I’ve been a PA for 13 years and the most challenging and rewarding job I’ve had to date is being a mother. But, no one warned me how hard it would be to work full-time and be a full time mom! My parents made it look so easy and effortless – they both worked full-time jobs shared the duties equally in my home . However, surveys and studies have shown that even in two parent households , the majority of the time the burden of caregiving for children falls on the mother. Now I am not discrediting the duties of the father or your partner; because we have seen that during the pandemic ,the burden and anxiety of working in healthcare and taking care of children has affected everyone!
However, as we rounded out Womens History Month , It is important to note the alarming trend of females that have left the healthcare profession. The number of women making dramatic career changes and leaving the clinical setting has skyrocketed since the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic. There are many reasons we can highlight as the cause of this mass exodus : disparities in pay between genders, lack of opportunities for promotions or bonuses , the challenges of home schooling and finding accessible and safe childcare while working are just a few.
I can personally say that as a divorced mother of two young boys under 10 , the thought of a job change did cross my mind for the first time in 2020. As I watched my colleagues get laid off, or reduce their workload in order to take care of their households I felt grateful that I still the ability to still do both but I still felt like things were collapsing around me. The work-days seemed more jam-packed than ever and trying to manage the home schooling was an arduous task . It was then that I realized I was experiencing extreme burn-out and needed to figure out solutions to better manage my time. Through a lot of trial and error and research and even seeking the help of a Life Coach I have come up with the following tips for the working mom / parent:
Develop a schedule
And stick to it! This should include your wake up time and bedtime , studies show that following a schedule regularly reduces anxiety and stress
Get your children involved
Even small children can do small chores like cleaning up after themselves, getting themselves dressed and picking out their clothes. For older kids you can incentivize chores using a paperless method like the greenlight card https://www.greenlightcard.com
Meal prep / plan meals
Hotlogic has a device to gently heat your food while you work without use of a microwave or fear of your meal smelling up the entire office. You can even purchase a car charging device to heat your food/warm your soup in the car especially nice for those of us with long commutes. check it out here hotlogic.com
Schedule time for yourself
Hire a babysitter or family member to watch the kids while you have some time to yourself socially distant and with mask use of course!) Take a day off during the work week and enjoy the home to yourself, run errands, have a spa day, or just lay in bed!
Get professional help
Deep breath….. its “OKAY” to ask for help …… Depending on your budget and your needs this can range from hiring a cleaning person , having a nanny , or in my case hiring a Life Coach to help you remove those road blocks that may be preventing you from executing these steps !
Andrea Brezill, MMS, PA-C
Organization & CME Chair, PA, and Mom
Working Moms Series
This post is part of a two-part series on balancing life and career. View the first post in this series. >