This one hits hard as I am and always have been a full-time working mom. Trying to be a good mom, good wife, good realtor, good friend, etc. a lot of times feels impossible. Maybe because it actually is impossible? I’m only one person so how could I be there for everyone all the time? Simply put, I can’t.
Have you ever heard the theory about juggling glass balls and plastic balls by Nora Roberts? She says the key to juggling is to know that some of the balls you have in the air are made of plastic & some are made of glass. If you drop a plastic ball, it bounces, no harm done. If you drop a glass ball, it shatters, so you have to know which balls are glass and which are plastic and prioritize catching the glass ones.
At any given point in a day I feel like I have hundreds of balls in the air and I treat them all like glass. How on earth do you decide which balls are plastic? As a perfectionist making a decision like this is quite the predicament to be in but ultimately I think the answer is family first. My husband and girls will always be the glass balls in my life.
What I am realizing is that perfection nor failure have a home here. I think friends, family, etc. will be ever changing from glass to plastic. I had lunch with a friend of mine the other day whom I have known all my life. We were each discussing our experiences as a working mom and she said to me, ‘Carly, everyone who knows you knows how much you love and care for each of them. Just because you don’t see or talk to them as often as you’d like doesn’t mean they’ll disappear from your life or think less of you. If they’re really your friends then they’ll always be there.’ She’s right. I think there’s a lesson to be learned here in giving ourselves grace. We are all doing our best and hard times will come and go.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and overworked, start to think of all the balls in your life and decide what becomes glass and what becomes plastic. It may take time to decide and maybe every day looks different. Progress not perfection!