Working Moms: How Do You Do It?

I am a small business owner and a mother of three boys. Over the last couple of weeks I have gotten the same question: How do you do it? When I had the third baby out and about at three weeks people couldn’t believe it. Why not? He is my third. I know what I am doing now and I can’t necessarily send the other two away for a few weeks. My husband deployed to Iraq for a year when the boys were six months and two years old. Everyone always reacted with the same response: “I don’t know how you do it. I could never do that.” Well, the truth is, yes you could. 

It is amazing what we are capable of if we have no other options. But back to the daily routine of raising three boys and running my own business, I started to think about how I actually do “it.” I came up with a list of things that I do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.  Are they the right thing to do? Maybe. Maybe not. But my children are happy. I am happy and our house is full of love. Can’t ask for much more than that.

How Do I Do It?

·      I will go days without washing the dishes

·      I do at least one load of laundry everyday

·      I type with one hand

·      I take the kids to school in my pajamas

·      I work when they nap

·      I work instead of watching a movie

·      I never turn on cable

·      I stopped reading fiction

·      I check e-mails while waiting at the doctor’s office

·      I find babysitters so I can go to a meeting or to the store

·      I ask for help 

·      I hire other people to mop the floors and clean the bathrooms

·      I have my husband make dinner

·      I step and trip over toys 

·      I don’t go on exotic vacations

·      I go to Chick-fil A instead of cooking

·      I drink lots of coffee

·      I bathe the boys every other day

·      I try not to sweat the small stuff

·      I say no every once in awhile

·      I choose our play dates very carefully

·      I take conference calls with babies in our laps

·      I let the older kids watch two TV shows rather than one

·      I let the boys play Angry Birds on their iPads

·      I put the boys in summer camps

·      I accept that someday we will have nice furniture. But not now

·      I take time to get a pedicure

·      I pray

·      I order off of Amazon

·      I go to the grocery store after the kids are in bed

·      I go on long runs

·      I laugh and cry 

·      I read parenting books

·      I make mistakes

·      I do it because I want to

As you can see, it isn’t easy. But it is possible. I love having children and I love my work. Sure, my house isn’t always clean and I loathe laundry. But I wouldn’t trade any of it. My kids are only going to be small for a short while. Soon they will not need me. They will not crawl into bed with me at 3am or sit on my lap while watching Word World. When the baby is screaming and the four year old is crying because the five year old is throwing Legos at his head, I take a deep breath and realize this too shall pass.

What would you add to our list above? How do you balance work, family, and personal time? How do you do it?