Busy Mums

Work Life Balance for Busy Mums and Meal times

When you are a Mum it is really easy to be at every ones beck and call without even realising it.

I remember when daughter number two was very small how she hoodwinked me into making her wait on her hand and foot.

I actually did not realise until it was pointed out to me by a friend of the family. He had a daughter just a few weeks older, who kept asking for things. You know the sort of thing, a drink, a biscuit a toy .... and so on. His little girl kept saying "I want...", and was quite demanding - and was quite understandably being reproached by her father for her continuing requests.

Until that moment I had felt quite smug. (Perhaps it showed on my face). That was until he pointed out to me that my daughter was a little more crafty with her demands. She said " I need".

And guess what.... I jumped to my feet without hesitation. He was right. She was crafty. She was calling the shots at just three years old and I had not twigged.

One of my daughters specialities was saying "I need...." just after I sat down, normally when I was going to eat a meal.

This meant I jumped up, often several times during every meal time, (as my other children joined in with requests). It was a source of irritation to me that I did not ever seem to sit down and eat a meal without it being interrupted.

The thing I realised when this "I need terminology" was pointed out - was that actually they were saying "I want..." and actually it wouldn't do them any harm....in fact it might be quite a good rule in patience and manners if they did wait.

Such a small thing I know....but it made quite a big difference to how much I enjoyed meal times.

As you can probably guess I invoked a new rule. Once I had sat down for a meal, I wasn't going to get up again until I had finished eating!

Well you may say what has that got to do with work life balance? - Well maybe its just all those small things you do which impact the quality of our leisure time. Its worth us all thinking how much we are at the mercy of the "I need...." trick.

More food for thought on work life balance for busy mums tomorrow.

Labels: busy mums, families, meal times, parenting, toddlers, work-life balance

posted by Diana and Steve @ 13:46