How Working Moms Can Create Magic

Holiday photo 2016 taken at The Children's Museum

How do working moms balance their parental and professional roles? With a little magic!

One group I'm involved in has a motto, "GSD". It stands for "Get S--t Done". And although it was coined by a man, it expresses true working mom magic. Lots of times, we working moms beat ourselves up because we dropped the ball somewhere or didn't make something perfect. The truth is, we always find a way to get the important things done. These things may not be perfect. These things may not be traditional. Still, these things are complete. So, they are good. 

Working Moms Work Magic Everyday 

Indeed, one of my social media friends has the handle @WorkingMomMagic.  It's a genius handle that I wish I had thought of myself. It got me thinking about me and my vast working mom network that's taught me one secret to succeeding as a working mom is having a little fairy dust in her purse...

Before you send me hate mail, I am not referring to illegal drugs or even having an endless supply of pixie sticks. Although, I will say that pixie sticks can be a useful conflict resolution tool with your kid when you're in a pinch. That said, you'll pay for it later. Nothing makes a kid go crazy like getting a sugar high and pixie sticks go straight from their mouths to their blood streams!

Candidate for holiday photo 2018

No, I am talking about all the planning and magical ways that working moms manage to get everything done. "Everything" varies from mom-to-mom. For me, "everything" involves excelling at my full time job, taking care of my three kids, being a wife, trying to be a good daughter and sister, as well as meeting my other "extracurricular" commitments. I am on the board of a non-profit and a public utility right now. I have so many things going on that it can make my head spin. 

Feel free to send me messages about my needing to learn the word "no"...

And while I admit that I may be a little over committed at the moment, I still have certain professional  and personal goals. And instead of scaling back, I choose to use a little magic to achieve them.

While perusing Instagram the other day, I realize that I am not alone. There were lots of working moms explaining how they kept make up in their car so that they arrived at work looking like they belonged there, spent Sunday doing meal prep so that they families had homemade meals all week, and my favorite,  came from Lauren of "Working Mom Magic" who confessed that she meant to have a professional photo for her Christmas cards and instead had her aunt snap a photo with her iPhone because she ran out of time.

Tip for Avoiding Stress During the Holiday Season: A Personal Assistant

The only reasons we'll have Christmas cards this year is because the Pittsburgh Children's Museum has an annual event for donors where they have a photographer taking family photos. They took our photos last year and I planned to have them take them again. True confession, the only reason this happened is because I yelled at my family and forced them to get up earlier than usual and trek to the museum. And in true family fashion, we were late. Fortunately, the staff had mercy on us and fit is in.

What Magic Tricks Do Many Working Moms Rely Upon?

Candidate for holiday photo 2018

1. Snacks and beverages in the car. Stocking your car like an airplane first class section can make your kids very happy, buy you peace in the car (because they're occupied with snacks), and make you feel like a success if you don't do another damned thing all day. 
2. An organized schedule. An organized schedule is like money in the bank. Single childless people have the luxury of being footless, fancy free and spontaneous. Working moms need to plan their lives and  adhere to their schedules like  freaking air traffic control people--no deviations = an injury free day.
3. A back up plan to the back up plan. Working moms need a contingency plan if the schedule adherence thing goes to crap. Sometimes things happen beyond our control. Identify who you'd call if something comes up that interferes with you being able to pick  up a child or attend a meeting. Back up plans are essential. Of course, the back up should be aware that they are the back up. 
4. Color coordinating our closets to make for an efficient morning routine. I generally have about five minutes to pick out my clothes in the morning. The only thing that makes it work is having a color coordinated closet. Because of that, I'm not questioning whether what I'm wearing is matching--I planned to closet to ensure that it would. 
5. Grocery delivery service. This is a GAME CHANGER!!! When groceries miraculously show up on your doorstep nothing else needs to be said. 

BONUS TIP: Be nice to everybody because it's the right thing to do and because you never know when you might need help. I literally get by on the kindness of my friends and strangers! One of the nicest things that happened to me with year was when I was traveling in the Atlanta airport with my three kids and a gentleman helped me navigate TSA. He volunteered to do it and went above and beyond. I wish I had taken his photograph so that the stereotype of young black men became associated with kindness. He truly saved me that day. I like to think that was Karma because I try to help people when I can too. 

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