9 signs you haven’t achieved a work / life balance

Emma Mackley - 9 Mar 16

I recently heard a brilliant story of a friend who, whilst attempting to juggle the career / motherhood balls, found herself at home with two kids whilst attempting to partake in a work-related conference call. She became so stressed with the background noise from her offspring, and her failing efforts to appear professional, that she resorted to putting her children outside in the garden, whilst lying on the floor (still talking) and feeding them snacks through the cat flap.

It made me hark back to the worn-out debate about whether women can ever truly ‘have it all’? It seems to me that you lug about giant suitcases packed full of guilt and worry whether you stay at home (is my career suffering, will I ever be able to get back into the workplace, why am I now expected to volunteer for the PTA and every parent helper duty required?) or if you work (my kid hates nursery, I am always on my phone, am I even doing a good job at either?).

So here are my nine signs you haven’t quite achieved a work / life balance yet:

1. You attend a new business meeting with doodles and rainbows scrawled across every page of your notepad, and produce a plastic Peppa Pig instead of a pen after 5 minutes of rummaging around the change bag which is masquerading today as a handbag.

2. Your meeting attire is not quite what it used to be, due to the fact the entire outfit, hair and make up was put together in 5 minutes after dressing and feeding two other people first and dodging Weetabix-wielding toddlers.

3. You can send press releases and tweets whilst simultaneously cooking scrambled eggs and reading the latest Biff and Kipper homework.

4. Your children’s games now involve a laptop and phone whilst they ignore you and snap “in a minute mummy.”

5. During your working day at home, you also manage to do a weekly online shop, wash uniforms, plan dinner, read through five different letters from school and still get more done than you would have pre-children when you worked in an office.

6. Upon hearing a ‘ding’ you’re unsure as to whether it’s the oven, your phone, email, alarm clock or toy.

7. The childcare logistics involved in attending a pre-9.00am meeting reduces you to tears.

8. You wake up in the night to check and send emails (and then use scheduler for 8am so no-one thinks you’re a total weirdo).

9. Alongside invoices and meeting notes, your intray also features printed instructions on how to make an elf costume, a Minecraft cake, and five sets of raffle tickets for the school fair.

Whatever your situation, one thing is for sure – parenting is hard. We need to lose those suitcases and give ourselves a break. We’re all doing the best we can, and that’s good enough for me.

Emma Mackley

Emma lives in Surrey and is mum to 4 year old aspiring princess and 2 year old handbag-wearing boy. When she's not running around after them, or buried under a mountain of washing, Emma is a freelance PR manager.

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