Parents Balancing it all During COVID-19

This past year hasn’t been easy on anyone, but today we want to specifically talk to the parents out there: the ones who are trying to work from home, take care of their kids, homeschool, be a good partner, keep the house running, invest in self care, stay informed, cook dinner, do your taxes, update the car insurance… the list goes on and on and on and on….

Do you sometimes feel like you’re failing at everything? You’re not alone.

Have you ever heard of Nora Roberts’ glass vs. plastic ball analogy?

Here’s how it goes: Imagine that every little thing that’s on your plate is a ball that you are juggling. Some things are plastic balls, some are glass. When dropped, plastic balls will bounce and everything is fine, but glass balls will shatter when dropped. Those are the ones you need to make sure to catch.

It’s impossible to effectively juggle all of those balls, parents. You will need to drop some balls in order to catch others. The key is identifying which balls are plastic and which balls are glass.

Dropping a kid-related plastic ball to catch a work-related glass ball doesn’t make you a bad parent. Dropping a work-related plastic ball to catch a family-related glass ball doesn’t mean you’re a terrible employee. It means you’re doing the very best you can, managing priorities, and being kind to yourself.

Practice: Make a list of all the things you’re juggling right now. (Write it down!)

Can you identify which tasks are glass and which are plastic?