Any working moms here? working dads?

[emilie]

Hi! Just wondering if there are any working moms in this site? I'm a working mom -- I have a daughter who's three and a half years old. :)

Or any working dads?

How do you manage your time between work and family?

Sometimes I have to admit it is really difficult to go off to work and leave your child/children in the hands of a yaya. I work a lot of long hours, I'm just lucky because I live near my office and get to be home (I just walk) in 10 minutes. This helps me a lot because I get to spend quality time with my daughter even after a busy day at work or in the mornings before going to work. (I leave the house at 8:30 am!)

[KuyaDanny]

I'm a working dad. :)

It helps that both our sons now go to school. Evenings, before their bedtime, are reserved for interaction time. They've also learned to reach us on the cellphone anytime we're out of the house, in case they want to talk to us. I have programmed our cellphone numbers into the speed dial of the phones at home, so calling us is a matter of pressing one button, and even our six year old can do that.

It's a little costly, especially when all they want to talk about is "nonsense", but then again, nothing is nonsense in the eyes, and heart, of a child.

More on this later. Ate Ronee, who's been a working mom for ten years now, will join us in this discussion soon.

[emilie]

I know what you mean, Kuya Danny! My daughter has recently memorized my office phone number so she calls me everyday. She usually calls me around 5 pm to ask what time I'd be going home. She knows how to tell time a bit so she really waits for me at the time I tell her. :)

Sometimes though I would go home late at night and in the morning she would get "angry" and ask me why I came home late! (Parang mommy siya!)

Nothing is nonsense for a child, that's it right. And as parents we should always treasure each moment. Nothing is a waste of time if you're spending it with your child.

[Irradiate]

I'm a working mom. My son's 3 and 1/2. And it gets harder and harder to leave him during the morning to go to work. They just grow up so fast and cuter everyday. but, of course he knows that when mommy says "office" he'll just have to understand. kids nowadays...they seem to get smarter everyday :)

[season]

My husband and I are becoming a working dad and a working mom soon (April)---I was wondering....was it hard? What kind of adjustments did you need to do?

[ruchee]

My husband and I are working parents with a one-year old son.

Every morning, we drop our son and his yaya at my parebts' place (which is a five-minute drive from our house). We pick them up after work.

Hirap mag-alaga when it's late at night and the baby absolutely refuses to sleep and wants to play instead. But then, that's the only time we can spend with him, so we try to relish it to the fullest (kahit minsan nakakatulog ka na). It's definitely hard work, and if I had a choice, I would really want to just stay at home and be with my baby the whole day.

[AteRonee]

As Kuya Danny mentioned earlier, I'm a working mom for 10 years now, going 11 when our eldest turns 11 in March.

It's not easy juggling the demands of being a mother, a wife, a home "organizer" (in contrast to a full-time homemaker) and lastly, one's career aspirations.

I strongly feel that working moms are more stressed in this way than working dads because a working dad, fortunately or unfortunately for the men, is the norm rather than the exception. The caretaker and homemaker roles are still deemed to be the wife/mother's main responsibilities. Don't get me wrong, these can be truly personally satisfying tasks. But I would say that lucky is the wife/mother/career woman whose husband shares such home responsibilities because he believes so and not because he is nagged to do so. There are many husbands out there who think just because they are the main breadwinner in the family and despite that fact that the wife is a working mom as well and contributes to the family coffer, that he should be entitled to pursue his "own" activities after work and not be bothered by family/home matters, e.g. assisting with children's homeworks, checking on school notices, or alloting quality couple time with the wife (as some men would say, "kailan pa ba yan? Mag-asawa na kami.") Since the working dad will often say he is tired from work or has other things to do, oftentimes the wife/mother has no choice but to take over such responsibilities;otherwise who will?

Then as a working mom, there are sometimes tradeoffs one has to take when questions of priority between a wife/mother vs. a career woman arise. Thus, for some of my peers, they have decided to either "retire" for now and/or go part-time from work and pursue their personal agenda. At one point in my career, it was a key factor in my chnaging jobs.

I hope I did not sound so discouraging but this is the general reality out there.

[qwerty78]

emilie
hello emilie. it's nice to know that there are mom's like you. :D

i'm still in college - so obviously la pa akong anak... but i think i could share my own insights about the topic.

back then, when i was still in grade school, my papa worked abroad- in KSA. my mama was also working back then- sa government and most of the time she had to go out kasi puro sa barrio punta nila. so madalas, out siya. so most of the time kasama namin lola ko.

we never really knew that mothers and fathers were supposed to be with their kids... my father stayed here for about two months each year... (8 years yun ah), so nasanay na rin kami. tsaka may kaibigan naman kami so ayos lang. but i guess it did become a stumbling block, kasi di kami naging gaanong kaclose noon... pero ngayong matatanda na kami, i naiintindihan na namin ng sis ko kung bakit kinailangang gawin yun, tapos ayun, close na ulit family namin.

iba na ngayon ang panahon... if ever, make each moment you spend with your family as special as possible. la, reserve mo yung saturday and sunday mo for your kids. kahit nasa loob lang kayo ng bahay ayos lang, cook... whatever.. maglaro kayo.. basta, have fun. enjoy. relax... yun lang.

[pobre]

I drop off my daughter who is 4 years old at the child care center every morning at 6:00 o'clock. I picked her up at 5:00 in the afternoon. Whenever the center is close for some activities or some local holidays, I have to take some time off from work. It cost $200 a week and lunch is $3.00 each day. Weekend is spend mostly at either Disneyland, Legoland, Knottsberry Farm or the zoo.