Can someone draw me a picture of what work-life balance looks like? I mean, some sort of diagram would be lovely. I’m just saying. I don’t think I’m getting it right. I mean sometimes, sure. On a regular basis – not so much. I really wish there was some way for there to be a real balance with how much time I spend at work and how much time I spend with my family. I looked at the amount of time I spend with my son on a daily basis and I cried. Seriously, it sucks. I try to make up for it on the weekends and cram in as much as I can during the week but it doesn’t seem like enough. What’s a mama to do? I think the term work-life balance is a bit of a joke. I think it should be more like worklife balance. I mean work takes up so much of your life that I think worklife is a fair representation. We spend our lives trying to balance our life around our worklife. I didn’t mind the way my career bleeds over until the mommy hood. Since my son was born, I’ve become very protective of my time and offended if you try to infringe upon it. I take it personal. That approach isn’t always welcomed in the work world. It may even be frowned upon. It’s hard though when you feel like the job that helps put food on the table is taking time away from the people you’re working to feed. Did that make sense? I read some things to try to strike the elusive balance between work and life. I’ll offer up these suggestions to you from WebMD.
- build downtime into your schedule – schedule time to spend with those that matter
- drop activities that zap your time or energy
- re-think your errands – order groceries online to avoid the trip
- somehow make time to exercise – you’ll have more energy to get more done
Are these doable, realistic? Let me know what you think. Also, do you have any suggestions to offer?
6 Comments on Work-Life Balance?
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Very true…my daughter will be 16 next month and I still haven’t figured it out…as far as worklife is concerned and this whole “balance” thing that I hear others talk about. The great thing though is that our kids know that we love them and are resilient as heck. So don’t beat yourself up about one area of your life bleeding over to the next…its totally normal.
Erica, so the mommy guilt thing never lets up, huh? Great!
I feel the exact same way you feel!!!
I have a free delivery to use from a grocery store, but have not tried it yet. Maybe I should because I usually leave baby girl with daddy while I run to the store on the weekend & that takes away from our time together.
My daughter really loves her daycare & is learning so much from her teachers & being around other kids; so I just tell myself “She really loves daycare” and that gets me through the day. I’d love some tips on balancing it all myself. I’m looking forward to what some other moms post
Kiara, I keep saying the same thing… he likes it there. he has friends there. he does learn so much there and his teachers are awesome. it’s all true but, still sucky.
Girl, I don’t know how you do it. I am a stay-at-home-mom, and I don’t have a good balance to life in general, let alone work-life. There aren’t enough hours in a day, and most of them are my own.
I don’t know how working moms do it, actually, so kudos to you all!
Jenn – Thanks for the kudos. There are definitely challenges on both sides. I have a couple of friends who are SAHM’s and you guys do a lot of heavy lifting and have quite the balancing act too. Kudos to you as well!