Work Life Balance

Several times in the last few months, I have had significant conversations with staff members at Girl Scouts struggling with work/life/home balance. Sentiment always runs to how to find time to do it all, not sacrificing anything in our quest to “make the world a better place.” Judith Warner, a NY Times editorial writer in her column not too long ago writes about this achievement oriented woman of today: “I think this is partly why so many grown-up amazing girls with high-earning husbands find themselves having to quit work when they have kids. They simply can’t perform at work and at home at the high level that they demand of themselves.”
Inherent in Warner’s statement is that some women don’t have a choice, either because their spouses don’t make enough to support them all or they are unmarried. That high level demand of ourselves is like a noose around our necks. We want to be all things to all people, but it is emotionally and physically impossible. What’s a woman to do?
For me, I am realizing it has to come back to my own core values. I work at the Girl Scouts because I believe that girls need the support and informed community that the Girl Scout movement is. Courage, confidence and character are important tools for girls to develop in our world today. To me, it is essential for girls to be nurtured in this way. However, I also believe we are the microcosm of the macrocosm. If I am neglecting my children, I can’t be an effective CEO of a Girl Scout council. I can’t advocate for girls on the one hand and neglect my own on the other, it is out of integrity. But finding that balance and achieving it, in all aspects of my life, is a tricky path to negotiate. I am finding it takes vigilance.
Of late, it makes me realize that it is important to build into the Girl Scout community, time for moms/parents/caregivers to interact and support one another. In our busy world, when left to chance, this is the first item that drops out – self nurturance. As they say in the airplane…. “when traveling with a small child, put your oxygen mask on first.”