One Secret to Working Mom Success: Just Keep Going

 

Mom and three kids

"The days are long, but the years are short." -Gretchen Rubin

I have been a social media influencer for some time. And, I have have shared my journey as a working mom with the hope of developing a community and inspiring others in my shoes and those who might want to try them on for size. I have recently learned that some people come to the blog for the story telling and I value those members of the community too.

Often the posts are highly curated. That doesn't mean that they aren't honest. However, it does mean that I am generally really careful about what I share. This post is a bit different because it's merely a glimpse into a regular day in my world. I got the idea from my friend, Becky Willis, at a Bloggy Con conference. Depending on how its received, I may have to try it out again!

Recently, I read something recently that resonated with me, "It is not selfish to want to balance work and family." I am sharing this in case you needed to hear it too.

What I did before one one day.

Waking up to the sound of an alarm (at 5:20AM), drink water mixed with trace minerals and lemon juice, make two teas for myself—one for immediate drinking, one put in a travel mug (both without sweetener) put a load of clothes in the dryer, cleaned the kitchen, making breakfasts and lunches for two kids, walking said kids to the bus stop, beginning a conference call while at the bus stop—sometimes before the kids get picked up—taking in a morning walk, receive text from third child that says, “Where are you?!”, return home, throw a few slices of cheese a boiled egg and some Club crackers into a sandwich bag, “breakfast”,  take a five minute shower, apply amateur looking makeup, drive said child to school (all before 8:00AM), drive to work, and work.

“Work” deserves some unpacking. That involved answering unexpected calls, participating in meetings, writing documents, responding to emails, presenting at a conference on a topic that I felt unqualified to do—fortunately it did not appear that the audience thought that though. In between all of that I attempted to find a car to replace mine that was recently totaled, communicate with the rental car company to extend my rental agreement because my title cannot be found, and attempted to negotiate with the insurance company. 

After doing that, I took in four meetings all discussing unrelated topics. The thing about my job is that the responsibilities are vast and there isn't always a lot of intersection of the topics. While that keeps life interesting, it can also become overwhelming. In case you didn't do the math, by the time clicked 1:00PM, I had been busy for nearly eight hours.

If you want to know what the afternoon looked liked, rinse and repeat the above and insert time with the kids!