$4.95 All-U-Can Ship

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Mommy Time vs Bloggy Time

Is it just me or do all mom bloggers find it hard to balance blogging against being a mom? Until recently, I thought of blogging as my "Job." Was I getting paid for this job? Well, no...but nothing new there. I'm rarely paid for anything I do! But for me, it had become a strong desire...ok, an obsession, that I MUST be successful at blogging...meaning that I must show my family that it is worth my time spent away from them.

Is this logical? I'm not sure. I'm not the best writer, but have always had people tell me I should write a book about my daily struggles with my kids. Sometimes my stories are funny, sometimes they are desperate, sometimes it just leaves us all shaking our head as to why!! But nonetheless, they are all enjoyable! I have funny, outgoing kids and things that come out of their mouths are just mind-boggling!

Not too long ago, someone very close to me helped me to reflect on what was most important. I am a wife and mother first. I wanted to stay home with my kids. My husband chose a career that takes him away from our family regularly, but he did it so that I could stay home and not have to work. I am extremely thankful for that choice made many years ago. But sometimes, being a mom isn't all that it's cracked up to be...you know?

I tire of the messes, the fights, the pick-ups, the drop-offs, the homework battles, the endless laundry, and on and on. Being able to sit at my computer and do something else was a getaway...more like a hideaway from life itself.

"Nope, sorry kid, can't fix you that sandwich. I'm trying to write something here." 
"No, I can't play that game with you now, I'm busy on the computer."
"Just run your bath water yourself...Mommy is entering her 429th Rafflecopter of the day!"

See how sad that is? My poor kids lost their mom to Blogger, Twitter, Google+...all after they just got her back from her addiction to Farmville and other Facebook games! Sad, sad, sad!!

And my poor husband...he's gone all week and comes home to a wife with a computer on her lap constantly. We try to watch a movie together and I"m too busy posting, or commenting, or whatever else it is that I'm doing. Not fair...not fair at all.

So give some much needed thought, I decided that a change was needed. I needed "Mommy Time" and "Bloggy Time."

I am the type that really needs my day planned out...I need a list or something. (Obsess much? Why yes, I do!) Somebody really needs to make an app for me! Instead, I literally made a schedule. Mornings, until I pick the kids up from school are "Bloggy Time." But once the kids are in my care, being a mom is a priority. After they go to bed, I can get back on the computer. I end up with about the same amount of time I always had...I just have to be more focused and not get caught up on one website or searching through a bazillion backlinks for something. Being a mom means you have to be efficient because we have lots to do all at once. So, this is the same thing...except now, I am being honest without myself and my family, letting them know that above everything, they come first!

So tell me, am I the only one with this problem? Does anyone else have a hard time balancing it all? How do you guys do it? Do you have a schedule? You just wing it? What do you do?


1 comment:

  1. I started having this problem recently and I caught myself. I decided that I was going to give myself a certain time of the day to blog and check other blogs: I can have when I first wake up to read other blogs while the caffeine kicked in. And I could actually blog during nap time and right after dinner. I can then check up on other blogs to read after the kids went to bed (like now).

    This way I still have plenty of time to do stuff with the kids and get my blog time in. My FB and Twitter I keep for when I'm at carpool or the kids are happily playing on their own.

    Everyone has to find their happy medium. I'm like you. Ive been told to write a book, and one day I'd love to take my blogging to the next level. Because of that I am striving to get my blog out there, post more, make sure I have enough blogs set up so that if I get writers block I dont have to panic. But I also have to remember that my first job is my kids, and they ARE the reason I blog in the first place. They give me such great fodder ;)

    So no, you're not the only one. I think a lot of us struggle with that balance.

    ReplyDelete