Saturday, March 3, 2012

Mommy guilt

I have had a lot of conversations with friends lately about the infamous topic of Mommy guilt. I think that every mother--whether you work at home or stay at home--experiences Mommy guilt on some level. You always think you could be doing more, spending more time, spending more quality time, or doing things better. For me, I work typically from 8 am until 4 pm every day. I choose not to take a lunch break (or any break) about 90% of the time so that I can maximize my time away from Frankie. That means I get to spend from 7 am to 8 am with Frankie (which consists solely of wake up, get ready, breakfast, and commuting and dropping off at day care) and 4:15ish to 7:30 p.m. (which includes pick-up, drive home, dinner, bath, and bedtime). So when you break out all the stuff we "have" to do every day, we only get about an hour or so of play time, which is obviously not much! I also do bath/story time every night before bed with him, and that is the time during the week that i really treasure. But at the same time, by the time it hits 7:30 p.m. and I have been going non-stop since 6:00 a.m., I am EXHAUSTED. And sometimes I want to skip story time and head downstairs for a glass of wine. But, I never do. I feel like my time with Frankie is so limited that I need to make the most of every single possible second. I don't ever go to happy hour after work, or go out with friends on the weekends without Frankie, or go workout when he is awake. I know that is not healthy, and I think it is contributing to me continuing to get sick all the time. I have not been taking any time for myself, aside from work--which, is obviously not time to myself. I have an extremely demanding, stressful job. I am SO LUCKY that my job is understanding and respects my family time. But, I often have to work on weekend mornings (like today), evenings, or during nap time on weekends. I have billable hour requirements that have to be met, regardless of what my working hours are. And since Frank is so busy with grad school and reserves, he is not available to help me out much. I am happy with my job, my decision to work, and I think Frank is thriving in day care. But, I am still struggling to find a good balance of being a mom, a lawyer, a wife, and ME all at the same time, and being at least semi-successful at all of them.

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