Work Life Balance: We Need a New Conversation

The kid lost her cell phone. Last we can tell, she had it a week ago Sunday at 10:24 am when she sent me a smiley face text.

A few days into the next week, no phone found. "Ok, no new phone for 2 years." Oh so the drama, right? My frustration was not with her or even that the phone was missing. I was frustrated that I couldn't piece together what I had done yesterday, let alone a week ago on the day the phone was last seen. 

Work. Life. Balance. The "there's no balance about it" conversation plays out with a common voice of struggle that sways between wondering how we can get it all done, accepting we can't and back to honoring the choices we make.

All in all, it's rather disempowering to me.

Form follows function, actions follow words yet the conversation is 50 shades of the same. I want something different; I want something more than a working mother's manifesto.

Is it about taking the moments of our lives and separating them from this conversation? What if the moments of our lives were actually the answer - and not the question?

I am caught in a loop of my own and it'll take nothing less than a complete change in the conversation <and some action> for me to break free. So, I have a question for you:

When it comes to work life balance, who is talking or writing about this in an empowering and completely different kind of way?

We need a new conversation. There is a Samsung Intensity metallic blue cell phone replacement (and my psyche) on the line.

A Glimpse At The Way It Could Be

I have to say, going to work each day with a husband at home makes me realize just how all-consuming I've permitted my job to be and what a hamster-wheel of an existence we've had.

Cue the dramatic music. I know, what HR professional has a 40-hour-a-week job and what dual-income family has a stress-free existence? None that I know of . . . but still.

When we were both working, it was just the way things were. There was not a lot of flexibility to when the day started and ended or how things occurred during the day. Midday doctor appointments, after-school activities and and unscheduled illnesses or school closings put a wrench in "the schedule."

Now, that all stands in stark contrast to the glimpse I had of another way that it could be.

My husband, who by the way claims to be rather stress-free at the moment, is able to let the kid sleep in another hour - which is golden to a growing tween - and she can stay for after school activities without much ado. There is more dad/daughter time for ice skating, sliding, four wheeling and leisurely before school breakfasts and we are able to share chaperoning duties for evening activities.

As a family unit, there is something to be said about trading what ever it is we need to trade for us to be able to be home - and together - more.

If you had a glimpse of the way "it" could be for you and your family and then took the leap  - what was the "it" for you and what trade off's did you make, if any?

Photo credit iStockphoto