Challenges of Parenthood

Nobody ever said that parenting is easy. I love being a parent, I love spending time with my daughter. The problem that I find is that the amount of time I have seems to be less and less every year. Mary and I are frequently mocked by our friends because they say we are always going somewhere to do something.

Right now, on a weekly basis, I am balancing being a good father, being a good husband, trying to advance my career, working out to stay healthy and try to become a better athlete, keeping track of an unplanned home kitchen remodel, a project of replacing the baseboards in the house, and of course trying to be fair to poor Stoli who seems to get less time than he deserves (especially because he never gives us any trouble). Of course somewhere in there is R&R.

I know Mary is always trying to balance being the perfect Mom, a wonderful wife, a demanding job, training for a triathalon, making most of Mia's food from scratch, scrapbooking, redoing a chair, etc.

Sometimes, it all just seems overwhelming. There is never enough time in the day to do everything. It seems frequently I go from 5:00 AM until 10:30 and go to bed disappointed that I did a whole lot of things ok, but nothing really really well. It is very frustrating. I find myself applying business school concepts and PMP organizational behavior to my personal life in order to be more efficient, however I am also finding with this that I am not enjoying many of the things that I used to as much.

I know I people have always told me how hard it is to fit everything in, I always thought that I had way of being more efficient or more prepared that other people, that allowed me to get more done than others. After becoming a parent, I just don't seem to have time to do everything anymore.

On Friday, while we were at Hamilton Pool, I found myself thinking about work and the remodeling project. I felt rushed getting ready for dinner so that we go there on time for our 9:00 reservations. At dinner I felt rushed the minute we walked in the door to make sure that we left early enough to get home, so we could get to sleep since Mia wakes up around 5:45. I know the correct thing to do is to back off some of the activities, so that I can focus on the ones that are the most important, rather than trying to fit in everything. I really need to sit down and prioritize what is the most important, what can I put off because I don't know if the current schedule or approach is sustainable or scalable (oops, there goes the business process thinking again)