Friday, November 19, 2010

Life, Work, Family...Balance


Some days I feel like a one woman circus act, and let me tell you I can not juggle! 
I've been at my job for near 15 months, and I'm still trying to figure out how to juggle all the demands of a working mom. I have to make time for everybody, clean the house, cook the dinners, take care of the kiddos, basketball coming up, work, blog (because it's what I like to do) and live. I tried making a schedule for everything. Shopping days, cleaning days, family days...etc. It did not last! I have a hard time sticking to a schedule, well I do for work but I have to for them or they'd fire me. Can my family fire me? 
So I did what I do best...I researched this! Here are some of the tips I found and I am going to start trying.

Get up before your kids do to exercise or have a quiet cup of coffee. (I really need to do this, because a little time in the morning and not having to rush may set a different tone for the entire day)
Give yourself and your kids time to relax and unwind. (This is a must in the evenings)
Talk and email during the workday with spouse. (Hubs and I used to do this...then they blocked my email at work!!!)
Schedule lunch or dinner dates together. (We used to go on a date once a week, and we've stopped. Time to start up again!)

These tips and many great others can be found at ivillage.

I get so caught up in my days and feel so out of touch w/ my family and I need to fix that. So I'm going to try these few tips first and then add more. So do you have any more tips for me? How do you balance it all?

5 comments:

  1. Balancing work and life is brutal. I know it will be even harder once Jellybean is here. My hubby is a commercial plumber so we are rarely working in the same part of town but whenever he happens to be close by he always calls me so that we can have an unexpected lunch date. It makes both of us feel so much better!

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  2. I think back and wondered how the heck I did all that years ago....because I sure as heck don't think I could now. Kudos to you....it's one of the toughest jobs...being a working mother.

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  3. It's hard.... my husband works days and I work nights. we're a tag team and have been doing it for 5 years. We still haven't gotten in the swing of things. It seems like we don't manage anything at all sometimes. Not even dinner on our days off. Try not to let it drive you too crazy. It'll be okay even if you drop a ball or two during your juggling act.

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  4. I find scheduling works, although on some days it doesn't but we can't win them all. Being a single mom, my duties are double, so whatever needs my attention first, I go for it, and then the rest I work them into other days.

    You're doing a great job, just be gentle to yourself.

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  5. Hey Melissa! Thanks for popping in from Momma Fargo's blog! (She ROCKS doesn't she? Love that woman!)

    Balance? Girl when you sort it out let me know.
    I'm looking forward to reading more here! The older I get, the LESS I can cope with keeping things in line/ lower stress.

    Looking forward to reading more here!

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