I need to stay at work late three times a week because of my child’s schedule. I’m working on figuring out how to best utilize that extra work time to either make it so I don’t have to work on the weekends from home, or to manage home admin business during this time. A work in progress!
Yes! I call these "magic times." They also turn up when I am waiting for a kid in therapy or at a basketball practice. I can get a lot done in my (quiet!) car during those hours.
This is my current battle. How do I deal with the logistics involved with a new job, single parenting, self care and grace, and the guilt of not continuing my side passion at the same time.
This concept of what my time was worth only recently came into view and forced me to reavalute how I spend much of my time. I see the necessity of getting a housekeeper, a tutor AND particularly teaching the kids how to wash and fold their own clothes.
The challenge becomes this concept of equal share around parenting admin - there's basic things that need to get done to keep the family supported like dinner, homework supervision, getting to and from school, etc. I find those things to be the hardest because we are programmed to be equal partners in child-rearing, but sometimes one person needs to shoulder the weight because the other is expected to be at work. Then the the guilt of not being as active - particularly as a mother - in the household weighs on the conscious.
I hear you. When I was busiest with work, we transferred a lot of parenting admin off my shoulders — camp forms, managing doctor’s appointments, signing up for extracurriculars, food shopping, meal prep — but I never stopped feeling guilty about it. I would go to the grocery store on Sunday afternoons or drive extra carpool shifts on weekends just to prove “I still got it!”
I need to stay at work late three times a week because of my child’s schedule. I’m working on figuring out how to best utilize that extra work time to either make it so I don’t have to work on the weekends from home, or to manage home admin business during this time. A work in progress!
Yes! I call these "magic times." They also turn up when I am waiting for a kid in therapy or at a basketball practice. I can get a lot done in my (quiet!) car during those hours.
This is my current battle. How do I deal with the logistics involved with a new job, single parenting, self care and grace, and the guilt of not continuing my side passion at the same time.
"The Guilt" rears its ugly head again. As if you didn't already have enough on your plate...
Thanks for sharing. Wish I had an elegant solution for this one.
This concept of what my time was worth only recently came into view and forced me to reavalute how I spend much of my time. I see the necessity of getting a housekeeper, a tutor AND particularly teaching the kids how to wash and fold their own clothes.
The challenge becomes this concept of equal share around parenting admin - there's basic things that need to get done to keep the family supported like dinner, homework supervision, getting to and from school, etc. I find those things to be the hardest because we are programmed to be equal partners in child-rearing, but sometimes one person needs to shoulder the weight because the other is expected to be at work. Then the the guilt of not being as active - particularly as a mother - in the household weighs on the conscious.
I hear you. When I was busiest with work, we transferred a lot of parenting admin off my shoulders — camp forms, managing doctor’s appointments, signing up for extracurriculars, food shopping, meal prep — but I never stopped feeling guilty about it. I would go to the grocery store on Sunday afternoons or drive extra carpool shifts on weekends just to prove “I still got it!”