I am convinced that the busiest people on the planet are working moms. Being a working mom myself, I have a deep appreciation for all of the things that we take care of each day. A snippet of what is on my (and probably your) to-list each day:
- Self-care
- Baby to the sitter
- Work (the to-do list that goes along with that is way too long to list here)
- Prepare and cook dinner
- Get the baby ready for bed
- Plan stuff for the next day
- Laundry
- Follow up with any church related projects, (currently, I’m in charge of helping neighbors get CERT certified and organizing a neighborhood mock disaster)
- Relax
With all of this going on it’s very rare if ever that I watch television. Actually, there’s not a whole lot of TV that I do want to watch. There are few shows on PBS that I like, but really I don’t have time to waste sitting around watching TV. Occasionally, however, I will watch a movie with the family. Usually, that’s at the end of the day when everything is done in the house. But honestly, while I’m sitting here watching the movie, my mind is thinking about several other things that I’d like to be getting done instead. But I know that it’s important for me too chill out and allow myself to be entertained with a story, so I watch the movie.
With the all the busy-ness of a working mom, I think that it’s important that we give ourselves a break. sure, I’d love to have everything perfect in my house all the time. In an ideal day for me, I would love to have everything organized, dinner on the table at 5:30, laundry completed, every bed in every room made every morning, every shelf in every cupboard organized and neat. The reality is that that doesn’t all happen. Pieces happen. But rarely does all of that get done at the same time. And that has become okay for me because I just can’t get it all done.
So how do we get to be “okay”? How do we get to understanding that we can’t do everything? I think part of it is recognizing what is most important to you as an individual, and then you prioritize those things. For example, for my day to be successful, I really need to have time in the morning for personal prayer, scripture study and journaling. When I do not get that type of personal spiritual time, I find that the rest of my day does not go nearly as well as it could go. I’ve come to realize that the rest of the day doesn’t go well because I didn’t take care of my needs and making sure that invest in myself before I have to take care of a lot of other things. The self-care is a way for me to make sure that I take care of me before I take care of everyone else. I love that me time which is why I usually get up at 5 a.m. on weekdays so that I have time to do self-care. So, prioritizing me time in the early morning is a huge win for me – and then a win for my family, community and clients!
For working moms to determine how you want to spend your time, I recommend that you go through Nicole Carpenter’s class for busy moms called Define Your Time. She has some really great ways of breaking down the process of understanding what’s important to you as an individual so that you don’t get lost in the busy-ness of being a mom.
As I went through Nicole’s class, I identified that it’s important that I cook for my family as much as possible. I really love the opportunity to feed them healthy and yummy food, so I make sure to prioritize cooking for my family. Another thing that is important to me is making sure that I take care of myself. That’s why I get up at 5 a.m. so that I can fill my cup and then feel like I’m ready to do whatever is needed to take care of my clients, family, community, etc. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t want to do things for other people, it’s just that I like to make sure that I prioritize something for me. Otherwise, if I don’t, me time never happens and I get pretty upset with not getting my own needs taken care of and only taking care of everybody else. I’m not okay with that. Nicole’s class helped me to realize what I need and helped me to feel good about prioritizing what I need in a day.
Moms, in particular working moms, will always be a special kind of busy. Find the way to identify what is important to you and integrate those things into your daily life, otherwise, you’ll find yourself in the constant battle of holding back MOMster. I tried for years to figure it out on my own, so that’s why I recommend Nicole’s Define Your Time class so that you can identify what is important to you sooner rather than later… and ultimately start enjoying being a working mom.
Note: I may receive affiliate commissions for referring you to different products and services, but will only recommend what I personally use myself and find very helpful.