According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture*, if the typical “stay-at-home” mother in the United States were paid for her work as a housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would earn $138,095 a year. OK, so first may I say what’s with the “stay at home” mom descriptor? As if, tra la la, I’m just staying at home, bon bons, etc. Jeez oh Pete… not the Mom’s I work with. So, please, “full time mom” …it’s an occupation and in my mind, the most important one any man or woman can take on.
So, is it hard to stay organized if your job is “Mom”? Yep, because, to meet that $140K salary, you would have to hire: a cook, a child care provider, a laundry service, a driver, a facilities manager, a janitor, a computer operator, a chief executive officer (oh yea, you are so good at that) and a psychologist. So you, master multi-tasker, are doing the job of many people. How do you keep it all sorted out?
First, simply accept the challenge you have taken on and know that at times it will be difficult to keep everything organized. Forgive yourself and have fun. Second, when you have a chance to breath, (sigh), review in your head what your top priorities are at this given moment. Not each individual action, just the top level goals and priorities you have as the family CEO. E.g. Jenny’s Birthday, travel trip coming up, working with Tommy’s learning issue, my husband/partner’s xyz problem, the broken jfk, … etc. Don’t worry about the action times, those will likely just happen naturally by doing this.
Finally, about that breathing thing, no really, try to breath. Deep belly breath, eyes closed. And Thanks for what you do.
* SOURCE: U.S. Department of Agriculture; “Baby Bargains”, Denise Fields, 7th Edition.; Salary.com