I’ve officially been back teaching 7th grade for two weeks now while simultaneously being a new(ish) mom, and surprisingly (?) things are going really quite smoothly.
Well, for the most part. (There have been a few days during 1st hour that I’m a bit of a zombie from how many times I woke up the night before because the baby’s been a bit congested recently, but I digress.)
Everyone’s been asking me about how I’m handling the transition from stay-at-home mom to working mom, and at first, I could only tell them that it was pretty rough (on both me AND Raven). My first few days back at work, I was constantly worried in the back of my mind about how the baby was doing, and if she was eating enough, and how she was probably beyond confused by all the new schedule changes. Then at home, I was worried about work because I’d always counted on being able to stay after school as late as I needed to in order to finish up everything, and this year I wasn’t going to have that luxury.
And then I remembered hearing someone say a long time ago (maybe it was my mom?) that when you’re at work, be at work. When you’re at home, be at home.
So simple, right? Yet for about a week I had been doing everything but that, which was the reason for all my superfluous stress and worry and anxiety.
This week though, I think I really started to get it—I started to learn to compartmentalize so that when I was at work, I was just focusing 100% on work, and when I was home, I was 100% focused on home. It’s meant that I’ve been able to be a lot more productive, feel a whole lot less of the infamous mom guilt, and enjoy what each moment is meant to be focused on.
Because this is how I look at it—I’m going to be at work anyway, so which is better: being mentally present there and managing my time as wisely as possible by keeping my focus, or letting myself get consumed because I’m not at home, which will lead to decreased work effectiveness AND decreased home effectiveness, and just make me more stressed overall?
So there you have it—
One secret of the good life.
What’s your secret for keeping the balance?