Work and Motherhood

"How do I balance motherhood with my full-time job?" This is something that I struggle with pretty much everyday since my daughter arrived. My first experience with this question started on a different road than most mothers. I am fortunate enough to work for a company that allowed me to bring my daughter to work with me until she was 6 months old. This opportunity was great on several levels, 1) I  could delay dealing with the separation anxiety that occurs with taking your child to daycare for the first time, 2) I saved much dinero by not having to pay for daycare for 6 months, 3) breastfeeding was easy to stick to - just to name a few.

So, my first struggle with work and motherhood revolved around focusing on work when all I want to do is hold and play with my baby. I often wondered how having my child at work affected my productivity. On one hand, time was taken away from work for feedings, changing diapers and getting her to sleep. On the other hand, I skipped breaks, ate lunch at my desk and cut the socializing with co-workers way down. I also worked double time to get things done when she was sleeping. All in all I think things evened out pretty well, but there was always one thought that kept popping up - "I wish I could just play with and hold her all day."

Then the 6 month mark came along and I had to part ways with my child during the day and leave her in the capable hands of her wonderful daycare provider. While I was very comfortable with the person I would be leaving her with, I was not at all comfortable with the idea of her spending most of her waking hours with someone that was not me. Now I had a different distraction plaguing my mind, "what is my baby doing right now?" My work day could not get over fast enough and I could not find a quick enough route to drive to get to my baby.

The next problem with work and motherhood involves finding the time to get everything done in a day that needs to be done. If you are a working mother with a schedule like mine you have to tackle getting up for work, getting themselves ready, the baby ready, making sure everything is packed for the day at day care, getting the baby to day care and making it to work on time. Then after a full day of work you need to pick the baby up from daycare, get home, tend to the baby, cook dinner, get the baby to bed and then get ready for the next day. This routine doesn't include finding time to do laundry, clean house or relax and it can take its toll on a person. On my lucky days daddy will get home from work in time to put baby to bed.

My baby's daddy works long hours, which leaves little time in his day to be home with baby. The flip side to my day is dad's schedule. We are usually out the door before he wakes up in the morning and are usually in bed before he gets home. This means that dad rarely gets to see baby awake during the week. When I think about his schedule and my schedule I can honestly say that I think he gets the short end of the stick.

Since our weeks speed by with non stop work, we work hard to keep our weekends for family time only. This means we try as hard as possible to leave work at work on the weekends and spend the time together as a family.

What are some ways that other mom's out there manage work and family?