I’m so out of practice at being a “working mum”. Sometimes I wonder how I ever did it the first time around. How does anyone do it? It’s so bloody hard.
In between the homework and the Easter bonnet making and the covering school books with contact and the school lunches and the before-school band performances and the after-school swimming lesson and the making dinner and the tidying up and the grocery shopping and the working and the blogging …
Oh, and everything really.
Except me.
It feels like there’s never any time for me.
Not a minute to breathe.
Oh, and forget about there being time for my husband – he gets his allotted 10 minutes over dinner and then I’m off.
Even seeing friends feels suffocating – when it should be fun – because I can’t stop thinking about stuff I should be doing at home or with the kids or for work.
My god it’s exhausting.
I think it’s time I read I Don’t Know How She Does It again. That book was brilliant.
Except she decided in the end she couldn’t do it all. So maybe not.
Because I have to believe there’s a way to do it all.
I am capable. I am creative.
I want to be successful, at everything I do.
And I think that’s where the problem lies.
Something has to give.
Maybe it’s the blog.
Maybe it’s the fortnightly cleaners … that way I wouldn’t have to tidy up before they come. We could just live in our own squalor. If we stop having visitors, no one will ever know …
What’s the thing that “gives” in your life to make the rest do-able?
housegoeshome 
Oh Alana I know exactly how you feel! It is horrible when time with the children and friends is spent thinking about all the things you need to do. Often I think if someone could just take the children for just a weekend – oh the things I could get done! I take solace in the once a week catch up with close friends – at a park so the children can have fun (multi-tasking) and have won the time/money/value argument and now have an ironing lady who in one hour (fortnightly) does what would take me 2.5 hours! 🙂 It is money well spent to save my time. Oh and I also got rid of Facebook on my phone as I found I became addicted and this was time wasted on finding out about unimportant things rather than focusing on my children for those 5 or 10min.
Lorraine – you sound pretty on top of things. Love it!
It’s the cleaning that ‘gives’ in our house. My intermittent paid writing gigs don’t quite justify a cleaner as yet (and I’m still trying to avoid a sensible day job), but home help will be the first thing on the list if and when my earnings increase! The second casualty is definitely time for my husband and I to have a conversation. I don’t quite know how to work that one out between our two schedules and three small, constant interruptions. If you figure it out, please let us know!
I worry that conversation with husbands is pretty essential to the process. Needs to move higher up the list of priorities!
Oh how I know how you feel! I started typing a million responses about how it can be done and then I thought you wouldn’t be able to believe me because clearly it didn’t work for me….. My only advice would be to hire someone to help you clean the house (more than fortnightly so you don’t have to spend too much time cleaning up for them) and do your shopping online.
xxx
I think I’ll cancel Farmers Direct first. I have had it up to here with pears and potatoes and mouldy beans
I wish I had the answer. I’m writing a blog post on how to have it all, I’ve emailed the Governor General and Gail Kelly from Westpac asking how they did it. The GG is replying when she replies from overseas, haven’t heard from Kelly yet. I think this has been the bane of our generation. I’m trying to we stop concentrating on how hard it is and look at how successful people have achieved it and work out what I can learn from them.’Cause I’m trying to figure out what to tell my daughters – I don’t feel I have managed it very well, I gave up on the career, my super will barely last a year of retirement. Even now with teenagers and working only four days a week I still struggle to get the “balance” right. I feel pulled in a million directions on any given day.But surely there has to be a way! Good luck, hang in there.
Ah, we do the best we can and we worry about it far more than our parents did. Can’t wait to hear what Gail has to say
Don’t clean up for the cleaner, please 🙂
I’d keep the cleaner but blog less, but that’s just me!