Empowering Work-Life Balance: A Real Mom’s Journey, Juggling Work and Family

When I gave birth to my first girl, I took around three months of leave to adjust to a whole range of issues in my life. To be honest I never thought that juggling work and family would be such a challenge. Having a new member of the family meant that I could no longer plan everything. My baby had plans of its own, and it did what it wanted when it wanted. It seemed that everything now revolved around my daughter. At the time, I was so exhausted and tired that I never really enjoyed the whole experience as much as I believe I should have. I also started to feel quite sad, as if I lost something. Looking back, it was as if I was lamenting the loss of my freedom and carefree life.

After a period of time, I made the decision to re-enter the workforce, starting with part-time employment and gradually transitioning to full-time. However, I soon realized that the level of stress I experienced in part-time employment was not significantly different from that of full-time employment. Despite working fewer hours, the workload remained demanding and comparable to that of a full-time position. It felt like I had to accomplish the same amount of work within a limited timeframe. Achieving a work-life balance became an ongoing challenge that required dedicated effort on my part.

Even though I had opted for part-time work initially, it didn’t necessarily equate to a reduced level of stress. The responsibilities and expectations placed on me were still substantial, making it necessary for me to put in significant effort to meet them within the given timeframe. Balancing work with personal life became a priority for me, as I recognized the importance of maintaining a healthy equilibrium.

In essence, the transition from part-time to full-time employment didn’t alleviate the stress I experienced. Instead, it highlighted the need for actively working towards achieving a work-life balance. It was a continuous process that required careful time management, setting boundaries, and prioritizing self-care to ensure my well-being was not compromised by work demands.

Following my bad experience with part-time work, I decided to change jobs and start full-time work. After several weeks of searching, I finally found a job within a large company. It ticked all the boxes, work-life balance, which would allow me to be flexible in my start and finish times. I didn’t expect it to be easy, and I was prepared to work hard to prove myself again.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was adapting to the overwhelming level of coordination required to effectively balance my work responsibilities with my family commitments. I had underestimated the sheer amount of juggling and organization needed to ensure that neither my husband nor I dropped the ball on important tasks and obligations.
With the combination of work and family responsibilities, it became crucial to establish clear communication and a well-coordinated plan. I quickly realized that simply relying on spontaneous decision-making and last-minute adjustments was not sustainable. To effectively manage our busy lives, I had to proactively plan each week in advance, ensuring that both my husband and I were aware of our respective commitments and deadlines.
This level of organization and coordination became essential in order to maintain harmony between work and family life. By mapping out our schedules in advance, we were able to identify potential conflicts and find solutions ahead of time. This approach allowed us to effectively allocate our time and resources, ensuring that we fulfilled our work obligations and met our family’s needs without sacrificing one for the other.
While it was initially challenging to adapt to this level of planning and coordination, I recognized its significance in preventing unnecessary stress and ensuring that important tasks were completed in a timely manner. It required open communication, flexibility, and a willingness to adapt to unexpected changes.
By setting aside time for work and family, and by carefully organizing our activities, my husband and I were able to navigate the challenges of our lives more smoothly. It became a team effort that allowed us to support each other, share responsibilities, and maintain a somewhat healthy work-life balance.

We made the choice to both be employed full-time, as it gave us greater financial freedom, however, it definitely requires a fair chunk of sacrifice. You certainly end up being more time-poor and more stressed. You need to pick your battles and drop your standard in regard to cleaning around the house. You also need to be happy to live with a certain level of messiness. This can be offset by hiring someone to do the cleaning around the house. We decided not to follow that approach, due to the cost involved. I also fully understand that I could have chosen to not seek full-time employment, but it would have meant a thriftier lifestyle and stretched out the time to pay off the mortgage. Basically, in our situation, it made sense for me to work. But I fully understand and appreciate it is not for everyone. Like many things in life, you just need to enter the situation with both eyes open. My biggest tip is possibly to do 2-3 days of work initially to test and see how it works.

Full-time employment can also be an emotional roller coaster, at least it was for me. When at work I felt guilty that I couldn’t spend enough time with the girls. I felt guilty because the house was not looked after as it should be. I felt guilty that I was always thinking about work and struggled to enjoy those special moments with the girls as my mind drifted to work issues.

What follows is a bit of a summary of my typical day, which starts around 6 am, with the alarm going off. Within minutes I am re-orientating myself to the real world, I sluggishly get out of bed and head for the shower. My express shower lasts around two minutes, then I speedily get dressed, before heading to the kitchen to organize things.

I prepare lunch and recess snacks for the girls and pack their bags. Meanwhile, I’m having mouthfuls of cereal as I’m running around trying to organize their school clothes, and other gear they need to take to school.

I then wake up the girls and ask them to get ready. Normally, they also need a ten minutes reminder. I also check the traffic on my app and let them know if we need to be faster if the traffic is particularly bad. My older girl mutters something about whether I’ve signed the permission note for the field trip tomorrow. I tell her that it’s signed and in her bag.

Once we have all finished breakfast, we scramble into the car and drive off. Just before heading off the younger girl needs to go to the toilet, again. That’s another five minutes. Finally, we are all ready and in the car. I drop the big one off at school and head off again to take the younger one to childcare, a quick cuddle and kiss and off she goes.

We are now five minutes into the trip to the daycare, the younger one realizes drop-off is approaching and starts to cry and whine.

“I hate it, I don’t want to go.”

“It’s going to be okay; you will have lots of fun, and today is craft day.”

“I hate it, I don’t want to go.”.

This continued for what seemed the whole trip. As I try to cheer her up by playing kids’ music, and also reminding her of all the fun games they will play.

Finally, we arrive at the childcare center. I park the car and struggle to get her out. As a last resort, I bribe her with a promise to buy her a little treat in the afternoon. I greet the daycare center staff, turn and give my daughter a kiss, and leave, running around 10 minutes late at this point. I’m feeling a bit worried that I will be late for the morning meeting.

I get back in the car and head off, hoping the traffic isn’t too bad, I arrive at the car park and look for a parking spot. After driving around in circles in the car park I finally find a spot, and speed walk to the train station. I breathe a sigh of relief as I jump on the packed train, at this point I’m not looking the best.

I arrive at work at around 8: 55 am, I organize my thoughts and sit down, with only 5 minutes to review what I want to say in the meeting. Most weekdays I either skip lunch or have a quick bite at my desk which gives me a buffer so that I can leave work a bit earlier. Most of my day is spent at my desk preparing reports and chasing up people for their comments. With ad hoc meetings throughout the day.

I usually go for a coffee around 2-ish, which is my daily treat, and get some fresh air of sorts and get to see the outside world. If convenient I sometimes go with a colleague of mine, and we chat about work along the way. As I head to the elevator, I meet a friend and we talk about flexible work hours, and how she also works through lunch just to leave a bit early. It feels good to know I’m not the only one. She also mentions that she is working one day from home which she finds very helpful. This gets me thinking about whether I should also consider this option.

Meanwhile, it’s around 4 pm and my husband has picked up the kids and they are probably home by now. While I’m still at work trying to finalize the reports and chase people for feedback on their results.

By 6.36 pm I’ve finished work and I head home, arriving home a bit after 7 pm. As I enter the door the girls rush to cuddle me, the younger one asking me whether I got her present. I said I didn’t have time. Not too impressed she starts to probe me for more answers, obviously I let her down. I tell her I forgot, and promise to get it for her tomorrow. But offer to give her a small chocolate treat after dinner to make up for it. That does the trick. I feel guilty about this, but at this point, I haven’t got much energy to think or do much else.

By 7:30 pm I’ve changed and settled in, and we all sit down to eat and talk about the day. The younger one enjoyed the craft session at childcare and I hope her excitement continues.

After dinner, my husband cleans up after dinner and we sit around the lounge room with the kids. My older girl asks me whether I will be able to see her school performance on Friday. All along I’m trying to keep my mind on the present, but find my mind wandering off to work issues. Before long it’s bedtime, we sit together on the bed and read the girls some pages of Dr. Zeus, and the kids are ready for sleep. We say our prayers and leave the room. It normally takes around 15 minutes for the girls to wind down and fall asleep.

Once the girls are in bed, I quickly do the laundry, which I do on a daily, then I’m back on the laptop for some me-time and to check the schedule for the next day. We spend the rest of the time talking about family issues, and who will be doing what during the week.