How to Balance Being a Working Professional and a Mom
It’s a never-ending struggle, trying to balance being both a working professional and a mom. Lean too heavily into work and your kids suffer from lack of attention. Err on the side of your kids and your job becomes a delicate uncertainty. It can be frustrating trying to decide which deserves your attention. So how do you find the necessary balance between job and family?
1. Create a routine so that your children know what to expect every day. Having a routine that you and your kids follow every day helps to establish realistic expectations from your kids for how much time they have with you in the morning. Try to do as much as possible the night before, such as prepping coffee, breakfast, and lunches, and setting out outfits and backpacks to make the mornings flow better.
2. Make time to have breakfast or dinner as a family each night. Setting aside one meal a day to eat together as a family, whether it’s breakfast each morning or dinner each night, can give you and your family some much needed quality time together to catch up on important events that happened throughout the week. Even if it’s just 30 minutes that time togethercan make all the difference between knowing what’s happening in your children’s life and being complete strangers.
3. Don’t allow yourself to feel guilty over your choices.It can be easy to fall into a spiral of guilt when you encounter families who are able or choose to have one parent stay at home, however it’s important to recognize that it isn’t a bad thing if you choose or need to work. Working and family are both important priorities, and you shouldn’t let yourself feel guilty over doing both because that will inevitably affect your performance in both sectors. Instead embrace your role so that you will succeed at both.
4. Schedule activities with your kids. Each month sit down with your kids and figure out a few days or evenings during the month that you can dedicate to spending time with your kids. Maybe it’s a trip to the zoo one Saturday or a dinner at their favorite restaurant on a week night; whatever the case, having these in writing makes them much more likely to happen.
5. Make dates with your spouse. At least once a month find one night where you and your spouse can have a date night. This time will allow the two of you to stay connected to one another amidst the hustle and bustle of juggling both work and your family. You’ll both be better spouses, parents, and workers when you have a happy home life as well.
Juggling family and work can take some getting used to, but the more consistent you are with your schedule week to week, the easier it will become to find balance.
Author Bio
This Guest post is by Christine Kane, a graduate of Communication and Journalism. She enjoys writing about a wide-variety of subjects including internet providers in my areafor different blogs. She can be reached via email at: Christi.Kane00@gmail.com
Such an interesting post! I found it so difficult working and looking after children. I had to stop working unfortunately because I had no support network for emergencies – which do happen when you have kids! Maybe when they are older it could be a possibility to work again.
Very interesting thoughts…….I start thinking about this, time flies and at some stage I will have to make up my mind.
Thank you for sharing, I am sure it talks to many women.
All very good tips for a happy family and marriage. To keep the marriage alive it is important to have special dates with your spouse. Sometimes, we women spend too much time with children, housework, and neglect the husband. To always stay connected and on the same page sharing the same vision and mission in your marriage, keep that date with your husband. It's important.