Monday, July 12, 2010

Mommy Monday

Life is all a balancing act. We all have our obligations and desires. This week I thought we'd talk about keeping a balance between writing and family and work.



I know there are probably no two of us in the same situation, but knowing how others handle that precarious balance may help someone even out their life. A friend and I were talking the other day about the workaholic type people we know who don't seem to know how to "turn it off" even if they go on vacation. Everything is about work to them.

The conversation got me thinking (I know, it's dangerous when I think) about all the things I balance in life without letting one run over the other.

  1. Super-Spawn
  2. Work
  3. Writing
  4. Other family
  5. Social Life
  6. Housework
You get the picture. The point is, what can we do to make sure we aren't cheating ourselves, or the ones we love, out of a fair share of US? Which we know is what they all most want.

My life is divided into sections:

The work week- Days, work. (Lunch, writing, and a weekly lunch with my cousin) Evenings, Super Spawn. Nights, writing related things.

Saturdays- If it's my weekend with SS, I take him somewhere fun (the movies, a museum, a play place in town, etc) and invite our friends. If it's not- I get some quality me-time where I do whatever I want. May be that I write, go out with friends, whatever.

Sundays- Almost always devoted to housework.

And you better believe we live on a schedule within that schedule. Otherwise I'd never keep it all up. I manage to work, be a mom, write, have a social life (if a limited one), and get the house clean every single week.

Tell me, how do you keep the balance?

2 comments:

Erinn said...

YOu're life is identical to mine. Right now I"m home (summer break) and I have to balance my daughter, house work and my writing. Its easier when I work to be honest. At least the house work can slide. There's nothing worse then when my husband comes home and the house is a wreck and he looks at me and says, "what did you do all day?"
I looked around the mess and say, "I don't know."

KatOwens: Insect Collector said...

After dropping my kids off at daycare I feel like a stopwatch starts that has me racing to get everything done before the end of their day.

I can work from home in summer, and I try to get an hour of writing in at lunch. I also take blogging work breaks during the day.

When my husband is due home with the kids I try to quickly do house-related stuff (walk dogs, empty dishwasher, put clothes in washer) before they get in.

Then we have the evening routine with the kids, and I try to write again after they are in bed. Some mornings I try to get downstairs and write before they wake up.

Social life involves making dinner and eating with our friends who also have kids. And little else.

Sometimes I feel like I can balance it, and sometimes not.