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I wouldn’t say I have a career, but I have a job. I don’t plan to work here forever, nor do I plan to work for anybody for the rest of my life. My goal is to open my own business. So with that said, I think I have a pretty good handle of the work/life balance. I come to work at 7:45 a.m. and leave at 5:00 p.m. I don’t take work home – all that can’t get done in 8 hours is not of much concern to me until the next day. I don’t take the issues from work home. I request from my son 10 minutes when I get home to unwind, and then I’m all his. In those ten minutes, I change out of my hypothetical ‘accounting assistant’ uniform and put on my ‘mother’ uniform. Now sometimes my life overflows into work, because I have to talk to my son before he leaves for school. I have to talk to him when he gets home from school. But I am never on those calls long; just long enough to wish him a good day, and to see how his day went. My life (family) is far more important to me than my work.

I wonder. too, about the work/life balance.  I am self-employed and work from home during school hours.  I also do pro bono and volunteer work, primarily during school hours.  I take my kids to their extracurricular activities (tutoring, sports, etc.)  Despite how much I do during school hours and how I thought I had a good balance for my family, my daughter (high school freshman) thinks that I do too much and should cut back. 

 When I was single, working late wasn't a problem. Now that I am married, I understand the need for some family time. My husband and I always make time for each other. When he comes home, we talk about our day, eat dinner together or do some outdoor activity. Being with him is refreshing. Family is definitely more valuable than work. However, working at home is so comfortable and convenient. I do love it.

Rasika says ...

Great topic Angela.This is something most people struggle with.To me work /life balance stems from what your prioroties at a given point in time of your life are.At this point,when am single,my work comes first as I am in a position to concentrate fully on it.But yes I make it a point to never take my work home.When I leave my office,I leave all the worries and deadlines at my work place so that when I go back home I can catch up with other aspects of my life.

I am sure that once I get married,this will change and my family will definitely overtake my work commitments.

I have seen women who have done wonderfully well for themselves professionally but they are never able to enjoy the fruits of their hard labour cause there is just no time.Things like children,cooking for your SO ..everything is taken care of through day care,food take aways,domestic helpers etc.But what lacks is the personal warmth and touch.For me I would never want to have a life like that.I would like my home to have my personal touch and I would definitely want to be there for my kids/family as much as I can.

So I feel it all boils down to your priorities in life.If your priority is your family then you would never over burden yourself with work and even if you do you will first make sure that your family is well taken care of before you make that professional commitment.

Life is beautiful because of the people you choose to spend it with.If you had no time for then would you feel fulfilled as a person at the end of the day?

There is another part of the life/work balance when you have a family, which is the "me" time, the "we" time (me and husband/SO), and the family time.  You need your own time in order to refresh, to know who you are, and to be better in relationship with others; you and your partner need time together to refresh that relationship and to know who you are to each other and as a unit to the world.  Then there is the family time when you are a parent and have to relate to your children and your partner in that role. 

There are a lot of other roles to be balanced, and the more relationships you have, the more there is to balance - friendships, daughter role to your parents, sibling, etc.  Even though we may set priorities, every relationship needs a certain amount of time and feeding in order to survive.

majesticmarti says ...

I dont know how to paste the comment i want in my post so i will just say. Rasika says in her post,"So I feel it all boils down to your priorities in life.If your priority is your family then you would never over burden yourself with work and even if you do you will first make sure that your family is well taken care of before you make that professional commitment. Life is beautiful because of the people you choose to spend it with.If you had no time for then would you feel fulfilled as a person at the end of the day?" It does boil down to your priorities! That is the heart of it all but the question is this. How can you make sure that ALL your relationships and work get the amount of attention they need? for instance my number one priority is my kids, 2 is hubby, 3 is work, and so on. Somehow I almost always end up on the last of the list...lol. Also Rasika is so correct in asking if one would feel fulfilled as a person if you had no time for the wonderful people in your life. That i can honestly say is no, I personally did not feel fullfilled. It actually hurt not being able to spend time with the ones I was working so hard for. I understand that earning money is a necessity, but at what cost???

Majesticmarti -

Hit the "quote" icon on the right side of the message and you can reply to the individual post...

I agree it's about personal priorities. I really love what I do and know that if I were to dedicate more time I could be even more successful professionally. However, in order to find that "extra" time I would have to sacrifice the time I spend with my family which I am just not willing to do. I sometimes find myself at a crossroad. I have the drive to want to be as successful as I can but at the same time I want to be with my family as much as I possibly can.