Can we have
it all?
What exactly
“having it all” means?
Is it a sacrifice
to be a stay-at-home mom?
Last month,
in an interview with BabyBableRadio.com, I was asked, “What is your biggest personal
sacrifice when you decided to be a stay-at-home mom? Did you regret not having it all?”
What exactly
“having it all” means?
My “all” is
definitely not the same as another person’s “all”.
Maybe mine
sounds simple because my “all” is making sure that my family is together, happy,
healthy and loved.
So is it possible to have it all?
Maybe you can
eventually have all that you sought out to have – in the course of your
lifetime, but to have it all in every moment of the day?
There are
only 24 hours in a day. If you’re fortunate, 7 hours are spent sleeping, which
leaves 17 hours of awake time.
Let’s say
it takes about 1 hour to get yourself ready in the morning, and another hour to
get ready for bed.
So you’re
left with 15 hours.
15 hours
seem a lot but if you log the things you do every day, 15 hours aren’t enough
to do everything you want to accomplish for that day.
I’ve been a
stay-at-home mom for almost 2 decades, and unlike the misconceptions people
have of stay-at-home moms, my days aren’t spent sitting watching television,
attending yoga classes or lounging. There's actually a very short window for "me" time.
Before becoming a full-time stay-at-home mom, I used to
work in New York City. I was the manager of Programming at a multimillion dollar
discount retail store, and there were
3 years in my life as mother, when I was a "technically" a single mom – and it was exhausting. ( I highlighted "technically" because my parents and siblings were always around to help me raise my kids.)
(one of my four precious gifts of being a mom)
Life as a working mom
My weekdays
consisted of waking up early to get my 2 young children ready for school,
driving 30 minutes at the Garden State Parkway to get them in time for school
but because of poor planning (and poor driving skills), my children were always
late. I would park my car at the NJ Transit Train station. The hour ride to NY
Penn Station was the time for me to catch up on sleep. Luckily, back then, in
the early 90’s there were no smart phones.