7 Ways To Balance Work And Life With A Toddler
“Balance provides the chance for longevity. You can be a champion at work and at home” – Tony Dungy.
We all know that finding balance while juggling multiple responsibilities at once isn’t an easy task. As a mom, tending to your toddler better while trying to meet your work and personal needs may sound too good to be true. It takes a lot of practice, patience, perspiration, and persistence to multitask without neglecting other needs.
Knowing that toddlers require a lot of our attention and are highly dependent on parents, how do we keep it all together?
Why work-life balance matters
Work-life balance, as we may know, is the harmony between your work and your other important things in life—may be your family, household duties, job, hobbies, personal care, social life, and many more. You may probably have work-life balance if you can manage to keep all these areas going.
With a good work-life balance, you can have the physical, mental, and emotional energy to give to your toddler to help facilitate development and learning. What’s good about a well-balanced life is that you can enjoy life’s fullness, feel healthier and energetic, cope with stress, prevent work burnout, and feel powered to nurture family relationships and growth.
1. Ungrasp the guilt
To let go of guilt fully, stop beating yourself up over choices and circumstances that didn’t or won’t work out. Believe that everything is okay as long as you’re doing the best that you can with your best intentions for your family and at work.
Working on letting go of guilt should be a priority especially if it consumes you, disrupts your day-to-day work, and gets in the way of you being present. Shift your perspective and focus on the things you can control. Instead of feeling paralyzed by the idea of not being able to see your children during work hours, look forward to and maximize moments with them every time you can.
2. Make mornings motivating
Pressure and the feeling that you need to rush or clock in to work as soon as you wake up surely don’t start mornings well as they don’t give you enough downtime to gear up and plan your day.
To avoid this, start planning your to-do list and do time blocking ahead of time. It also helps to stock up on groceries a week before and prepare your kids’ food and clothes a night before. You can also encourage them to help you with the preparations, it can count as bonding time. You can ask them to help you stock up the fridge, help with laundry, and many more. Make it a habit to also decide ahead of time what to make for your meal times and what to prepare for work and school.
3. Create and organize a family calendar
Making time for your family, especially for your toddler, is critical both during weekdays and weekends. This allows you to cultivate your family dynamics and exchange support. You can be sure that you don’t overlook your priority moments with your family by having a family calendar. This may include due dates of bills, a list of school and family events or activities, birthdays, and many more. This way, you can keep track of the important family moments you shouldn’t miss.
4. Be aware
Awareness means being able to identify swiftly if there’s something that has to be taken care of immediately. Do you need to spend time with your spouse and toddler more? Do you have an urgent work task to finish? Does your toddler have a scheduled dental checkup? On top of these, awareness means being compassionate towards yourself, too. This means extending grace to yourself when you feel like you’ve made a wrong move or heeding what your body or mind needs.
5. Communicate with your company employer
To keep boundaries, it’s crucial to communicate with your HR representative or employer regarding your negotiables and non-negotiables between personal or family life and work. However, it’s crucial to align first with your arrangement with your company and know how much time you can take off. By knowing such information, you can further justify your proposal terms, gauge their feasibility, and identify alternatives that’ll allow you and your company to meet halfway.
6. Limit distractions
Let’s admit it, it’s difficult to stay focused when non-urgent or not-so-important undertakings keep stealing our attention—may they be beeping devices or other non-priority tasks.
You may consider setting time limits when checking emails or making calls and reducing screen time to maximize physical moments. Try to avoid multitasking, most especially when you’re spending leisure time with your children. Do work during regular working hours while focusing on tasks at hand, and avoid casual Internet surfing or non-urgent long conversations in-between work.
7. Rest and rejuvenate
A refreshing and unrushed rest allows you to recharge, take care of your personal needs, and gear up for another long day as a working mom. You can do this by making time for your hobbies or leisure activities, skincare routine, exercising, regularly getting a good night’s sleep, and many more. If you feel pressured to look after your children in your downtime, what’s good is that you can also take them with you, and share your personal leisure moments with them. As you hit the gym with your toddler, consider visiting play gym for babies, too.
Rest is never a waste of time, so make sure to keep it a priority. Without enough rest, it’s hard to be effective in the things that you do and manage your time better.
The bottom line
As a working mom, it’s not easy to balance everything at once. There will always be days when we feel we won’t be enough. And that’s okay, as long as you do your best.
Instead of feeling stuck, appreciate yourself more often, rest if you must, and don’t miss celebrating little joys as a career woman and a mom. You can also consider the tips above to help you balance work and life.