As working mums, we are supposed to “have it all”. Or at least that’s what everyone tells us. But you and I know that working mums get along by performing a great balancing act almost on a daily basis.
We develop special jugglery and tightrope walking skills to make sure that we are able to fulfil commitment to our children, our families and our careers, so much so that we have hardly any “me” time left for ourselves.
Yet, we’re often filled with guilt that we’re not as dedicated as we would like to be.
And while we may not be an entirely different species of mums altogether, there are some things that only a mum in the same situation as us truly understands.
Working mums try to “have it all” by performing an elaborate balancing act.
1. Getting anxious about school holidays
While school holidays evoke feelings of happiness and spark a sense of adventure in most people, they can lead to unparalleled anxiety for working mums.
Others may be planning vacations for the family, while we sit there with our excel sheets and hand phones in front of us, booking our child into a holiday camp or looking for child care options before they run out of places.
We often end up asking, ‘do kids really need so many weeks off from school’?
2. Turning mundane routine into productive life lessons
Because you need to cram as much as you can in as little time as possible!
No time with your kids and you just need to get on with your chores? No sweat! You just figure that you will have to turn the routine commute time and chore time into quality time with your kids!
You figure a way to get them on a learning journey by involving them in your trip to the supermarket. You give them a budget where they can pick and buy 5 healthy food items of their choice – a little helper on a marketing trip with you, good fun and great bonding, makes you feel like a super productive mum.
3. That constant feeling of inadequacy
We know we are far from perfect. It is a constant struggle to not carry our home issues to work and work challenges into home. Guilt becomes a familiar friend.
Being pulled in so many directions at the same time, makes it hard to feel like we are doing a good job at any of them. It is easy to get sucked into feeling mediocre and not good enough. We end up overlooking everything that we are doing right and focus only on what we are unable to do.
But dear working mums, we get it right so many times and our sacrifices do go a long way.
Watch this video to see how our love impacts our kids while we may think that we are not dedicated enough.
Read on to find out what compromises a working mum is happy to make.
You learn to turn a blind eye to the full laundry basket in lieu of a day out with the family.
4. A day out with the kids trumps a picture perfect house
(and that is only because you can’t have both, otherwise you would!)
Weekends are oh so precious, so very precious. After you have woken up at 5am on a Saturday morning to check on your emails, you know the rest of the day belongs to your kids.
You would much rather spend this day with your kids outdoors doing fun and energetic things such as being at the beach, cycling or playing football.
This often means that the sheets remain unwashed for a while longer, and that every nook and cranny of your house is not vacuumed twice over, but you learn to live with it. Because you know that they are only young once, and so you learn to close one eye and say, “It’s ok”.
Real Love Never Stops with your children, no matter how independent they get.
5. Our child’s independence can be heartbreaking sometimes
Not being around to pick up after them all the time, makes children independent faster. They learn to manage their homework, organise their day and even help you plan the family holidays.
They learn to make choices and take decisions for themselves. And needless to say, this is a good thing.
But you know the heartbreak that accompanies the moments when you feel as if your kids have outgrown you far too quickly, and that (completely irrationally of course) they no longer need you. Yet, you know that you cannot quit; you can never give up your role as a mum.
But you know what, fellow working mums, it all evens out in the end. Real Love Never Stops.
Just remind yourself that some days, work will come first and on other days your family will come first. And every once in a while, YOU should come first too. It is when you’ve learned to love yourself more, that you have more to give to your family and kids.
Share with us below your challenges and triumphs as a working mum.
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