You need your job to provide for your children, but the demands of doing both are starting to weigh on you heavily. Every day you’re required to get the kids off to school, manage the office, and then come home to wrangle in the household. Seeing as how you’re only one person, it really is a lot. In fact, the responsibility of it all is starting to have an effect on how you perform at work and your ability to be a great mom at home.
Don’t Suffer in Silence
Working as a mother has always been a struggle. Although there have been many changes made to the business environment to try and make things easier and equality for women in the workplace, it doesn’t stop the challenges you face at home. Unfortunately, many suffer in silence and make it appear as if all is right with the world.
These actions, however, can lead to everything from headaches, body aches, and mood swings to the abuse of drugs and alcohol and mental health issues like depression. If you’ve reached this point, there is help available to you. Start by looking into alcohol treatment orange county or near where you live. If you haven’t reached this point, but feel yourself hanging on by a thread, you need to get serious about combating this stress.
Common Stresses
The best way to fight stress is to first determine what’s causing it. There are a lot of reasons that working mothers get stressed out, however, the most common are listed below:
Finances – You may be working a job, but is it enough to provide? Do you still find yourself in a lot of debt and unable to afford a life you’d like? Many women work long hours and get very little in return causing them to need to take on additional jobs to pick up the slack.
Schedule – Is your schedule just too much? Has it become complicated to meet the demands of your job and still get to the kid’s school before it closes? Do you work so much that you barely see your kids anymore? Perhaps your schedule has you on your feet from sun up until midnight? Balancing the schedule is often hard for working mothers. You have obligations to your job but also have commitments to your children and they don’t always agree.
The guilt of Missing Out – When you’re a working mother in a demanding job, it can create a lot of guilt. You may miss out on important milestones with your new baby or miss performances for your other children at their school. If you’re gone often, it may even feel as if your children are growing up without you.
No Me Time – In all that you have to do for your job and family there simply doesn’t seem to be enough time left in your schedule to dedicate yourself. This can lead to resentment, depression, and frustration.
How to Change it
The balance between mother and career woman will always be one that needs to be revisited and altered on occasion. As the demands of your job and your family change, you need to determine how you’ll adjust. Below, however, are a few suggestions on how to reduce the stressors listed above:
- Manage your finances better with budgeting, reducing spending, and couponing. If you’re not making enough where you are, consider looking for a new job or starting a side hustle that is more of a release for you than another job.
- Get a handle on your schedule by cutting out things you really don’t want to or can’t do. Set boundaries that don’t allow work obligations to interfere with your responsibilities as a mother. In other words, no bringing work home. When you’re off the clock, tend to your family. If you can’t handle all the mom duties, ask those who support you like your spouse or parents to pitch in.
- Technology is really on your side if you fear missing out. Ask family members to step in where you can’t and record those important moments in your child’s life. Though you won’t be there, you can still catch the moment and have your own precious memories. Also, set aside time to spend with each of your children separately. Those quality moments will help you get over the guilt of not being there as often as you’d like.
- Me time is a must. You can find ways to put yourself first throughout the day. Wake up a few minutes early and do yoga or meditate. Ask family members to watch the kids while you go out. Take a day off from work and treat yourself to a spa day.
There is nothing easy about being a working mother. Yet, a woman’s got to do what she’s got to do to make sure her family is taken care of. If you’ve been especially stressed out, you can reduce it by first determining what has you stressed out and then coming up with a plan to change things. It still won’t be a piece of cake, but this process will ensure that you’re able to get both jobs done without losing yourself in the process.