My Favorite Occupation: Motherhood
In my opinion, one can never fully prepare to become a mother. I am only going to discuss my personal experience with motherhood and how being an occupational therapist is intertwined with that. Everyone experiences motherhood differently, but I think we can all agree; it is a wild ride!
The minute I gave birth to my beautiful daughter, my entire life changed. My routines, my sleeping habits, eating habits, overall views on life, and well... everything! I now have this precious little infant to care for, and she became my top priority.
I felt extreme mom guilt when I had to go back to work. I felt like I should be the one raising my daughter. A friend of mine told me something that really stuck with me. She told me I was a great mother for continuing to work and provide for my daughter, because that’s what a mother does! I never thought of it like that. So, I really had to change my routine as a mom if I wanted to maintain my current lifestyle. Now, on top of caring for a whole new tiny human, I had to work 40 hours per week, exercise and eat clean to stay healthy, clean my house, do the dishes, do laundry, care for my 2 dogs, maintain a social life, and make sure to ALWAYS get 8+hours of sleep... HA.
My immediate thought after returning to work was “how do people do this?” It seemed nearly impossible at first. It can be overwhelming for anyone to change their routine because change is hard. But change is not always a bad thing. This is something that comes fairly naturally to me, being able to change routine quickly. Anyone that has worked in a skilled nursing facility knows that our schedule rarely goes according to plan. I was always changing my schedule as the day progressed. That sure did help me when becoming a mother though.
Developing a new routine was very important for our family. I have worked with many clients on developing schedules and routines in my OT career, so this again came naturally to me! I went to work a little later than I was used to but that’s okay because I had found a gym with classes a little later and had child watch! So, my daughter got to interact with others while I was able to complete a quick workout. In the morning, I would wake up a little earlier to do whatever dishes were done from the day before. Our day to day was becoming more normal!
I realized quickly if I tried to clean the whole house in one day it would be too overwhelming and well, it probably wouldn’t get done. I tried to give myself little tasks to do during the week. For example, Monday: fold on basket of laundry, Tuesday: clean the counters and stove after dinner was finished, Wednesday: clean the downstairs bathroom, and so on. These took about 10 minutes each day and by the end of the week I was feeling much better. And you might be wondering... “Megan, did you actually stick to this routine?” The answer is simple. NOPE! And guess what, my daughter’s needs are met, she’s happy as ever, and I have learned to find time during the week to get things done. My daughter didn’t care that our house was a mess! So why should I!
Motherhood has taught me so much.. Patience, unconditional love, multitasking, flexibility, resilience, and most importantly, to SLOW DOWN. I think my “fast paced,” living started even before becoming an OT, but becoming an OT sure added to this! Everything was quick, get to your next patient asap, document everything, but don’t spend too much time doing it, I barely had time to go to the bathroom because of productivity standards, and just walking across the building can take 5 minutes. I was even rushing through lunches because I had so much documentation to catch up on. By the end of my day, I felt like I ran a marathon. But this wasn’t sustainable. I knew I needed a change. Something that would help me slow life down a little bit. Because this wasn’t only about me and my husband now, this was about my daughter, and having energy to spend time with her! And I'll tell you what, I always made sure to spend time with her. Quality time after dinner playing, doing bath time, getting ready for bed. That was our time. But I wanted more time, and wanted to feel less tired during these moments.
It’s amazing how Balanced Living has affected my entire life, not just my career. It allows me to be more present with my family and daughter. This work environment is a slower pace, and we spend more time with clients, which has influenced my home life as well. As much as we all try to “leave work at the door,” it’s very hard to completely separate the two. My personal like and career are so intertwined! I am now more present, intentional with my time, and don’t feel the need to rush through everything. My family will always come first, but I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to finally find my career through Balanced Living to help me be the best mom that I can be!
