There is no balance

I saw a video recently of Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo answering questions on whether women can have it all, and it got me thinking. From her response and from the conversation that ensued with my colleagues with whom I saw the video, I realised that there really is no balance to being a parent and a professional.

Hold on a second. This is not to contradict everything Umi represents and invalidate my life's work. It is just a realisation that dawned on me.

There is no way to truly balance being a mum and functioning in any other area of one's life. Motherhood is a full time job. It consumes every fibre of your bone. It takes a lot of work to even wrap one's mind to think about your spouse, let alone your job.

The way we function is by relying on a host of friends, colleagues, good spouses, family members and caregivers to help us pick up the slack at different areas of our lives when it becomes a lot for us to get through. That's what we call balance. How we are able to be perceived as being a good mum is putting structures in place in ways that our children are catered to and feel our presence, even when we are not physically there. It is to already ascertain our professionalism and skills at work so that on the days we need to take off to go watch a school play, our job is safe.

That is the balance. To say that we can physically do it all and be sane is insanity in itself. We will feel the guilt, but we will know through it that we are doing a great job. Because only a mother who is truly living her full potential can show up, teach and inspire her children to do the same..

That is the balance. To say that we can physically do it all and be sane is insanity in itself. We will feel the guilt, but we will know through it that we are doing a great job. Because only a mother who is truly living her full potential can show up, teach and inspire her children to do the same.