While I posted this on my personal blog, it feels even more timely today, and so I share it to remind us all, that we are all working on that balance:
Over the weekend my "wife" had to quit to watch her nephew while her sister tutors. And now I am scrambling to find a replacement. My husband just returned to work from paternity leave and so I am back to conference calls hoping my youngest will map and my oldest will play quietly for a15 minutes.
I live by the belief that as a modern mom we can have it all, but sometimes that reality is far from the truth. The goal towards flexible work options and retention of professional women in the workplace is improving. It is a friendlier work environment for parents in general than it was thirty years ago. I read an article on just this about how moms (or mums) in Australia are trying to make it all work. And so the question remains, can we have it all?
I wonder as I try to get 30 minutes of work done before my husband leaves to catch his train and I grab email off my iphone at the playground or sit up late at night working, because I spent the day playing with my kids. I guess you can. But it isn't an easy road. Whether you are entrepreneur or work for someone else, you are forever struggling to find that balance. From squeezing in playtime to scheduling meetings and finding back up back up childcare, you are forever juggling.
My youngest daughter just turned one and at the end of the day when she was asleep in my arms, I cried, because in some ways I feel as if I missed it. The year went so fast and I wonder if I worked less and volunteered less and yes, didn't try to have my cake and eat it, too, if I would have been less sad at this milestone in her life. Her first birthday...so precious, so sweet. Maybe. I will never know. I might be just as sad knowing that she is my last baby, my last child to turn one, my last girl to start walking and talking and running and jumping and going off to school.
And so, almost daily as I watch my children grow and I balance precariously on a toothpick wondering if I can have it all, I continue to advocate for work-life balance because I would have been sad to miss my children's first steps but I refuse to give up my personal and professional dreams. I am tired and energized all at the same time and just hope that all this
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