Statsitics Canada can shed some light on women entrepreneurs overall.

There were 950,000 self-employed women in Canada in 2011, according to Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey. Also, the number of self-employed women grew by 23 per cent from 2001 to 2011, while growth of self-employed men during the same period was 14 per cent.

When it comes to majority ownership of a business, women do not fare as well. Just 17.1 per cent of businesses are majority-owned by females, while 9.3 per cent are equal partnerships between male and female owners.

Interestingly, self-employed women worked 33.1 hours per week on average, compared to 43.1 hours for men.

As usual with statistics, those generalizations do not tell the entire story. Compared to regular employees, self-employed workers from both genders were significantly more likely to work 50 hours or more than male or female employees.

Self-employed women were likely to either less (under 30 hours) or more (over 41 hours) than women employees, as shown in the chart below.

Women entrepreneurs - and indeed Mompreneurs - are making a difference in the economy of our country. Yet perhaps their greatest contribution is to help show our sons and daughters that there is a new way to think of what an "typical mother" entails.

Welcome to motherhood in the 21st century, the age of the entrepreneur!