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If you're a working mom, chances are you know all about juggling career clothes and sweats, pacifiers and paychecks, laundry and lunch meetings. And whether you've chosen to work full-time, part-time, outside the home, in a home business, or as a stay-at-home mom (that's working, too!), you may be interested in some creative ideas and tips for balancing a productive job and caring for your family.
So we found four dynamic moms who work in a variety of settings but who all agree on one thing: They're committed to their kids. Read on about their typical struggles and the solutions they came up with to keep their kids a top priority.
A Juggling Job
When Shelley Madeira's husband left her nine years ago, her two children were barely in grade school. She was devastated but felt fortunate to have had some years at home with her kids and a career as a speech pathologist to go back to.
Shelley, forty-seven, who lives in Illinois with Mary Anne, seventeen, and David, fifteen, finds her biggest challenge as a single mom is managing time. "My kids are my most important thing—and raising them as godly people takes a great amount of time," says Shelley. The time crunch is more acute as schedules have become more erratic. "It's incredible. Now that they're older, David and Mary Anne are involved in student council, music, speech team, and sports, so it's difficult to have a lot of evenings together."
To better accommodate her kids' needs and be home after school, Shelley starts work early and shortened her hours to a seven-hour workday. "My profession is somewhat flexible, but I work with some children who need private therapy after school—a tension because I want to be home with my kids." Shelley compensates by scheduling all after-school appointments on Mondays and Tuesdays; on those days her kids catch a ride home with friends. Otherwise she's home by 3 p.m.
Dinner time can be as simple as a bowl of homemade soup, but at least it's not fast food, Shelley points out. "I usually have veggie soup in a crock pot one day a week and chili on Saturdays. And I bought a used freezer so I can cook ahead two or three casseroles at a time." She coordinates grocery shopping with the kids' evening commitments, such as during David's piano lesson. "I usually can get the shopping done in forty-five minutes, in time to pick him up."
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