Working mom’s are a rare breed, we’re expected to be stay on point at work and at home. From PPT’s to scraped knees we’ve got to know how to fix it all with the grace and poise of Mother India and the tenacity of Wonder Woman. Here’s a few things you need to understand about us-
Mondays are a pleasure
Monday brings in order to the chaos that is a Sunday. A Sunday brings the promise of me-time in a spa, a salon, a brunch with friends to catch up but often ends updramatically different. It leaves you very helpless and frustrated. You started off with a lot of plans that only fizzle out. You mommy chores only pile.
Weekly menus for lunch boxes, snack boxes and what have you, extra prep for exams that you thought you should get done from the apple or apples of your eye, stocking up groceries and the razzmatazz. So, you are left with 3 hours on a Sunday evening and a laundry list of things to do. This is the moment when you realize that Monday is the better day. It brings you exactly what it promises to – work, routine, order, a regular dose of stress and pleasure. So, while the world whines about Monday blues, working moms think about Monday in brighter hues.
Low Battery = Severe Anxiety
Working moms carry their lil ones (and the not so lil ones) and their homes with them. They carry everything in their phones. House help to be called for checking on status of work, assigning new tasks, improvising already assigned tasks, giving feedback on tasks completed last week, last month, giving a heads up for upcoming tasks. School mums on speed dial for impromptu projects, get togethers, play dates and whatever else there can be.
For those who are blessed with stores that deliver stuff home – numbers of grocers, vegetable and fruit vendors, trusted auto drivers, laundry number, chemists / pharmacists, doctors, neighbours, hobby classes teachers, friends, family and basically the entire telephone directory. That phone is the remote with which the home and everything in it is controlled. If that doesn’t have charge, even the calmest mom on earth is reduced to a fumbling mass of anxiety.
From PPT’s to scraped knees we’ve got to know how to fix it all with the grace and poise of Mother India and the tenacity of Wonder Woman.
Travelling for work is my favourite me time
There is no me time like when you travel for work. No snacks and water bottles to be packed, no worries about how to keep the brat(s) entertained and out of your hair. Just saunter into the airport, sip a coffee while its hot, the way it is meant to be. Look around, relax and board the flight without worrying about anything. Actually read the book you are carrying, take a nap, basically do what you feel like. It takes time to get used to the thought, but it is not difficult.
Reach the hotel, chill until the moment you need to leave for work. Re learn the art of taking a shower without dealing with family meetings outside the bathroom door. Leave the next day on time wherever you need to go, meet a friend after work without glancing at the clock continuously, shop, go back to a room where the bed is already made, call home to hear from the lil one the adorable ‘I miss you mom’ or from the not so lil anymore the not so adorable ‘what are you getting for me’ and while the mommy heart wants to run back home, the ever so wise mommy head parks the thought and sleeps really well.
Work/Life balance doesn’t mean the same thing to me
There is a bit of office me at home and a bit of home me at office. I strive for a balance, but my definition of a balance is different. I may help out with a math problem over the phone just before a meeting in office and I could go over a presentation at home late night on a Friday. I may choose to do office work from home on a Sunday, just so that my office Monday is well planned for and I may spend a better part of an office Tuesday getting the house in order. There are no set rules, no set pattern – its all about thinking on your feet, multi-tasking and getting it done.
A to-do list can have presenting annual departmental budgets jostling for space with making holiday shopping budgets, calls to clients or calls to the world and its brother to sort out home! The idea is to balance both to do justice to both. It’s a math that only we understand.
I know what you’re thinking! What in the world is this???? But let me tell you another truth… and I can say this safely for my tribe – we simply won’t have it any other way!
