Crystal Raposo
English 101
Holly Pappas
04/18/2021
HOW MOMS BALANCE WORK AND A FAMILY
Often, we as mothers can lose track of time and sometimes feel like there isn’t enough time during the day to get everything done. To get the most of stuff done, using shortcuts and strategies is very helpful with day-to-day duties. It is important that us working moms have enough time for our families. In this essay, I will discuss ways that working moms can balance work and family life. Balancing work and life can be very challenging and comes with hard work. It’s not all about being in control at all times, there are things that we can do to help manage balancing work and family.
One of the biggest problems a mom like myself has is what’s called mommy guilt. It’s that feeling like you’re abandoning your child so you can go back to work. As a mom, we always feel and know that no one can take care of our child better than us moms can but sometimes us moms have no choice but to go back to work after having our children. Not everyone has the option to be a stay-at-home mom and others choose to go back to work to continue their career. Deciding to be a working mom should be a choice that is not judged upon but instead be admired for that choice.
Having your child cared for is an important factor such as finding a daycare, finding someone you trust or even a family member to watch over and care for your child. I was fortunate enough to have my children’s grandmother care for my children while I went back to work. We couldn’t afford to live off of one income, so my children’s father and I decided at that time that it was best financially that I go back to work. Even though it was family that was caring and watching over my son, I still had some mommy guilt of not being the one caring for him. Day after day, I would cry each time I would drop my son off and that went on for awhile until I slowly started to feel a little better about going back to work without so much guilt inside me.
Having an open communication with your manager or supervisor is important with balancing work and family. Sometimes things happen with our kids such as them getting sick or maybe have a doctors appointment or maybe even being responsible for picking up your child after work. So because of that, moms need more of a flexible schedule. You want to make sure that you express to your manager what your needs are and adding that you will continue doing your job well. Being transparent is also very important when it comes to letting your manager know what your needs are. “Working moms are some of the most committed employees out there! From skipping lunch breaks to working on the weekends, these women do not use their child as an excuse to slack off.” (Lemons,16)
When your home, make yourself present. Get involved with the children, ask them how school was, help them with their homework, drive them to after school activities. Your kids not only will be happier, but you will feel a sense of accomplishment knowing your making time and being present for your family.
Another thing that could be done is taking the burden off your shoulders when it comes to doing housework. If your children are a little older, you can delegate some of the chores and duties to them so they can learn early on about good habits and help contribute to the family. MY children are older now, old enough to contribute to the family by helping with daily chores. They get rewarded each time they do their chores which makes it easier to get them to help. Studies researched by Kathleen McGinn and colleagues states women whose moms worked full time outside the homes are more than likely to have jobs themselves versus moms who stayed home full time. Men that were raised by working mothers are more than likely going to contribute to helping with house chores and spend more time caring for family.
The last thing to mention about balancing mommy work life and family is to make sure you find ME time for yourself. It’s crucial to maintain inner peace and balance with a hectic work and home life. Make sure you find time regularly and find and activity that allows you to sit back, unwind and just relax. If you are feeling guilty about not being with your child, maybe its time to let that go. You can absolutely have the best of both worlds as long as you recognize and appreciate all the great things you do have and take it one day at a time, day by day. Instead of focusing on the negative and guilty thoughts, focus on the things your children will learn by feeling empowered in your career. Always be confident that you are making a great choice for you and your family, including yourself, and your family will feel the extended love and sacrifice that you make.
Jackline, Sincerely. “How to Balance Work And Family For Working Moms.” Sincerely Miss J, 21 Apr. 2020, www.sincerelyjackline.com/balance-work-and-family.
Lemons, Katie. “13 Ways Working Moms Can Balance Work and Family (And Be Happy).” Lifehack, 18 Dec. 2020, www.lifehack.org/734000/ways-working-moms-balance-work-and-family.
Carrico, Erica. “9 Guilt-Free Tips for Balancing a Career and Motherhood.” The Ladies Coach – Love, Life & Relationship Advice for the Modern Woman, 8 Dec. 2020, theladiescoach.com/family-friends-and-personal-relationships/9-guiltfree-tips-for-balancing-career-motherhood.
This works fine as a sort of how-to essay, but there doesn’t really seem to be much of an argument here. For an argument, you need to have multiple sides to the issue, and I think most reasonable people would agree that work-life balance is important for everyone. The way I could imagine making this more argumentative is to look at the difficulty of maintaining a work-life balance as a problem, and then pose a solution to what communities, states, businesses, etc. could do to make it easier. Are there laws that could be passed, or policies initiated? Whatever you propose would almost automatically be an argument, since people would disagree about what solution(s) would work best.
Your approach here is more personal than expected in an argument–it would be OK to talk about your own circumstances a bit, esp. to introduce the issue, but generally an argument would tackle the issue from a more public viewpoint.
You do have three sources and citation format is fine in Works Cited, But I only see one source actually used, and that is only for one quote. Also, sources are not very authoritative–blogs for the most part. Look for more expert sources.
We can talk about this more– if you’d like to schedule a Zoom meeting, just let me know through email.