I know most of my blog thus far has focused on healthy family living through exercise, meal planning, finance and safer products. While these things are a huge passion of mine, it isn’t my day job. My day job is a leader at a marketing analytics firm; totally the opposite of all of those things. I haven’t mentioned it much on here because I don’t think it is that interesting to people because my job itself it isn’t very relatable (however if you want to know more about how to build a statistical model to measure the impact of advertising though, reach out 😉 ).
What is more likely to be relatable is the fact that I’m a working mom. And this week I was traveling for work for a few days, which always makes me think of “work/life balance” because it is non-existent on work trips. In the corporate world, “work/life balance” is a hot topic. Companies will emphasize that you can “have it all.” You can be successful in the corporate world (or whatever working world you are in) and be a great mom. While I agree with that to a point, I also think that there are realities at play here that we need to just accept as mom’s in the working world.
The main reality is that true work/life balance is hard to come by. Partially because there is no definition of what a “work/life balance” really means. Does that mean that your life is 50% work and 50% life? Let’s get analytical here since it is my day job 🙂 So there are 24 hours in a day and let’s take some average daily tasks:
9 hours of work + 2 hour commuting + 7 hours sleeping = 18 hours
That leaves 6 hours of non-work time for “life.” At first glance that doesn’t seem to be a balance because 9 hours of working doesn’t equal 6 hours of life (not including sleeping in that comparison). Not to mention, if you are a mom you are spending at least an hour of that time preparing meals and feeding your kids plus another hour (at least) of getting kids dressed and bathed. Now we are down to 4 hours of time to engage with your kids but let’s not forget any activities, homework, and preparing for the next day through laundry, making lunches, I suppose we need to shower and get ready ourselves too. Oh and who is cleaning our homes? We are also supposed to find time to exercise (no wonder why so many people don’t get the recommended amount of exercise each day). Oh I need to stay on top of work emails through all of that too in case anything comes up.
If I break down my day, it looks like this:
6am -7am: I workout (e.g. yoga and walking) and meditate (or try to do these things)…the reality is that many mornings lately our youngest is already up so Ryan and I switch off on who gets up with her.
7-8:15am: breakfast and getting ready (for my girls + myself)
8:15-9am: commuting (dropping off my older daughter and then driving into work which sometimes includes work calls)
9-5pm: work
5-5:45pm: commuting home including picking up my daughter
5:45-6:15pm: dinner (we usually have it already made from a crockpot or eat leftovers)
6:15-7pm: play time with the girls
7pm-8:30pm: baths and bedtime routines for my girls including practicing piano with my oldest
8:30pm: make lunches, prep any food for the next day, do any laundry that needs to be done, call my mom, text a friend, catch up on work emails, write a blog post, read my yoga books for class, actually have a conversation with my husband, etc.
10pm: try to get ready for bed and cross my fingers that my girls sleep through the night
I am sure many of us have similar looking days. My main reality right now is that I get about 45 minutes to an hour, if I’m lucky, to truly spend time with my girls. The other time we are together there are “tasks” we are trying to do.
This doesn’t feel like “work/life balance” to me but is the best that I can do right now. I’m sure many of the moms out there totally feel me on this, which is also why so many moms “bow out” of the work force when their kids are young. This thought has crossed my mind many times as well but it is a struggle because I like my day job and want to show my girls that they can be strong career woman when they grow up too (and be good moms).
I obviously don’t know the magic sauce to get better work/life balance for all of us. However, one thing I am trying to do is work from home when I can. This allows me to cut out at least an hour of commute time in my day, which means more time with my girls. I also try and completely disengage from everything but my girls for the 45 minutes to an hour that I have for playtime with them.
“steps off the soapbox” 🙂
I don’t want to discriminate against dads in this post. I know that they have similar struggles, but since I am a girl, I am focusing on the mom aspect.
How do you try for the “work/life balance” so many of us dream about and read about?
