Pregnant Women and Work-Family Balance by @gbemisoke #NHBi Review S4W9

Review,

Multi-tasking is so cool, when all at the same time you are chatting with your friends on the phone, watching your favourite sit-com on TV, micro-waving some quick fix meal, and with your books spread out in front of you, that is your assignment you are trying to do. Easy stuff, hey, you do this all the time. Right?

Real world.

You are 29. Pregnant with the second child. The first is in kindergarten. And thankfully your Poppa sent you to school so you aren’t some run off the mill housewife, and no you won’t sit at home for some cheap allowance from husby, yes, yes, you’ve got to work.

But then with all this, creating something is necessary, indeed very paramount. That something is – Balance.

Welcome to this weeks review of #NHBi.

This week on the show we were talking ‘Pregnant Women and Family-Work Balance.’

We had as guest @Gbemisoke speaking on the topic.

Our guest was of the opinion that the Family-Work balance is one that many women aspire to but never really attain it. And then while many might retort that they know women who have it all, great family, wonderful career and all the other accomplishments to go with, what these people think they know is actually from afar and have no idea the realities that these women deal with everyday.

So if a pregnant women is striving for this ‘elusive’ family work balance what exactly is she to do? Our guest says she has several options.

“One. Be angry. Stay angry. Insist the whole arrangement is unfair and decide to be the exception to the rule. Or, two.  Make deliberate choices about which opportunities to pursue and which ones to give up.”

Life is about choices, @Gbemisoke says, when you make a choices you invariably give up something. When you do not make a choice, one way or another it gets made for you.

And then some rhetoric. “Is it fair that a (pregnant) woman has to make choices that men don’t have to worry about?”

“Can you have it all? Yes. Can you have it all? No. Why? The definition of ‘all’ varies from person to person. Decide what your “all” is. Successful people have learned to define what success means to them. Be deliberate about you choices. Don’t let anyone
guilt trip you into thinking your choices are poor because they differ from theirs. If you choose to give up work because you think caring for your kids is more important, think about what you have to give up. And if you choose to give up caring for your kids because you think caring work is more important, think about what you have to give up.”

Balancing is a tough thing to achieve. And not just in the Family-Work circle. After the first or the second time, a pregnant woman might get adept at maintaining this balance. Experience has to count for something at some point. Some of the things to consider when trying to achieve this balance might be staying healthy for yourself and the baby. Work needs you, family needs you, and so does the life growing inside you. But then, you won’t function in your capacity in these areas if you aren’t fit and healthy. So yes, becoming ‘selfish’ is totally allowed. For a pregnant woman, the sensitivity of people around her has to increase by some 3-fold. But then we are back to choices because when you feel you can handle the pressure and don’t give yourself some measure of breathing space, none would be given to you. So you have to PUT YOURSELF FIRST.



Secondly, ASK FOR HELP. When you are pregnant, you have half of your strength. Ok, I’m no womens health expert, but with pregnant women, that is what it pretty much seems like. So going about doing the things the way you used to would only wear you out. Don’t be afraid or too proud to ask for help. Focus. Remember the goal is to achieve balance, handle family and work at the same time, while being pregnant successfully. So whether in your work place, or at home, ask for help. From the intern, the janitor, the secretary, your colleagues, the husband, his brother who came over for holidays, your parents. Ask for help. Who wouldn’t want to lend a hand when you ask nicely.

DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. This only leaves a pile of more work for you to do. Clear your table as soon as you can and move on to the next task, whether at home or at work. This way there is no conflict between awaiting assignments to be completed and chores to be done. Your mind stays unclogged, there is less pressure and balance doesn’t seem too elusive now.

What tips do you have on attaining Family-Work balance for the pregnant woman? Be kind enough to share.

That’s it for this week on #NHBi. Join us again next week for another interesting episode. Bye bye now. Have a great week.

Leave a comment