Blogging & Being a Mother
This is one question I always get asked is how do I do blogging and being a mother at the same time. It’s not easy but it’s worth it!
If your a mother you know the daily routines that go with it. Its a lot to keep up with! I have two girls, my oldest will be 8 in march and my youngest will be two in march as well. So when Kylie is at school, I just have Kinsley at home with me which makes it a little easier but is still a lot. Taking care of them is only a portion of the daily life of being a mother. Were talking about dishes, laundry, dinner, up keep of the house, etc. You know what all goes into being a wife and mother so I don’t have to break it down to you.
I started blogging as a hobby really. Just something that was MINE and something that I prided myself in as well. It kinda took me out of being “just a mom” and allowed me to find myself again. For the longest I was just going threw the motions and I lost myself along the way. When someone asked me what I liked, I didn’t have an answer because it wasn’t about what I liked, it was about what my children liked. And in that moment, I realized I needed something for ME.
It’s not selfish to need or want something for yourself when your a mother. It just means that were human, were not a robot. You can’t live like that, it’s not healthy for anyone. You have to be able to fill your cup and take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. Because if you don’t take care of yourself, then you can’t be the best mom you can be to your children.
It’s a constant battle to find a balance of doing for myself/my well being and taking care of the motherly duties/doing for my children. You just have to prioritize whats important at that moment. Such as the laundry can sit another day so that I can write a blog post. The dishes can go undone for another day so that I can go out and create content. My blog post can wait to be published tomorrow because today my daughter needs to make her valentines box for school. See what I mean? Plus planning out what needs to be done has been a huge help in my day to day activities! I have a huge calendar that hangs up in our house so that I know whats going on which day and plan MY stuff around the kids’s stuff and appointments.
I also will either wake up early or stay up late to work on my stuff. Normally I stay up late just because I’m not a big morning person, plus the minute Kinsley hears me, she wakes up. Most days after Kylie gets off the bus, that’s it for my stuff unless I have a collaboration due then Kyle will help with the kids so I can get it done in time for the deadline, but normally from the time she gets off the bus is “family time” until the kids go to sleep. After the kids are in bed is when I will edit photos, send out emails, reply to messages and comments, etc. If your a morning person, you could get up before the kiddos and get ready for the day or plan out what it is you need to get done that day.
When I shoot content I will normally just try to find some place that is cute around where I live. Now if I had all the time in the world, I would love to find hidden cute coffee shops or wonder around the city until I found the “perfect spot” but because I don’t have that kind of time, I find places close to me. Sometimes when I’m waiting for Kylie to get off the bus, I will snap a picture quick while my grandmother is watching Kinsley. Another example is when I’m waiting in the car for her to get off the bus, I’ll snap a picture. When Kinsley is taking a nap, I’ll take the monitor outside with me & snap a photo. If Kyle is with me and the kids, he will sit in the car with them and I’ll jump out to catch a picture quick. I carry my tripod with me in the car everywhere I go just in case I get a chance to snap a picture.
This is my first year of legit blogging, creating content, and sharing what I love. I defiantly don’t have it all figured out and I’m learning as I go but I started! That’s what matters. I just put on foot in front of the other and started! I’m sure as Kinsley gets older and goes into school, it’ll be a lot easier to get things done and be more organized but for now, this is kinda how I manage everything. I’m just soaking up as much time as I can with my girls before they get too old and too cool for me along with pursuing my passion at the same time.
What works for me, may not work for you, and vise versa. But I know this much, if you truly have a passion or a dream you want to accomplish, you’ll find a way to do both. I’m a mom first, above all and then I’m pursing my passion but just because your a mom, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do what you love. Will it be hard? Yes. Will it be worth it? Yes. It really just comes down to how bad do you want it?
There is so much more that goes into blogging/influencing and I’m going to go over all of that in a separate blog post so I can really break it down for you. Then you will kind of have an idea of what all goes into it.
Leave a comment below on how you handle all the things you have to get done in a day! Lets share how each of us manage to do everything so maybe we can help one another on how to do all the things better!