There is so much pressure on working mothers. At home, you have to be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of all: cooking, feeding, nursing, cleaning, singing, teaching, juggling… all the professions rolled into one! At work, you have to be the cool, calm, collected, no-spit-porridge-milk-or-vomit-on-my-clothes professional with not a hair out of place. You cannot afford to get flustered or frazzled lest you be called unprofessional. All thoughts have to be collected and filed in a chronological order for quick and easy access (never mind that worrying cough that kept you awake last night..)
There is so much competition in the working world and for working mums, its double the workload. You cannot afford to, no matter how much your body begs you, just fall into bed at the end of an exhausting day at work. There is still homework to supervise, a family to feed, fevers to tend to. On top of this, you still have to read and research in order to keep up with the Joneses of the workplace, that young flock who are up to date on the technology, who are innovative and vibrant and ready to take on the world and all her cousins (could it be the ready meals when they get home and the undisturbed nights???)
How then to juggle all this and still maintain one’s sanity, and still maintain an edge to be competent enough at work? If anyone has a solution, I would love to know it please! I believe something’s gotta give. You can do the juggling act perfectly enough, but the results you produce will not be perfect. The house will not be as sparkling as you want it to be, the kids as cultured and well mannered as you would wish them to be, the husband as cooperative as he should be. At work, yes, you will produce results, on time too, amazingly. Yes there will be few or no errors (whether of judgment or typos) in your reports. Yes you will know exactly where you put which file, how to search for documents on the computer, how to google anything, and even how to use Excel. You will not be as techno-savvy, as well read and researched, as on-point as you would want to be. This would mean cutting on the other side; no homework supervision, no picnics with the family, no after work bathtimes…
Competing with the workplace Joneses? I don’t know. They will always have an edge over you. They do not have so much to juggle. They do not have to come to work having left a sick child at home, worried sick about that 38 degree reading on the thermometer before they left home. They have all the time to do research and to read as widely as they can.
Slow down, take a deep breath, refocus and be realistic. If you can’t beat them, then start a new game. Do your best, at home, at work. Put your all into what you are doing. Do your reports as thoroughly as you would change a diaper or feed a fussy eater. Learn what you can, research what you can. Be the best you can be, don’t overpromise on deadlines, and it will all work out. Because apart from clocking 24 hour days, there’s just not enough time to keep up with the Joneses!
By Lesley Nyandoro (Consultant)
For views and comments email Lesley at lnyandoro@ipcconsultants.com or ipc@ipcconsultants.com
