No matter how you slice and dice it, being a mother is never an easy task. And working moms always struggle more to maintain work-life balance. From the moment we wake up and start our day to the moment we tuck our kids in bed and lull them to sleep with our bedtime stories, there’s not a single minute in our lives that we aren’t doing something for our family. And in most cases, little children always feel the need to find their moms from morning until night.

The societal pressure to be an ideal mother and have a successful career can also be detrimental to health. Consequently, many working mothers deal with the guilt of neglecting their children for a career. Working mothers with little help available for raising children often deal with more mental challenges than mothers with some help. Moreover, it can be chaotic for a working woman to balance family and career without proper scheduling. 

However, being a full-time or part-time working mom while taking care of kids and being a wife is a tough balancing act that working mothers have to deal with every day.

We call us “supermoms” or “moms who can do it all.”

Let’s sneak into the heartfelt struggles of working mothers that you don’t hear enough of!

The Hectic Morning Battle

Every morning is a battle for working moms. Being a mother means we have to wake up earlier than everyone else in the house. Aside from cooking breakfast, we need to pull our kids out of bed so they don’t get late to school. For single parents, the task is even more difficult considering there’s no one else to rely on with the household chores! After preparing our kids’ items, we also have ourselves to worry about. There’s just no time to sit down and relax. Once our kids are ready, we, then, have to prepare to drop our kids off at school or daycare or wait for the nanny to arrive before we head to work.

Irregular Sleeping Patterns

When we have a newborn or toddler, having a regular sleeping pattern is nearly impossible! Our baby doesn’t care if we have to work in the morning. When our baby goes through a sleep regression, we end up waking up at different times of the night. As soon as the baby goes back to sleep, we just notice that the sun is already high up in the sky and it’s already time to go to work.

Juggling Between Work and Life

It becomes diffcult to manage when the line between our work and life gets blurry, which puts us in a situation wherein we are struggling at work and at home. While we’ve been working so hard to beat deadlines and crush presentations, we also have to do house chores such as cooking or cleaning, whichever task is assigned to us. Now, more than ever, we have to help homeschool our kids so they keep up with their studies. Sometimes, we wonder how we even keep ourselves together despite all the mess and all the sticky notes on our fridge. We pick up after our kids’ messy laundry and teach them to clean up after themselves while we check our planner to make sure we keep up with our own schedules and tasks. While sending an important email to a client, we also need to watch over our kids to make sure no furniture topples over while they play around or they don’t make their way to the pool outside alone.

Dealing with the Judgment of Other People

While being a mother is a full-time job and a wonderful privilege that not everyone gets to have, not all mothers find being a mother alone fulfilling. Unfortunately, most people find that difficult to understand. While some people are natural at being moms, some just aren’t. Some take pride in using all of their time to build a family while others take pride in practicing a profession. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a career woman. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be a full-time mom either. There’s no wrong choice and no one should be judging us for making them.

Despite all the challenges, women can focus on their careers while raising a family by following simple tips. 

Ask for help before you get drained

Raising children is a full-time job. It can be challenging to balance a career and raise children. Therefore, ask for help whenever you need it and before you get overwhelmed by your responsibilities as a mother and working woman. When raising a child with special needs or medical conditions like ADHD can be even more challenging for a working mom. However, you can learn more about your options to receive adequate medical and legal help.

Overall, asking for help is not something to be ashamed of, and you should seek the help of family members, friends, government services, non-profit organizations, and other support groups before you get overwhelmed by all the responsibility.

Implement rules at home to avoid chaos

Implementing rules and staying organized can help you avoid chaos at home and in your office. It is crucial to divide and delegate tasks to other family members, your spouse, or children to stay organized in your work and family life.

For example, assign home chores like washing dishes, doing laundry, sweeping the floors, or other tasks to your children according to their age. Moreover, talk to your spouse about your challenges and ask him to assist with house chores like cooking dinner or breakfast.

Establishing a fixed wakeup and sleep time, a specific day for laundry, or other rules and delegating tasks to other family members can take a lot off your plate. In short, it will help you avoid chaos and enjoy both your family and work life.

Take care of your mental and physical health

Many women get lost in their responsibilities and forget to care for themselves. However, this approach will not help, and you should regularly take out time for yourself to maintain and manage your mental and physical health.

If you don’t prioritize your time, you are more likely to feel burned out at work and home. Therefore, set aside time for activities like playing sports, cooking or baking, shopping, swimming, spending meaningful time with yourself, or anything else that you enjoy. It’ll help you to be ready to fulfil all your duties efficiently. You can also read smart-ways-of-making-time-as-a-mother.

Use technology to ease your life

Technology has seeped into every industry around the world. It has also become a part of our home. Therefore, take advantage of these technological advancements to ease your life. For example, consider checking or replying to emails while waiting outside the school for your kids during pickups or drop-offs.

Automate your necessary bill payments, so you don’t miss a deadline and pay your bills on time each month. If you can’t find someone to look after your kids when you are at work, you can utilize technology to start working in a remote job role to be near your kids at all times.

Learn to relax when things are not in control

Life is unpredictable, and not every aspect of life will turn out as planned. Therefore, developing a healthy attitude to deal with occasional frustrations is crucial. More importantly, consider going to therapy to calm your mind and learn to accept that despite your best efforts, things will go wrong. Adopt relaxing habits and techniques to accept the unforeseen circumstances in your work or family life.

For example, if dinner is not served on time or if you miss your child’s school event because of a work commitment, don’t take it to heart and stay calm. 

Talk to another working mothers

No one can understand you better than other working women. Therefore, consider sharing your struggles with fellow working women with kids. They can share valuable insights and tips to help you deal with your struggles. Working women with older children can better understand your situation and use their experiences to guide you better than even your closest confidants. So, don’t shy away from approaching working mothers in similar situations to get their help or to help them.

Is it still worth it to be a working mom?

Mothers who work full-time often struggle with a lot of things. To be able to manage the kids, family and juggle the responsibilities at work is stressful. However, we do have the advantage of having a life outside home and an opportunity to build a career.

Research has also shown that girls raised in homes with working mothers are more likely to have successful careers. I hope someday, I’ll be able to be a role model for my children. Being a working mom is hard, but I think the key is to set realistic expectations. You will miss things, special events and come home tired, but at the end of the day, your children will learn to value hard work too.

To all the working moms, hang in there! It is tough but not impossible. And you can always do it all with strength in you, you just need to find it, feel it and preserve it…