I work in a school and was just reflecting last night on how meaningful it is to families when I know everyone's name. Greeting the little siblings in the car line, parents at the grocery store, or on a park playground helps the whole family feel seen. Names are just so important! For neighbors, community, schools, churches - I'm just thinking a lot about that life lesson this week.
I just took a $15,000 dollar a year pay cut so I can have better work life balance. I missed out on family time for years with my children, and I’ve missed out too many years with my grandchildren. My oldest two grands are 9. I finally said, “enough is enough”.
My husband and I are working on our budget to learn to live with less, and I’ve never been so excited!
I’ll have weekends and evenings off, and I’ll never have to choose between work and family again.
For me this is priceless!
Thank you for sharing. Your article is confirmation that I’m on the right path!
For me, it's that time limits are actually better than having all the time in the world. Before I had kids, I had a lot more time to work on my fiction, but I rarely used it (or hmm'd and haw'd about how to get started). Once I had kids, though, my available time went to almost nil. Still, although I felt unproductive during those really early years, I looked back one time and crunched the numbers and found I'd actually produced (and sold!) a lot more fiction than I had in any years previously, combined! I interviewed an author once who said that "time is like a tardis--the work expands to fill the available space" (you don't get more done just because you have more time, you get the same amount of work done, just slower). Having kids definitely taught me to put aside "getting into the right head space" because there wasn't time (my eldest stopped napping at 10 MONTHS! Thank goodness he slept well at night!). If I had ten minutes, I had ten minutes to prove I was a writer. And I got a lot done in even those ten minute increments!
This is so true. I always look back and wonder what I was doing with all the free time before I had a child. I enjoyed the book 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam, which explored how much free time we all really do have if we dig deeper.
I just threw my son's 4th park party last night at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia. Despite the heat, 50 people still came out, too many pizzas were ordered, the kids hung out on the bocce ball court, and almost everyone listened to the "please no gifts!" plea. This is a free, first come first serve spot, clean bathrooms, parking and plenty of shade. Hooray for park parties!
Something I have learned working for myself is that no one is going to look out for you except you. Even the kindest clients aren't going to remember to pay you if you don't send an invoice and follow up. As women we are told to always be nice, and that seems to double when working in education. You can be a decent person and still demand you get paid!
I work in a school and was just reflecting last night on how meaningful it is to families when I know everyone's name. Greeting the little siblings in the car line, parents at the grocery store, or on a park playground helps the whole family feel seen. Names are just so important! For neighbors, community, schools, churches - I'm just thinking a lot about that life lesson this week.
I love this life lesson: Thank you for sharing, Victoria. I'm going to work on learning a few names of people I should know by name.
I just took a $15,000 dollar a year pay cut so I can have better work life balance. I missed out on family time for years with my children, and I’ve missed out too many years with my grandchildren. My oldest two grands are 9. I finally said, “enough is enough”.
My husband and I are working on our budget to learn to live with less, and I’ve never been so excited!
I’ll have weekends and evenings off, and I’ll never have to choose between work and family again.
For me this is priceless!
Thank you for sharing. Your article is confirmation that I’m on the right path!
I am excited for you: Have you read Your Money Or Your Life? An oldie, but a goodie.
No, I haven’t. I’ll have to check it out! Thank for the recommendation.😁
For me, it's that time limits are actually better than having all the time in the world. Before I had kids, I had a lot more time to work on my fiction, but I rarely used it (or hmm'd and haw'd about how to get started). Once I had kids, though, my available time went to almost nil. Still, although I felt unproductive during those really early years, I looked back one time and crunched the numbers and found I'd actually produced (and sold!) a lot more fiction than I had in any years previously, combined! I interviewed an author once who said that "time is like a tardis--the work expands to fill the available space" (you don't get more done just because you have more time, you get the same amount of work done, just slower). Having kids definitely taught me to put aside "getting into the right head space" because there wasn't time (my eldest stopped napping at 10 MONTHS! Thank goodness he slept well at night!). If I had ten minutes, I had ten minutes to prove I was a writer. And I got a lot done in even those ten minute increments!
This is so true. I always look back and wonder what I was doing with all the free time before I had a child. I enjoyed the book 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam, which explored how much free time we all really do have if we dig deeper.
I just threw my son's 4th park party last night at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia. Despite the heat, 50 people still came out, too many pizzas were ordered, the kids hung out on the bocce ball court, and almost everyone listened to the "please no gifts!" plea. This is a free, first come first serve spot, clean bathrooms, parking and plenty of shade. Hooray for park parties!
Something I have learned working for myself is that no one is going to look out for you except you. Even the kindest clients aren't going to remember to pay you if you don't send an invoice and follow up. As women we are told to always be nice, and that seems to double when working in education. You can be a decent person and still demand you get paid!
This is great advice, Laura!
And yay for park parties 🍕🎉