Swapping hats

11.9.13

This morning I am finding it difficult to "swap hats". I have been negotiating the traffic and then delayed trains, whilst trying to mentally prepare myself for a day full of meetings. The problem is, I still have my mummy hat on.

I'm comfortable with my choice to work full time even though I have a small child (although there is not a great deal of choice in it). But sometimes I find the need to quickly switch from mum to business woman too harsh on the system - and this morning it's almost impossible. 

I think this must be a difficulty that lots of working parents and carers have. One moment you are building a house with stickle bricks and laughing together at the tv when Iggle Piggle drops his blanket on the Pontipines house, and the next you are planning a data migration and how to manage the organisational change impact of a business project. Most days I love the contrast, but some days the mental acrobatics is too difficult. I'm definitely going to fall off of the beam today. 

This of course assumes that there is only the parent or worker hat to be worn, but in reality we all wear lots of hats, and sometimes our heads get very sweaty when we have to wear a few at the same time. In my case, I have quite a few hats at the ready in my bag: parent, daughter, friend, housekeeper, writer (well I'm trying), gym goer (I'm trying that one too!), looking after pets,  the list goes on. That's without counting the temporary hats such as managing a house move, a big event or a role change at work. I know that although I make my life busy and could probably scale back, but there are many parents and carers that have more challenging or numerous hats to wear (whether working or not) and without the choice of being able to retire a few.

It's a challenge, there is no denying, and one that sometimes leaves us physically and mentally exhausted. For me it comes in waves. I can be raring to go for days, and then collapse in a heap.  It's really hard to maintain the right balance. 

At the end of the day, I wouldn't swap it for the world, and my role as a mother will always come before everything else. Perhaps I just need to wear a holiday hat a bit more often. 

Now, where did I put my "complain about the train service" hat?