In the past, I was always in a mad rush. The madness started in the mornings by waking my girl up and prep her for school, sending her to school before rushing to work. On crazy days packed with meetings, I have no time for breakfast and work piled up as I sat in one meeting after another. After meetings, I have to rush to clear the urgent matters on hand and soon it will be knock off time. I dread OT (well, who don't?) hence I always try to leave work on the dot so that I can spend time with my family especially with my kids before they go to bed. Having dinner together, getting the groceries, bathing the kids and playing with them before tucking them in for bed. Thereafter, I need to continue work if I brought work home and it will be past midnight by the time I can sleep.
On good nights, Jayven will wake up twice for his night feeds and return to sleep after his milk. On crazy nights, he can wake up every hour screaming and crying and refuse milk. Those are the nights that I really dread as it means that I will be very tired at work the next day due to lack of sleep.
Time never seem enough then. I became very quick-tempered as I needed to complete multiple tasks daily. I'm either rushing my girl to get changed for school, rushing to work, rushing to clear my work before 6.30pm, rushing for meetings, rushing within deadlines, rushing for approval, clearing work emails on the mobile, attending to urgent calls past work hours with my kids screaming for my attention, rushing the kids to take their bath before it's too late, rushing the kids to go to bed before I have to continue my work or turn in for the night before reporting for the night duty. There are too many tasks that I target to complete each day and I needed them to move as planned and it has to be fast. Anything that falls short of my expectations, I will get extremely irritated and frustrated. The conclusion: I led a very fast-paced and stressful lifestyle, juggling many roles in life and trying to maintain a healthy balance between work and family.
Eversince I left my job and devote my time to the family, I realised that my pace is gradually slowing down. The 1st week into being SAHM, I was still checking my phone every 5 minutes (feeling the need to check my email only to realize that i no longer have a work email account) and I rushed through the house chores and whatever tasks I had to do, wanting to get as many things done within the shortest time possible. I guess I was too used to my past lifestyle as a FTWM.
5 weeks into a full time mummy, my pace has slowed down and I no longer rush through the tasks. I become more attentive and detailed to the needs of my kids and my hubs. I become more patient with them. I can enjoy the time that I spend with my family, not having to rush through tasks, worry about pressing work issues on hand or get distracted by work calls. My family is all that I have to look out for now and I just need to give them 100% of myself and lots of TLC on a daily basis. Of course, I will find ME time for spa pampering sessions and catch up with my friends to remain sane.
Gone are the days of living a hurried life. Time to slow down and treasure the time with those who matters to me :)
Yeah. Our lives are too fast paced. Need to really slow down and smell the flowers. Often we forget that work is not the most impt thing, its our family. I am very happy to see you enjoying your SAHM life. :)
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