I’m pretty sure I’m Failing the Balancing Act of Working at Home

0

work at home I’m pretty sure I’m failing at my working at home balance.

It never fails, as I sit down to do work, one of my children ‘needs’ something!!

I think my husband said it best, “How do they (the kids) know when I’m busy?” This was after a day home with the girls, he went on to tell me how he had been hanging out and they hadn’t appeared with any requests for a solid hour. Then all of a sudden he had a work issue to resolve and they were up in his business with twenty requests.

Yep, pretty normal in my world. I work from home most of the time and as soon as I have an email or a call to make, the kids appear with questions or requests, basic kid stuff. I’m hungry, can I eat this?, I’m thirsty, can we swim? The list goes on and on.

These moments are the times I’m most annoyed. A simple 5 minute email or 5 minute phone call shouldn’t be that difficult, right?

I want our kids to remember their childhood fondly, think of it as happy, warm and encouraging. But, sometimes I have to get some work done, I can’t be fully engaged and present with them all the time, can I?

I’m hoping (fingers crossed) in the big picture, my work isn’t derailing the entire picture of their childhood. This balance has proved to be challenging, it’s my least favorite part of my life.

The times I snap at the kids are when I was just trying to get an email out and someone had 20 questions.
The times I say yes to ice cream at 10am, yep I was just trying to get work done.
The times I yell “go to your room!” working again.

I’m thankful that I’m not away from my kids from 8-5 everyday and don’t have rushed mornings where we all have to get ready and leave by 7am. I definitely don’t have my hair done or makeup on for a majority of the mornings.

Last summer, I created a sign that said “Working”; the girls were expected to entertain themselves when the sign was up. I would only put it up in about 45 minute increments so I could get the necessary work done without tons of interruptions. This worked fairly well. Then I would check on them after the 45 minutes.

This summer, I signed them up for camps at least in the mornings, so I could go to meetings and get everything done during the camps. But, I’m not sure everything is always done… that’s sort of the problem. I’m doing the work one piece at a time, rather than a solid few hours at a time.

I’m not sure how other moms handle this work at home stuff, I’d have to say I’m only okay at balancing act. Does anyone have tips for the work at home mom life? 

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here