Why Relationships Break Up

Family: How to Balance Having a Family and a Career

Are you a career-oriented woman who also happens to be a parent? If you are, you may be dealing with a number of different issues. Many women, just like yourself, find it somewhat difficult to balance having a career and a family. While it is more than possible to do both, it can be overwhelming at times.

One of the many issues surrounding working mothers is that they do not know how to balance their time. Mothers who need to work or finish an upcoming project often do so, but they occasionally feel guilty about missing out on quality time with their children or their romantic partner. It can also be the other way around, as well.

Many working mothers are afraid to, essentially, put their family first in certain situations, in fear of losing their jobs. If these are issues that you have dealt with or if they are issues that you are currently dealing with now, you will want to continue reading on.

One of the many ways that you can go about balancing a family and a career is by setting aside time for both your family and your important career. For instance, if at all possible, you will want to try and establish hours just for work or work related tasks.

If you have to work overtime, it is advised that you do so, especially if your job may be at risk. That is often what is difficult for many mothers, when relying on their income, it can be fearful to put work second. With that in mind, it is important that you leave work at work. This gives you the opportunity to put your family first, especially when you are at home with them.

As with having set hours for work, it is also advised that you create a schedule for your family time as well. While your days don’t have to be planned out hour by hour, it is nice to at least develop a little schedule. This schedule could include days of the week when you may want to take a trip to the zoo with you children or days that you may want to spend visiting family.

By having your plans already made and in place, you are more likely to follow through with them. Your family, including your children and your partner, will likely be pleased with this follow through.

Although raising a family is often associated with spending time with your children, that is not all that motherhood is about. For that reason, you likely have a full plate. That plate may include grocery shopping, the preparation of family meals, as well as house cleaning.

To reduce the stress associated with many of these tasks, as well as give you more quality time to spend with you family, you may want to consider hiring assistance. Whether you choose to hire a professional housekeeper or a landscaper to mow your yard for you, this extra time may come in handy.

The above mentioned points are just a few of the many ways that you can go about balancing a career and a family. Although it may seem impossible to do right now, especially if you just recently got a new job or had your first child, it is more than possible for you have a great career, as well as happy and healthy family life at home.

How Significant is Your Other?

The other day I found myself thinking about the phrase which we commonly use in discussing people with whom we’re in intimate relationships. I wonder who thought of that title? Significant other…

What is a “significant other”?, I thought, as I allowed my mind to take issue with some of the common day terminology. The dictionary defines significant in this way: 1. Having meaning. 2. Suggesting or containing disguised or special meanng. 3. Important, Weighty.

And then, the second part of the phrase is “other”. Other what? I can only assume that the clever person who came up with the phrase meant “an other person? Perhaps it suggests that there is only one other person in my life who is important. Or, maybe, the phrase means that of the other people with whom I associate, this one has meaning, or is special.

Let’s go with that. So, for the sake of ths discussion, people who are in committed relationships with another human being, who feel that the person is meaningful, and important, qualify for the “significant other” title. Alright, this will be the basis of the dialogue.

There are many couples who have made the decision to spend time with, (sometimes exclusively), to share intimate thoughts and concerns, to express dreams and goals, and most often, nowadays, to share living quarters (which includes bedroom activities), expenses, and household needs. From the outside, it looks like a marriage, because all of the afore mentioned things are typically descriptive of marriage.

In my conversations with people who have “significant others”, I ask,” how is this different from what married people experience? The answer can either sway one of two ways: Either we’re not ready for marriage, or I’m just as committed to him/her (after all, marriage is just a piece of paper).

Here’s my thought. If you’re doing what married people do, if you feel about each other like married people feel, and if you provide for each other what married people provide, why won’t you make the commitment to each other which merely says, “I’m going to stay”. My take on cohabiting is that it permits a person to “leave the back door open”. It says that one is not absolutely positive that “you are the one”; it allows us to keep our options available, just in case, we find something better.

Which causes me to ask, just how significant could one be, if the possibility of finding someone else is always hovering over the relationship? Maybe the phrase should be “temporarily significant”, or “possibly significant”, or not so significant, after all.

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Mama E
mamae@mamaeanswers.com