Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

It has occurred to me that even though I rejoined the workforce over 5 years ago, I have not made many posts about what it has been like for me as a working mom. It can be a bit schizophrenic,  described in an earlier post - The mind of a working parent . The challenge is still the same: work/life balance, especially if you have children who are growing up in an increasingly complex world, moving at an increasingly faster pace. Here are 6 things I believe that help keep me on track: 1. Determine the scale of missed dinners. Know before you even start a job, what you are willing to live with.  Imagine you are a family that had dinner at the table every night, decide in advance how many missed dinners you'd be willing to accept before you became unhappy. Does the company support flexible work schedules? How many hours per week are you expected to work?  Would you be comfortable missing 1 dinner per week? 3? In my case, my parameters are the amount of sleep and gy...

So I remarked to my husband recently that 6-odd years ago, when I was staying home with my younger son -  my older son was in elementary school, I would see moms in their work outfits and I suffered terribly from shoe envy . Because, you see dear reader, I would be walking around with the baby in a sling and I was somewhat disheveled by the efforts to get both children ready for drop off. However, now that I am working again, and dropping my younger son to elementary school, (the older one is in middle school),  I can only see moms in their workout outfits on their way to the gym or a run or bike ride while I am in my work clothes, and hustling to get to a meeting/conference call on time. Hmmm. Maybe it is just me. I am not quite sure how good a job I am doing (just hoping not to mess up horribly), but every now and again, it seems necessary to reiterate what NOT to say to a working mom. And since I have to admit, sometimes other people can say it so much better than I c...

Ok, so Lucas has swim on Tuesday so I have to remember to pack his swim stuff. I hope he brings back his goggles - he always loses those things. And that's expensive. When does Liam have swim again? Ok, he has splash day in school, I have to remember to pack his stuff- he hates it when he is the only one who does not have his stuff. Oh yes, and he needs a towel, but Lucas doesn't. Let me see, so G has a dinner with a colleague this Wednesday, so I am in charge - ok, I think book club is the following Wednesday, so I am ok. I will send G an invitation to his work email, so he knows not to schedule anything at that time. I have to put Liam's annual checkup on the calendar and the sitter will have to take them to the dentist. She can do that after school next week. I have to remind her about that. Friday Liam has camp day, we have to get out the sleeping bag so he can take it to school, ok I'll put a note on the table so I don't forget. When is my cancer supp...

It has occurred to me that very frequently life allows us to show our true selves and exactly what we are capable of, if we are sufficiently motivated. And what brought me to such profound thoughts? Well, I was told by the nurse that I need to soak in an astringent solution and use a special cream 4 times/day to help my irradiated skin. If it gets too damaged, they will have to stop my treatments (No way in hell!!) This process takes about 45 mins each time. So last week I found myself sitting in the car between appointments applying this solution to my skin (very surreptitiously), and then trying to let it air-dry discreetly, all the while pretending to read a book so nobody would approach my window to ask what was wrong.  You can imagine the scene. It reminded me of when my last child was a baby. I was so motivated to breast-feed even though I had gone back to work, I would pump in the car on the way to work. The drive time was just right and I would keep a shawl in the car a...

I feel that I've earned the right to comment on the differences I've noticed between my working mom friends (I do still have a few working-mom friends that I occasionally meet) and my home mom friends.  And what might those be you ask? Sent from my iphone My work mom friends would respond to questions via email on their smartphones.  Their lack of relevance and coherence could be blamed on the fact that they were most likely on a conference call when they responded or else were too much in a hurry to properly read or listen to my message.  My home mom friends? Well while some do respond via smartphone, their lack of relevance and coherence could be blamed squarely on at least one kid clawing at them as they're trying to have a conversation, electronic or otherwise. Our conversation Surprisingly, to me at least, the kind of conversation I have with my work mom friends and with my home mom friends are different.  I talk endlessly with my home mom f...

Most of the parents I see dropping off their kids to school in the morning are wearing relaxed clothing - "active wear", flip-flops, shorts, you get the picture. The few times I have seen working moms in their working clothes, I have to admit to shoe envy. Looking at their polished heels and tailored outfits, I get somewhat nostalgic for times past...When I actually looked professional and competent...I may still be that, I hope, but it is very well disguised. Now, I am making an effort to wash my face in the morning before drop-off and comb my hair (in the beginning I didn't). I never went to drop off in pajamas. I drew the line at that, although I don't always brush my teeth before school. I still feel a somewhat newly minted stay-at-home mom in that I imagine what other people must think of me - maybe that I've always been a full-time mom? And then I take comfort in the fact that 'No! I've been a working mom', and I can do that again, if I had ...