I'm not sure why these November posts are largely about work/life balance...suppose it's on my mind.
At the moment, Tiny Boy and LG are watching a movie. I have potatoes and carrots roasting in the oven. We just got home from ice skating lessons (where I graded more papers) and a trip to the library, where we picked up said movie, along with a stack of cookbooks for me.
While I don't really like working on weekends, I see working on weekends as a trade off for picking up children "early" compared to some in the daycare set. (I generally leave to get them around 4:30-4:45, which in practical terms means 5:00-5:15 by the time we reach Tiny Boy.) Most weekends I work about 4 hours total, spread across either paid childcare, a "timeshare" with A., ice skating lessons, TV watching, and/or a trip to Burger King (where they can run in the habitrail thing). I imagine there will be a time not so far away when Tiny Boy can play on his own without me worrying that he's going to get into too much toddler trouble. We seem to be entering, slowly, a new era, as residual babyness dissipates.
Over time I've found that hard and fast rules--i.e. I don't work at nights or weekends or whatever--really don't work for me. I am mindful that I don't let work encroach (too much) on family life. I don't do email or anything really unless the kids are otherwise occupied. I try to minimize returns to campus at night (ends up being about 4 times per semester). I never do anything Saturday nights. But if I don't get something done over the weekend--even when I don't teach on Mondays--I head
into the week a bit too frazzled.
5 papers left to grade, which psychologically is much better than 7. Yay for ice skating.
At the moment, Tiny Boy and LG are watching a movie. I have potatoes and carrots roasting in the oven. We just got home from ice skating lessons (where I graded more papers) and a trip to the library, where we picked up said movie, along with a stack of cookbooks for me.
While I don't really like working on weekends, I see working on weekends as a trade off for picking up children "early" compared to some in the daycare set. (I generally leave to get them around 4:30-4:45, which in practical terms means 5:00-5:15 by the time we reach Tiny Boy.) Most weekends I work about 4 hours total, spread across either paid childcare, a "timeshare" with A., ice skating lessons, TV watching, and/or a trip to Burger King (where they can run in the habitrail thing). I imagine there will be a time not so far away when Tiny Boy can play on his own without me worrying that he's going to get into too much toddler trouble. We seem to be entering, slowly, a new era, as residual babyness dissipates.
Over time I've found that hard and fast rules--i.e. I don't work at nights or weekends or whatever--really don't work for me. I am mindful that I don't let work encroach (too much) on family life. I don't do email or anything really unless the kids are otherwise occupied. I try to minimize returns to campus at night (ends up being about 4 times per semester). I never do anything Saturday nights. But if I don't get something done over the weekend--even when I don't teach on Mondays--I head
into the week a bit too frazzled.
5 papers left to grade, which psychologically is much better than 7. Yay for ice skating.
I agree with you. Hard and fast rules don't work with me either, and I also get irritated when people tell me I'm doing too much or too little!
ReplyDeleteSeconding (thirding?) the no hard and fast rules. Sometimes I work, sometimes I work a lot, sometimes I don't work at all during the weekends. Or in the evenings. Whatever works.
ReplyDelete