February doldrums can be real. I am currently staring at snow that is 3+ weeks old out my window (not so attractive at this point!) and we’re still weeks from the flowers popping up.
In today’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah and I talk about ideas for getting out of a funk. From focusing on your golden hours, to giving yourself treats, to indulging in 5-minute uplifters, there are lots of ways to make any moment feel better. While these strategies aren’t applicable for a real depressive episode, they can be helpful for ordinary low times.
In the Q&A we address a question of whether someone should believe people telling her she’ll feel very different about work after having a baby.
Please give the episode a listen! We welcome ratings and reviews. Please also consider joining our Patreon community — full of advice and lots of friendly women also combining work and life. We have several threads going per week in our forum, and our next Zoom meet-up will be on Feb 25, when we’ll talk time tracking. Membership is $9/month.
I am here for the Vander Rant about people putting their baggage about working and parenting on others. It’s not cool. And, I remember on my first parental leave and talking with many other new moms who were trying to figure out how to stay home. This is great if its what they want but i also realized how many probably really hated their jobs. I did not feel the same. I had (and still have) a great job and would be crazy not to go back. (Plus, also I am in Canada where i had the amazing benefit of a one-year leave and felt like i had a great great view into being home and got the time with my baby)
@Jen – yep – motherhood provides a socially acceptable reason to leave a job, so if someone is feeling meh about a job then that probably factors into the decision. I have been very happy to keep doing what I love doing, eventually with five kids along for the ride!
I came to comment almost the same thing! I was DELIGHTED to return to work after both kids and was equally DELIGHTED for them to experience their excellent in-home daycare, where their provider became a third grandmother and cherished part of our family. I have spoken with a few people about returning to work and always say the same thing: it’s easy to do when you love your job and have full confidence in whomever is watching your kid. If either (or both) of those pieces aren’t there, then it’s much, much harder. But to believe one path is the right one and tell people what they should do and ‘just you wait’? Nope, not here for it. Rant away, Laura!
@KGC – glad you liked the rant 🙂 Yep, good childcare and a good job make going back to work feel pretty much…fine. No angst necessary.