January for me is all about finding the right balance between a month of non-stop work and trying not to miss my kids like crazy.
Whilst working on building my exciting little business, I work in television as a sports producer. This means that when major sporting events are on, for example the Australian Open tennis and the Spring Racing Carnival, I don’t have ‘normal’ working hours and generally have to spend a fair bit of time away from my wonderful little family.
Luckily for us, my husband takes his holidays to coincide with this and the kids get to stay at home and spend some quality time hanging out with him.
Before I had children, when I only had to worry about me, myself and I, I didn’t realise what the juggling act was like for a working mum with small children. Before I had children, I always thought that a working mum had heaps of time to look after their children, make sure they are fed and watered and were able to work normal working hours like all normal working people.
We have two children under 3 and without opting to put them in childcare (not that we have anything against it!) and pairing it with unsociable working hours for both my husband and I, it has been a bit of a juggle with our schedules to ensure that at least one of us is home.
In saying that, I struggled a lot this time around with finding time for me. As a breastfeeding mother, I found it hard to get out of the house without the children – or at least one in particular who was attached to my chest nearly 24/7 – and that was difficult and not something that I had experienced with our first born.
So now, we have started buying lottery tickets and regularly talk about all of the things we would do if we happened to win the big one….
“We would never work again would we?” “We would buy that mansion in Brighton and the holiday house down on the Peninsula wouldn’t we?”
Ummm, yes we probably would. But on the other hand, I love my profession. I love the people I work with and the new people I meet in the environment of live sport where you don’t know what the outcome will be when you sit down to start work. I love that I still get to be creative and that that I feel I can push myself to regularly do things that I haven’t done before. And in saying all of that, as much as I absolutely adore my kids with every inch of my being, I love that I get that me time that I haven’t had for the last 9 months and that at the end of every day (when it works out!) I get to go home and snuggle my kids before they go to bed.
And that my friends, is part of the journey to finding the right balance that includes taking time for you…and now more than ever, I think is a very important part of making sure our whole household is harmonious and most importantly, extremely happy!