{"id":6113,"date":"2011-10-03T12:56:02","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T17:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/?p=6113"},"modified":"2011-10-03T14:08:48","modified_gmt":"2011-10-03T19:08:48","slug":"leading-an-unbalanced-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/2011\/10\/03\/leading-an-unbalanced-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading an unbalanced life"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span> was at a seminar recently that discussed the differences between the Baby Boomers, Generation X and the Millennials. One of the key differences between the three generations was what they seek in life: the boomers chased money and status, the GenXers chased balanced, and the Millennials seek meaning and personal fulfillment.<\/p>\n

Ah, balance. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true. My grown-up life has been a quest to find that elusive life balance. Not just in work\/home life, but in time for me versus time for the family. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen it said before: we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a generation that grew up being told we can do it all \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really want to do it all, we just want to do some of it enough that we feel we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing most of it. So very post-modern of us.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been thinking about balance a lot lately. The big irony in my life right now, I think, is that when I dropped my day job down to part-time status at 30 hours per week a couple of years ago, I pretty much nailed the balance thing. Three days at home, four days at work. I felt like a good mom, but I was living a life outside of the house too. Breathing space all around. <\/p>\n

And then, because I never can sit still for long, I pulled it all out of whack again with this photography phase I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m delighted that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been such a success, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m exhausted, too. Now instead of one job, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got three: the day job, the blog job, and the photography job. Oops. And all that other stuff moms are supposed to do, too.<\/p>\n

The toughest part is that the photography job feels selfish, because at the end of the day it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s optional, and a choice I can make. A couple of years back, working full-time was not an option. Weekends crammed with photo sessions and editing? That’s an option, something I’m doing for love as much as \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hell, even more so than — money. <\/p>\n

So what’s the problem? The guilt. Oh, the guilt. And it’s back with a vengeance, because now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m *choosing* to spend time on the computer, or in front of my camera, instead of doing a lot of other often meaningless but ultimately necessary domestic minutiae. I mean seriously, what would you rather do? Head out to the countryside with a couple of cute kids and chase ’em around for a couple of hours — or clean the toilet? <\/p>\n

I know it’s a busy season for photographers, but right now, I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m spending way too much time with the computer balanced precariously on my lap, my attention span wavering between the image opened in Photoshop in front of me, the domestic battles raging around me about whose turn it is to watch what on TV, and a boy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s earnest but dreadfully boring recount of what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just happened on Club Penguin, all while pointedly ignoring the crumbs from yesterday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dinner that never got swept off the counter. <\/p>\n

I’m not complaining here, make no mistake. I am so proud of what’s become of the photography business, to say nothing of my mad photography skillz over the last little while. But yeesh, talk about being the architect of your own demise.<\/p>\n

Those of you who know me best are probably not even surprised by this turn of events. I mean, there’s nobody to blame here but me and my infernal inability to sit still. <\/p>\n

So this whole balance thing must be a bit of a myth, right? Is it working for you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was at a seminar recently that discussed the differences between the Baby Boomers, Generation X and the Millennials. One of the key differences between the three generations was what they seek in life: the boomers chased money and status, the GenXers chased balanced, and the Millennials seek meaning and personal fulfillment. Ah, balance. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s … Continue reading “Leading an unbalanced life”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-working-and-mothering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6113"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6124,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6113\/revisions\/6124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danigirl.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}