Comments on: How not to stay balanced

By: Ruby Jones

Ruby Jones — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:05:57 +0000

I love photo cards, they are more special than those ordinary greeting cards that is just full of text.”:’

By: Kathy

Kathy — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:15:01 +0000

If you do what I did when my daughter was a teenager, you’ll sleep. Turn off all phones and silence the answering machine. Does that sound horrible? Too bad. I’m not a nice person when I get woken up in the middle of the night. I know this about myself. So, if there is an emergency in the middle of the night, I’ll deal with it so much better in the morning after a full nights sleep.

Guess what? There was only one emergency in the middle of the night. The police knocked on my door, asked if I had a daughter by the name of _______ and I nearly had a heart attack. The officer said “no, she’s fine, we handle those types of situations another way”. She’d been busted for curfew. She didn’t even live at my house – she was 17 and thought she was 30.

I had to pick her up at the police station – about a 30 minute drive. The officer that busted her told me straight up “if she hadn’t been such a sass I would have let her off with a warning. But I figured she needed to be hauled into the station”. Perfect solution as far as I was concerned. And yes, she paid her fine and the parking fees.

Even with kids, you’ve got to pick your battles and juggle all the balls you have going in your life and their life. Picking my battles saved me so many balls to be juggled and so many problems with my daughter.

I can proudly say, she’s 23 and a contributing member of society and people of all ages thinks she’s the nicest and most considerate young woman.

By: Toddlers activities

Toddlers activities — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:14:57 +0000

I have to turn your abstract ideas into concrete ones though. Well more concrete for me anyway.

By: Kelli

Kelli — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:58:32 +0000

I stay at home with my 2 toddlers and my 11 month old. My house always looks like shit (I WISH I had a cleaning lady) and this blog entry is pretty much the story of my life, lol. Glad to know I’m not the only one.

By: Karen

Karen — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:21:13 +0000

Hallelujah!! I think we are living the same life!

Just a few of the “proper” things I’ve tossed to the wayside:
1. Thank you notes. If someone loves us enough to give us a gift, they love us enough to know our life is too crazy to remember a note. Verbal must suffice!

2. Christmas cards. I can’t even manage to get my family to the portrait studio to use a gift certificate I have, let alone print photo cards and find people’s actual addresses. My MIL can’t stand it though so she sends out my girls’ picture on HER cards!

3. Packing lunch. Yes I had visions of packing a well-balanced school lunch everyday for my new kindergartner, that gave way to periodic buying lunch – as long as it was something good on the menu, which gave way to almost every day buying lunch and hoping she ate more than the overpriced ice cream. It doesn’t help that I can’t stop my husband from pilfering the juice boxes. Apparently the box makes them taste different than pouring a glass of the same brand!

By: Susanna (A Modern Mother)

Susanna (A Modern Mother) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:21:53 +0000

I’m with you on the cleaning lady. That will be the last to go!

By: Eve

Eve — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:51:38 +0000

So true Alisa. There will never be completely true and perfect balance. Our goals do (and probably should) shift as our children grow, careers grow, etc. This year I had to “sacrifice” many of the things I wanted to do professionally in order to devote more time to my son and his educational growth. As he becomes more self sufficient, I am able to branch out and change my list of priorities. I may not look fabulous every day anymore, but my kid has great grades. Maybe by next year when he hits his 3rd straight year of straight A’s I can then go back to having fabulous-ness high on my list again.
I hope all the ladies here will read the post I have submitted on How To Balance Life and Motherhood!

By: Cascia @ Healthy Moms

Cascia @ Healthy Moms — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:01:28 +0000

I just found your blog on Twitter Moms and I love it! I think we may have a few things in common. I hope we can keep in touch. Take care!

By: Debra Snider

Debra Snider — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:23:04 +0000

Great post! It’s all a matter of definition – personal definition. Of course, balance is possible, but not if you let someone else define it for you. When we define for ourselves what matters most & then arrange our lives to focus on that, we achieve our own personal balance. And that’s all that really matters.

I’ve written & blogged about this a lot because I think as women we impose on ourselves, and get subjected to by others, a lot of crazy, unrealistic definitions of what we “should” be doing. Best question ever: “Whose rules are these?”

You & your readers might want to check out my Suit Yourself essays, partic the one called “It’s About Priorities, Not Time,” the posts on my blog under the label “Feminism” and my novel A Merger of Equals. Info about all on my website – hope you’ll enjoy them and find them helpful.

By: Lisa Gates

Lisa Gates — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:33:03 +0000

Wow. First time visitor here…and I just about popped out of my chair. I know your tongue was in your cheek, but I have to say what you’ve hit on is the core of my life’s work.

Life balance is impossible. You don’t ever get there, cuz there’s no there there. The plates you choose to spin are just that–choices. So life balance is really about making congruent choices. One’s that are lined up with what you truly value and what’s important to you right now.

Everyone of your suggestions helps us to remember that what we can eliminate from our lives is the constant “shoulding.”

One little/big thing I would add to your list is to get inside WHY we want balance. If your life were balance, then what? What’s the big picture you’re living into?

You’re in my blog reader, babe.