Balancing Family and Work

The prompt today on BlogHer for NaBloPoMo is the following:

Making family time is important to me. How do you balance your children, relationship, and work life? (Guest Post by Ricki Lake, who can be found onFacebook or Twitter @RickiLakeShow)

And for me the answer as touched on by a commenter on my previous post, Good Nutrition and the Average American Family, is really pretty simple.

You can’t do it all.

I know that people like to live under the delusion that you can do it all, and do it all well, but I have as of yet to see anyone actually do it. Something always has to give. You either have a messy house, or you eat out a lot, or your kids don’t do activities outside of the home, or you take a lesser demanding job. Something is always given up.

The problem is that accepting that you can’t do it all is harder than it looks.

For me the key to acceptance of his fact exists in 5 parts.

My Keys to Balancing Family and Work

1. I understand that I can’t do it all, and I cut myself some slack. I don’t waste time  worrying about what I’m not getting done.  (Well mostly.)
2. I prioritize.  I decide what are the most important parts of my life and focus on building those aspects up to be the best that they can be.
3. I adjust.  I understand that life throws curve balls and that I have to sometimes adjust my priorities and my schedules.
4. I learn.  I take time to analyze and decide what is working and what is not working for my schedule. I cut out the nonsense in my life and make improvements as I can.
5. I live in the present.  I try to focus on what I am working on at that time, and really try to feel and appreciate the nuances of every situation. Yes. Even the bad ones.

Kelly Kinkaid (1007 Posts)

Kelly Kinkaid, professional blogger and freelance writer, enjoys writing about such topics as stretching a dollar, personal finance, diet and fitness, and living a life well lived. She spends all of her spare time in her many roles including but not limited to soccer, basketball, swimmer, band, and piano mom, runner and wife. You may contact her via e-mail kellyology(at)gmail(dot)com.