Balance -- You Know, That Pretzel Thing

Whether you chose to work or you have to work, there are pros and cons to being a working mother. For me there are many pros. My sense of self. My sense of accomplishment. My source of intellectual stimulation (editorial note: not that you don't get that from other sources -- in fact, I've never been so intellectually challenged as I was during Lily's "why" phase...the quest to come up with answers to twelve. million. questions. was quite the workout for my brain!). Heck, my paycheck is pretty darn nice too. Especially in this economy.

But there are cons as well. Lots of them. I'm tired. All the time. I often do my grocery shopping at 11 p.m., and there's never enough time for anything. For my kids. For my friends. For Noah. For me.

Balance, as one of my favorite "professional" bloggers -- Lisa Belkin from the New York Times' Motherlode blog -- points out, is a misnomer. A joke. A contorted yoga pretzel that others seemingly can do but you can't.



Personally I don't think that there is a perfect answer or a perfect scenario. What do you think?