Eat, sleep, rave, repeat; eat, sleep, rave, repeat
As my body is moving to the melody, I realise I don’t really like this tune. The longer it goes on, the more irritated it makes me. At that point, I realise it’s my bloody alarm going off!
5.30 am is never easy, and that’s why I snooze the alarm for at least 30 minutes.
I’ll drag myself out of bed and jump in the shower and start the process of waking myself up.
Before I leave the house, I’ve hoovered (bloody cats!), washed up (I still believe the washing up fairies will turn up during the night and finish it for me), tried to straighten the house up (why does that table never seem tidy?!), sorted my daughter out for school and made lunches.
I’ll then do a 50-mile commute to work where I’ll begin my day as a PA. You might think that by reading this last sentence and the previous paragraph that I am super organised? Think again…
Work me and home me are 2 different people. I have an organised mentality at work because I have to but it’s like I use my quota there and by the time I get home, the bucket is empty (hence why the washing up is still there in the morning and the table never seems tidy!)
I come home to get the dinner sorted, put the washing out, even hoover again (bloody cats!), trying to spend some time with my daughter before bedtime (hers not mine!). I do have a husband in this house as well and he does help if he’s home before me.
By that point, it’s the struggle of deciding to catch up on me time (or hubby time) or just sleep.
I don’t think mums think of this as a modern approach; it’s probably deemed as “modern” from 50/60 years ago but my mum worked when I was little and my family looked after me. Maybe this is why it’s not such an odd approach to work as a mother when it’s what I was brought up knowing.
I don’t think there is a right method for balancing work/home life. We all as parents do what needs to be done to support our families. I feel stay at home parents work even harder as they get no time off. At least I get to have a hot cup of tea and adult conversation when I’m at work! Staying at home would have been a detriment to my daughter. She got so much out of nursery and whilst I felt extremely guilty on her first day (and shamed for going back to work after 9 months by other mums!), it’s a decision I look back on and know for our family, it was the right decision. At some point, I’ll remember the importance of getting everything ready the night before.
It’s now as an adult (and a mum) that I appreciate the rushing around my mum did in-between working nights and running a house and realised that poor woman probably didn’t sit down from 1983-1996!
