Balancing Your Life as a Working Parent

Without a doubt one of the most difficult issues encountered by parents with children is balance. This article discusses four areas to focus on to help keep your sanity.

Get organized: The more time pressures you have the more important it is that you are well organized. Despite what is sometimes said, there is no one way for every parent to stay organized; however, there are some golden rules:

• Don’t do it if it does not need to be done: This may mean that your standards for what clean means might change with your new found priorities.
• Use a List: Keep an up-to-date list of what needs to be done next on hand at all times. There are many times to get things done, which do not become that apparent unless you are this organized.
• Prioritize: Make sure that you do things in the order of “most important” to “least important.” Remember, even thought you are doing it all you can’t do it all perfectly –there is only so much time in the day.

Get help: If you are a working parent, Any help that get from family, friends or other mom’s will make your life quite a bit easier.

• Get clear on what you need. Figure out your top 3-5 difficulties and develop plans to lessen their challenges.
• Ask: Tell your friends and family what you need.
• Be Creative: If you are not fortunate enough to have this level of support or even if you are, hang a flyer at your local community center or put a posting up on reputable internet sites and try to connect to other women who are also in your situation so that you can help each other.

Take Care of yourself: You are now the central role model in your child’s life. How you care for yourself does not just have an impact on how much energy you have to raise your child it also sends a message to your child about how your child should treat him or herself. Make sure that you incorporate time to take care of yourself into your plans.

• Eat right: Make eating healthy food simple and always available.
• Balance rest and activity: Get adequate sleep and make sure you exercise.
• Social time: Make time to spend with family and friends who are above waist high.
• Alone time:  It is also important to schedule breaks –time just to yourself.

Seek Council: It is not always possible to see what you should do, whether your life is in balance, or whether you made the best choices in the last round parenting challenges. Having alternative viewpoints and support can make the process a lot easier. It might be helpful to say: I wish I had someone who could help me…? And, then find someone who can stand in that role.

• Friendly support: Put together a group of 3-5 adults who can act as a council for you. This might be a seasoned parent with similar views or a friend at the same stage of parenting.
• Professional support: Sometimes it even makes sense to bring in professional help. You may enlist a therapist or a coach who works with working parents.