Moms Talk: How Do You Balance Work And LIfe?

Our Moms Council answered the following question this week: How do you balance work and family obligations?

 Balancing work, life and family in my world comes down to one thin — compromise. For the past 16 years, I have worked as a freelancer in the visual creative arts field. In hindsight this was the best career path for me because when I started my family, one of my children required more attention than the other.

In addition to "learning" how to be a mom to someone who needed extra help, I had to develop good time management skills to plan hourly, daily, weekly and monthly activities that would allow for flexibility to also handle the unpredictable changes, and at the same time keep working. The skills I most relied on from my graphic design education were listening and problem solving so I could find the best solutions that would make everyone happy. Planning became an essential part of each day. Knowing what could be altered to accommodate anything that changed the course of the day was easy to remedy with all the visual aides I developed to communicate with the whole family.

Although the biggest compromise is giving up "mommy time," having a happy family is the trade-off I will gladly accept. 

: Life is one giant balancing act. If we neglect our health, we get aches, pains or worse. If we ignore our finances, we see them dwindle and become chaotic. Same goes for our households, our relationships and parenting.

One of the things I do to try to keep things in balance is to periodically check in with each major area of my life on paper. I write a bit about how things are going in each area and what my ideal would be. Then I go on to the next area. Some would call it taking stock. I do it in writing, since that works best for me. 

At the end of my check in, I feel like at least I have some idea of what I would like each area of my life to be like and I can use this as a guide in what activities I choose to do. Of course things change along the way, so I make adjustments. If one area is particularly worrisome, I can put more time into it. If I feel like a relationship is slipping, I try to think of something I can do to reconnect with that person. If I haven't looked at some area of home maintenance in a while, I make a point to do so. 

Rather than starting by making to do lists, I try to look at the whole picture once or twice a year. This way I don't let one area get too far behind. Of course this is always the challenge, but being out of balance makes everything harder. Sometimes, however, I just say, it is what it is, and I eat ice cream.