Working Mommy Woes

This work week nearly kicked my butt and I am paying for it this weekend with a sore throat and major fatigue. It's always intense this time of year. On my plate right now: fall magazine, Chancellor's report, annual 5K that Susie and I are chairmen of, not to mention the daily tasks!?!

But in a brief moment of downtime, I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker that got me thinking about being a working mommy. With the challenges I have faced over the past year in my job, the question was posed to me: Would you leave LSUS to work somewhere else? Chris and I moved back to Shreveport in order to be closer to my family and to settle down. Funny thing is, I haven't quite felt settled since we moved here. Part of that is not having a house that we OWN, but that will change soon. I'll write more on that tomorrow.

But the work/life balance has been extremely difficult to achieve. When I am in a job I enjoy, I commit myself to it 110%. Honestly, I love my job at LSUS. It's the perfect job for me. But it was so much easier to commit 110% to a job when Chris and I didn't have children. Now, with two amazing kids, it's impossible... not to mention, it's something I really don't want to do. I want to spend more time with my family and less time working. I often brought my laptop home to catch up on work, but after having Brady - I have only brought it home twice and both times, I never got it out of my laptop case. Before I know it, my kids will be grown and I'll wonder where the time went. I don't want to answer that question with .... WORKING.

So how do women do it? Some are career-driven mommies and some are mommies who just happened to have a career. Which one am I? I leaned more toward career-driven mommy with just one child to take care of. But now I want to be mommy first, career second. But how can I do that when my job kicks my butt? The workload I carry is too much for one person... and I don't like to do anything half-ass. What's a working mommy to do?