Honestly, I was a bit worried about this summer.
While I have been working from home for years, I have always been my own boss. This year, I have a full time job. And yet, this summer was no different than any other summers. Kids are not going to summer schools, nor summer camps. They are home with me the entire summer.
They are the reason I work from home, they are the reason I strive to work hard and strive for success. And yet, for some reason I, silly me, thought that this summer, while I would be working the entire summer (like the last several summers, falls, winters and springs), the children would bring me down.
I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to work like normally (often 14-hour days), and somehow my plans, my work and my stuff would be messed up. At the same time I felt like a true messed up mom for even thinking those thoughts.
The career-motherhood balance is a tough one, and I don’t know if anyone has entirely mastered it, but I am sure trying hard. I have been home since I was pregnant with our first child, and I have to say – I am a better mom now when I also have my work and my business. Even all the business travel has been very good for our family. I have more patience with kids, they have more patience with me. We fight less, we have more fun. My children are very proud of me, and it feels good, and I wouldn’t trade it to anything.
This summer still worried me.
We made plans for the summer, and part of it was to spend two weeks in Rockport, MA, on beach, and my dear in-laws with us and helping with the kids. The kids are having a great time, and yes, I have been still working. Maybe not 14-hour days, but more productive 12-hour days. I am learning, and my children are teaching me. They know that I have to work, and they are not trying to make me skip work. They wait patiently, and they understand.
And I have learned to manage my time a little bit better. (I said a little bit, I am trying!)
Normally I start working around 7AM, take kids to school at 9 and pick them up at 3 – and during the time they are at school, I work, work, work. And even after kids come home from work, they do their homework, do crafts, eat a snack, all without me. I literally don’t do anything else but work ’til 6PM and then I take two hours off for family dinner.
And no, by any means that’s not healthy or smart. Or probably not the most productive way to work either!
My children keep amazing me with their creativity, their independence and their smarts. This summer my children are teaching me better working habits, like limiting my working hours, and taking a break every now and then.
Funny thing is, by taking a moment to smell the flowers or eat lunch doesn’t actually take me down – I feel that I am more energized and I get more done! This is my written promise to myself that even when we get back home from the beach, and especially when I won’t have anyone else to hang out with the kids, I will limit my work hours, take lunch breaks, swimming breaks and hugging the kids breaks during my work week. Because they deserve it, and so do I. And my work will thank me for me to be more energized and for me to get more done in less time.
Oh – and one of the ways I am trying to get my weekly working hours closer to 50 from 70, I have been hiring new writers for Skimbaco blogs. I want to keep this blog high quality – and I want to start balancing my life better – and I also think you will be as amazed by the talented writes who will be writing here. Skimbaco is growing, but I feel that if I can not live life to the fullest, I wouldn’t be true to my mission to inspire you to do the same.
