Understanding the Chaos: The Life of a Busy Mom
A busy mom, before anything else, is non-stop. From the earliest wake-up calls to the very last orders of the day, we are constantly managing all aspects of life for ourselves and our family. Your schedule may consist of several (hundred) tasks every single day, each day being something new, or some of the same.
Let’s face it, us moms have a lot on our plate. We are busy with anything from getting the kids up and out the door, work demands, then back to family needs and there may still be more work to do after the kids go to bed.
It is only a matter of time before everything piles up and the mom can no longer keep the juggling ball afloat and in the air. The result is complete chaos and no balance at all. To add to this, being a busy mom is not just physical; there is a level of emotional and mental strain as well.
Managing and balancing home, work, family life can create the feeling like you are never doing enough. Most moms are plagued with thoughts of: Am I doing enough? Am I a good mom? Is my juggling routine on track? Am I forgetting something? Such complex questions linger on when we are moms because there is so much pressure.
To add to this, as a busy mom, one is probably working either a part- or a full-time job to make ends meet at home. This additional pressure and responsibility of not just doing well at your day job but also doing well at home with the kids also feel like a completely unnecessary ball to juggle. This only adds to the sense of loneliness within. The questions of being good enough or doing enough do not stop.
Many other busy moms are in this similar position. It is important to feel like you are not alone in this and like there is someone who understands you. From time to time, you have to find stories of fellow busy moms like you and take inspiration or just an ounce of sanity from them. Be it online or in real life, it will help you to not feel so isolated. Identifying with the chaos that this daily routine brings is a strong step towards balance, more so once we accept that there are many other moms with the same struggles.
Vision and Intentions: Building a Clear Plan for Life
Vision is the life and soul of creating a balanced life as a busy mom. This vision is a collection of a mom’s ideas and concepts and what she hopes to achieve in life and what you want your life to look like. To start with a vision, it is important to identify with one’s values and ideas, which more or less are the basis of one’s life.
Ideally, one needs to sit back and make a self-reflection of what sort of a mom they want to be. How can they strike a balance between family and self? Perhaps, a busy mom will want to find a personal definition of self-care. Other than family, what else matters? How important is growth in her day job? Whatever the thoughts may be, it is important to write them down so that they may guide when creating personal intentions and values as a mom.
The idea is to be as specific as possible when thinking about your vision and to write it down. It is through this that you may start drawing the layout of your path as a busy mom. A busy mom will want to start with some sort of a visual aid such as this and link up to her very identity of who they are in the now and for the future.
A busy mom can start by listing down some short-term and long-term goals. As she lists her goals down, it is important to prioritize the goals. Then break down the top goals into specific actionable steps so that she may achieve each goal one day at a time. Each day, write down one action you will do to step closer to that goal.
Self-check ins are also vital. This is a process in which a busy mom takes a little time at a given day or week and checks on themselves in terms of balance.
Doing so will help to get a read on what is working and where one’s ideas are and also what needs to be modified to suit their present needs as a busy mom.
Tools and Techniques: Ideas and Tips for a Balanced Life
In a bid to stay balanced as a busy mom, several tools and techniques can be applied to not only survive the motherhood but also to live a life with much satisfaction. For one, the simple time management tools as applied at a day job can be greatly applied to a busy mom. An example of this is the Pomodoro technique. As a busy mom, if you are to achieve much productivity in a day, it is important to section your time. Therefore, you could opt to work in 25 minutes before taking a five-minute break.
By so doing, you will be in a better position to deliver more in a shorter time since you will be focused and not distracted. In a similar sense, it is also important to learn how to prioritize activities in a day or week. By prioritizing, a busy mom is in a better position to know which order to take which task to the exclusion of some less critical tasks.
Another technique is learning to set boundaries. Busy moms will always feel overworked and thus need to learn to say no to commitments that do not fit in their personal or family life. By being able to say no and communicate their limitations to others will help them prioritize the things they want and improve balance in their life.
Be Flexible: This Process is Not Linear
Finding balance as a busy mom will always be presented as a finished product, a way our lives “should” look. The truth of the matter is that it is a continuous process that will never end. Be flexible with this process because it will be ever changing within ourselves and our families. Identifying with the struggle and the daily chaos of being a busy mom is one that we all can understand.
It is not a linear process because of so many more other things in life that demand our time. It is important to be flexible with ourselves in as much as we continue with the quest for finding balance in our lives. Being a busy moms only means that there are also other needs such as professional development, self-development, family life, and more.
Conditions change as these other factors change, and that calls for us to not only be fluid in our expectations of a normal life but also be able to adapt to the changes that come with being busy moms in life. It is important for a busy mom to be ready for these fluctuations due to demands on their time, as it will help you to strike a balance and find what works in that point in life.
As a busy mom, you have a lot of on your plate. It will not always be easy finding the right balance for you. However, you need to find that personal balance, your own. That is what I have tried to guide you towards with finding your own sense of balance. Whatever that may look like, and that’s ok!