This week I have been working from home with my kids. The three weeks prior I was working more hours (trying to meet the increased hours expectation that come with tax season) my kids were staying at my in-laws through the week, home on weekends. That was hard. I missed them and felt really lonely and the reality of this new normal was hitting me harder being separated from my favorite little humans. Having them home feels so much better, their laughter and even their bickering gives the house welcome noise and dimension. But I would be kidding myself to say it is just as easy to work with them here.
Our firm has currently gone down to regular hours (35 per week) which, with everything that has changed all at once has been a relief and a balance I feel good about. But even still, trying to parent a tween and a kindergartener on my own (my husband is working outside the home) is a challenge in its own right! This isn't me complaining at all, just hoping to share some thoughts on these challenges in hopes that it makes anyone reading it feel less alone in their own situation.
Grateful to be working, grateful to be safe at home, grateful to have my girls with me, but I am going to have to have some frank conversations with myself in the next two weeks to figure out how to get those hours in/home school the girls/get the dog out for walks/get nutritious foods in our bellies.....and complete Core 1 of the CPA. Because my reality is that I will be starting Core 1 in two weeks time. And the outside world may have stopped for a minute, but our household still needs to run.
This must be how everyone is feeling right now. Though our challenges are different, we are all going through major shifts. For me it looks like busier days and working strange hours, being flexible with myself when I fall short, because I have and I will. For my husband that looks like working two people's jobs because his work has seen layoffs and he is exhausted but just grateful to continue to work. For some it might mean adapting to a new dynamic of having their partner home all day, or experiencing anxieties they never have before. This is a weird time and I think it is so important to be as patient with ourselves and as kind to ourselves as we can be.
So I am going to commit to two weeks of figuring out how to find that work/life balance with my girls. And take this new element of CPA week by week as it comes. I hope that you are able to find a balance that feels healthy and sustainable for you too. And in the meantime while we're all figuring this new reality out, I hope that we can all be patient with ourselves when we aren't knocking everything out of the park all at once. Sometimes just making it through the week all in one piece is something to celebrate:)
-Amanda.
