The Elusive Balancing Act of a Working Mom
When I had my daughter Audrey in 2018 I knew my life would change, but I wasn’t prepared for the total identity shift that took place. With my love of business and branding, I always envisioned myself as a “career woman,” but when I returned to work after maternity leave I felt so overwhelmed. Over the last few years, I have been able to figure out a few key things that have saved my sanity when it comes to balancing being a modern mom and a marketing executive:
- Quality over quantity — this concept really hit me during my year as a stay-at-home mom to Audrey. I was with my daughter a lot, but were we spending quality time together? If I was busy cleaning, running errands, or just not engaged with her, does that really count? In recent years, I have been focusing so much more on quality time with Audrey — snuggling up to watch a movie (and not being distracted by my phone), playing a game together, playing outside together. Audrey has a huge imagination and it’s amazing to lose myself in the fun worlds she builds!
- Scheduling everything — whether it is your partner, co-parent, grandparents, or nanny, I highly recommend obsessively utilizing shared calendars. My husband and I work closely with our calendar and we make sure to send calendar invites to just about everything — that way we both feel informed and can work together to ensure we’re both getting the time we need. If neither of us is available to be with Audrey, we have a couple of great babysitters to call. We schedule key priorities like evenings we work late, workout classes, dinners with friends, and date nights!
- Working late twice per week — As a leader with five in-house employees, two agencies, and an outside contractor to manage sometimes days fly by and I am not able to hear myself think or get my own work done. I quickly learned that I cannot rush out of the office every day, otherwise, I wouldn’t be as productive as I need to be. I plan for Tuesdays and Thursdays to be my busy days — packing meetings into those days and planning to work late. Structuring my week this way helps me feel guilt-free about spending more time in the office on my busy days. This plan also leaves the other days of the week with a lighter meeting load and I feel on top of my projects.
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Connect with Kate and see her everyday life as a working mom, along with some business and marketing tips along the way www.instagram.com/kate.mohan
Kate is passionate about helping women and Moms move their careers forward — learn more @ www.instagram.com/themodernmomcollective
