Maintaining Balance in Your Life -
Notes from a working wife with three kids
Whether you are a mom with one kid, or a dad with six, keeping a healthy balance between your job, your kids, and your spouse is a definite challenge. With long busy days and tired growing kids, the days of their youth quickly fly by.
We love our kids and can’t get enough of them. We also love our job and want to balance that. But when is enough enough? Running to work, thinking about what you’re going to make for dinner; all of the errands you still need to do running through your head…how can you possibly enjoy your life and time with your family and get everything done?
The very basics are: don’t over-schedule yourself, keep the stress in your life as low as possible, above all keep your sanity.
Here are five things you must do to keep your sanity.
Give yourself some down time. Do this every day, and try not to save it until the end of the day when you are ready to pass out from exhaustion. Giving yourself this treat, which may be 10 or 15 minutes, maybe a half hour, is paramount to keeping your sanity. I listen to an audio CD of relaxing sounds and meditate. You may go to the gym and work out.
Do something that’s not related to kids or work. Something that’s interactive with other adults. Join an online book club, play tennis, meet some friends for coffee (this is not really doing anything, but you are getting out of the house).
Make sure your kids get enough sleep. Yes, it’s great if YOU can get enough sleep too, but more important to your sanity is their sleep. There’s nothing worse than a tired toddler.
Feed the kids healthy foods. No, this doesn’t mean you need to be a sugar Nazi, but if you can keep their sugar and caffeine intake down, you’ve got a much better chance of managing them. This includes things like juice, pop and other sugary snacks. I don’t know if this is a proven fact or not but it seems like if you can start their day off on a healthy note – low sugar – they have a better day. They won’t have that sugar crash later on.
Save the TV and movie for when you can see the kids are about to crash. This may be when you are cooking dinner or when they are at that “in between” nap stage. For many it’s right before bed. Save the TV for when YOU really need it. Don’t let the kids just wake up and start watching it. I’ve found that if I let my kids watch cartoons right after they wake up they have a harder time playing afterwards and are easily bored. If they wake up, play for a little while, eat in there somewhere and then play again, their imagination kicks in right away and they play longer. Plus, if you don’t let them watch TV all the time, it really works well when you need it to.
Life with kids is a wonderful and busy time in our lives. Taking just a few of these steps, even one, can help you stay calm, have more patience, and ultimately enjoy your children and your life more.
About the author
Founder of A Marketing Connection and The Copywriting Institute, Kelly Robbins, MA, is an award winning copywriter and healthcare marketing coach/consultant. She also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection, a free e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to receive her free report, "5 Critical Mistakes Healthcare Marketers Make that Lose Sales and Plummet Profits" at www.AMarketingConnection.com or 303-460-0285.
