Just what I needed and when. There's no denying, I am working a lot right now and not seeing my kids as much as I would like. I have always struggled with being a working mom, the guilt (this is my biggest struggle), the need for wanting to be a good role model, choosing work over my family some days and not letting work get the best of me and impacting how I interact with my family (especially my husband).
Saturday night, the night when I worked until 2am, the night I was angry that I was doing work that should have already been done, the night that caused me to sacrifice both time (because I was most certainly going to need to sleep late on Sunday) and energy with my kids, on a weekend was getting to me. I needed a break from my spreadsheets and was looking around at Working Mother Blogs. The title of this one alone caught my eye: Working Moms Against Guilt
The have a wonderful post about outsourcing. Not outsourcing as in shipping work off to another country, but outsourcing house cleaning and gardening and perhaps a few other household chores to increase the amount of time you have to spend with your family. We outsource and I am going to look to outsource more.
I particularly liked the post The F Word. Now that I have your attention. The F word refers to having Flexibility in your job over money, a shorter commute or other factors that come into play as a working mom. It got me thinking about the fact it was Saturday night, I was working and I was not happy about it. What I also realized is that I can make most doctors appointments, when I work from home 1day a week I get to see my girls when I go into the house to grab lunch, I am able to attend events at Abby's preschool and if our caregiver is sick, I have the flexibility to make up the work day while they are napping or after they go to sleep (thankfully this doesn't happen often).
Finding this blog was the pick me up I needed and yesterday I appreciated that I didn't need the flexibility, but it is there when I do need it most days. And, my 4 mile commute isn't bad either!
I completely agree in outsourcing too. In fact, just last night Dave told me to hire my shipping assistant as my personal assistant one day a week and have her do household chores too. Now I'm liking that.
ReplyDeleteWe do have a house cleaner that comes every other week {just started that back up again} and a landscaper that comes once a month to prune and edge. We mow {well Kaia mows} in between!
I figure it is money well spent so we have more quality time with our children and I work full-time from home and still can't get it all done by myself!