Raise your hand if you’ve been riding the so-called Crazy Train for the last 6 to 9 months.
I’m willing to bet there is a collective, “hell yes” from the SM community and I see you. I’m standing over here, 6 feet away and I’m proudly raising my hand with you. This has been tough on all of us. As mothers, we can all relate on some level to the chaos and confusion that have overtaken our world throughout this pandemic. We’ve been in remote-learning hell, Zooming our way through work each day, and still trying to keep our household from entering total shambles on a daily basis. Over the last few months, I’ve been making a point to restructure my day to be more productive and less hectic as we navigate through this “new normal,” specifically when it comes to working from home.
Here are a few things I’m doing to help find that WFH balance while riding this chaotic-never-ending-please-make-it-stop Crazy Train.
Set Boundaries
This is my biggest struggle as a mom and business owner (I own Sky House Creative) but I believe it’s one of the most important steps I’ve taken to save my sanity. We’ve all come to love the unexpected guest-appearance from our children on Zoom calls. It’s actually refreshing to have a glimpse into our coworkers’ and clients’ personal lives in an informal and more personal setting. With that said, establishing clear boundaries and expectations with my littles has been critical for me having a productive workday. My kids now understand that if I’m in the office with the door closed, I’m diligently working. And in return, I try to step away every 60 minutes or so to check-in, see if my children need me for anything or simply to take advantage of the opportunity to spend a little more time with them. Balancing working from home with motherhood requires setting strong boundaries.
Mom Guilt: Let it GO (in your best Elsa voice)
We all feel it. We all experience it on a regular basis but you have to let that Mom Guilt go. It’s okay. It’s okay if Mommy can’t play right now because she has a conference call in 5 minutes. It’s okay to say, “No, not right now.” They can wait and everything will be okay. It’s good for our children to see us set goals and work hard to accomplish them. Balancing working from home with motherhood sometimes means they have to “wait a minute”.
Self Care Conquers All
Okay, this is technically not work-related but it’s worth mentioning. Call it what you will, self-care, me time, mommy maintenance. It’s imperative to find the time to do something, anything for yourself. Maybe it’s an at-home manicure or listening to your favorite podcast, a glass of wine with a good book in the evening after the kids go down. Whatever it is, find something that helps you unplug and decompress from it all. For me, it’s running. It’s been more therapeutic than anything for me. That 45 minutes to an hour of running in the fresh air allows me to reset and refocus my energy towards being more patient as a mother and more productive as a business owner. Oh, and that glass of wine at night is nice, too!
