While Mia Freedman gave us a glimpse into the corporate anxiety felt by mothers in high-powered jobs who need to leave work on time to attend to the kids in her Mamamia memoir, and the mummy blogger has given rise to discussion of domestic anxieties, it's still taboo in certain business and media circles to discuss the sacrifices made on the home front (and for one's sanity) in order to pursue one's career.
When that career is based in the home environment, as addressed by Carrie Hutchinson for Sunday magazine, the tug-of-war for women is perhaps even more keenly felt as the little faces are right there to see... as with the washing, the dishes and other necessities, like having "relations" (a Bill Clintonesque creepy term... I mean sex, non-shouty communication and friendship) with one's husband.
Husbands are largely out of the picture in Hutchinson's story, but I'm interested – for selfish reasons, but also after hearing of many marriages collapsing under the strain – in how the dynamic plays out in homes where women have one arm tethered to the computer, the other to the children's care. Does marriage play out as a par-for-the-course sub-plot? Does the husband automatically assume more domestic duties? How on earth do you function? Therese? Kevin?
Girl With a Satchel
2 comments:
It's a tricky balancing act. I'm conscious of meeting everyone's needs on a daily basis. Not all days go as planned but the family/work juggle is on the whole a lot easier than previously when I was an employee and at the beck and call of a roster!
On the days it works well, I get the best of both worlds. I get to play with the kids, and still manage to write. On the days it doesn't - it can be a lose-lose situation. It's so important to keep my priorities in order, and to make sure my marriage and my relationship with the kids stay way up there on the list.
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