How do you do it?

'I don't know how you do it' - this is something I and B have had a number of people mainly women, say to us over the past few years and to tell you the truth, in my case I am not sure how I do it either - in a sort of strange brain fog, in straight survival mode is what I feel like saying - but instead I just shrug and say oh you know, like it is all under control. Well obviously they don't because otherwise why would they ask - how do you balance working in the corporate world with having young children and everything that goes with them.

Now some of you may have heard this catch phrase used a lot if you have read the book I don't know how she does it by Allison Pearson. The book is well worth a read for a laugh and I can relate a little but the book being English (and she has the help of nanny and a cleaner) and the extreme situation the lead works within is not what most of us experience.

Instead if you are like me, an Australian Mum working part time in the Corporate World (in my case technically three days a week) and with two young children in childcare you have slightly different balancing issues.

Or maybe you are like B who did return to work full time when her first child was 18 months. B quickly realised that working full time as a high school teacher and having a small child was a really hard gig – ‘I never got any time with my child as when I got home it was the mad rush to pick up from care, get dinner organised and then get her ready for bed...she wouldn't sleep in her own bed a whole other issue...and then I would sit down and do more hours of work to prep for the next day or mark papers...then there was the after school commitments.....year level information evenings, five parent teach interview nights (yes after working a full day we were expected to rock up and do five hours of back to back parent teacher interviews- and then turn up and teach the next morning)..it got a little too much so I decided to become a librarian! – Anyway now B is working hard towards that while on maternity leave with her second.

So why the brain fog in my case - my little boy has almost been continually sick since I started back at work. The impact of a one year old going into childcare at the start of Winter. So with the almost continual snot goes lack of sleep. Now sleep deprivation when I was at home in the early baby days was bad enough but when I have to then get up, get the kids ready for childcare and go into work where I am expected to have reasonable brain function and coordinate projects is somewhat of an issue. The other issue with the illness has been that my husband and I have ended up taking a lot of time off work. We unfortunately don't have the support of Grandparents (they all live interstate or OS) that some of our friends have. So not only were we exhausted but over this period experienced a bit of strain at work.

Now in the middle of Summer though I feel like I am coming out the other end with sickness and my little girl being four and my little boy now 18 months every thing is getting just that little easier. Maybe I will soon achieve the illusive week of the balance being just right. A week where none of us are sick, I spend good quality time with the kids, all the house work gets done and we have a great social weekend. Actually almost achieved that in the past week but did no exercise and really need a leg wax and a night out with the girls would be nice but almost there!!