Young Women Misbehavin'

We love our network of working women advocates. YWM encourages you to find ways to manage both your career and your children. Today’s guest blogger is Adrienne Carlson.

My friends and I have a raging ongoing debate – are the kids of working moms more secure and self confident than those of their stay at home counterparts?

My answer is that it all depends on the mom in question.

In my experience, I’ve seen moms who stay at home neglect their kids, and I’ve also met working moms who doted on their offspring and took the best care of them. The working moms who manage to juggle both career and children with great efficiency do so because of they’ve figured out a few tricks along the way.

4 Ways Moms Manage a Career and Children

•    They are organized: Working moms generally operate according to timetables and schedules that they have set for themselves. They are prompt and precise in all their activities and they plan their days to the last minute. They’re usually up at the crack of dawn, preparing meals for their kids and spouses and running around during their free hours doing errands and getting their chores done. They use weekends to cook healthy meals for their family and freeze them, and to catch up on the laundry and other household tasks.

•   They make the effort: Efficient mothers go the extra step to cater to the needs of their kids, especially when they’re little. While they may have childcare, they make the effort to be with their children when it really matters. They’re there for all the important events in their kids’ lives, starting with being there to tuck them in to bed every night.

•    They have supportive spouses: If working mothers have to continue to be efficient in rearing their children, they need to be supported adequately by their husbands or partners. Their spouses must assume an equal amount of responsibility for the children too, or the marriage is going to be put under a considerable amount of strain.

•    They teach their kids to be independent: As their kids become older and gain in confidence, working mothers stop babying them and instead encourage them to be responsible for their own lives. They teach their kids to be independent and to help around the house. They are supported by their children in their efforts to become super moms, and this is why they are as efficient as they seem to be.

It’s not that hard to manage both a home and a career and be successful at both – all you need to do is be dedicated and organized.

Adrienne Carlson regularly writes on the topic of nurse practitioner schools. Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at adrienne.carlson1@gmail.com or info@youngwomenmisbehavin.org.

photo credit