It's a Roller Coaster so Throw Your Hands Up!

I've been thinking about the amount of things I need and want to do:

• Work
• Taking care of home
• Managing a business
• Church/church activities
• Son's social life
• Daughter's social life
• Trying not to let Mr. T forget he's the man. (ha!)

While I'm thinking, I'm thinking about all this work/life balance we are constantly striving to obtain and you have one school of thought that says, "You can have it all!" And another school of thought that says,
"You can have it all! - Eventually." Mixed in there is the understanding that we can find balance if we try. And there are those who say, "Naw! No balance. Only managing."

I'm close to that last one I think. But when I think of balance, I think of a see-saw. Or the infamous scales from Blind Justice or the Pisces sign, whatever your preference may be. But that denotes some sort of equality and shifting of weight from one to the other to either balance or at least keep from being tipped off the contraption.

But a see-saw is so limiting and not true to life. It has ups and downs, sure, but if that is a metaphor for life, then all you have is ups and downs, sometimes stuck in the middle, sometimes jumping at the bumps but you always know when to expect the bumps. That's not life. At least not the life of a mother.

I say life is a roller coaster; organized chaos is the goal here because if you are a mother, you are not only managing your life, which you maybe can control, but the lives of your family and can you really control all their stuff to your satisfaction? No. Don't even pretend like you can. Because if I could, I would not be faced with Son's Little League Opening Day happening on the same day as Daughter's fashion show at the church. His is earlier but she has to be at hers about 3 hours before the start and overlap is a certainty. So who wins? Well, we all do since we're a 2-parent home and we all lose a little too. So I'll try to go to his for a bit before I have to take her to hers. And he and Mr. T can come to hers when they are done at his. And we'll all collapse later that night. That's a roller coaster, ya'll. Pure and simple. Highs, lows, ups, downs, unexpected twists, slow starts, fast plummets. Is this not life?

Got a poll over there in the sidebar and plenty of room for comments here. (And by the way, I'm working on a book about this whole thing. More to come. ;-D) Share! Share!