Career Chaos: How to Raise a Family While Climbing the Corporate Ladder

The following is a guest post from Candi Wingate, President of Care4Hire.com.

It’s a struggle that many of us face: running a household while running off to work.  Sometimes the sheer volume of “stuff” that we have to accomplish – from leading a staff meeting to leading the Cub Scout troop – is just staggering.

Here are some tips to help you feel more in control:

• Empower your children to be independent.  Let them choose their own healthy snacks, outfits and so forth.  You won’t be sweating the small stuff, and they’ll be delighted with the “power’ that you’ve given them.
• Embrace your imperfections.  So you didn’t serve a home-cooked meal tonight.  Who cares?  Serve your frozen lasagna with a smile.
• Focus on work while you’re at work and on home when you’re at home.  Don’t worry about your emails, to do lists and pending meetings while you’re spending time with your kids.  Likewise, don’t worry about your kids while you’re at work. You’ve left them in capable, loving care, so focus on your work and get it done so you can get home to them.
• Force yourself to disconnect.  In today’s age of laptops, iPhones and Blackberries, you’re always accessible and “on the clock.”  Learn that it’s OK to shut down all of your electronics to play board games (or help with homework, or go for a walk) with your kids.
• “Hire” your child as your assistant.  Occasionally, I need to work while I’m home with my kids.  They used to pout about it until I hired them to help me.  I give them special projects, like filling the paper tray on my printer, sharpening my pencils and even (supervised) paper shredding.  They also enjoy doing “paperwork” (coloring or workbooks) at their desks, while I work at mine.

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Care4hire.com is an online database for families and caregivers to search babysitters, housekeepers, tutors, elder/companion care, pet sitters and other miscellaneous service.   A free preview of available caregivers is available to families. Whether you need a caregiver for a few hours to a few days, you will find it at Care4hire.com. Once you are a registered member, you will be given immediate access to caregiver through email and phone.

Candi has offered to giveaway 1 Gift Certificate for a free membership ($34.99 retail value) to Care4hire.com; which gives you 1 month to login and contact caregivers. I recommend this service to others since before my children I was actually a nanny on this site. Please note that I have received no compensation in any form for doing this post. I just think that every mom occasionally needs some time to rediscover the woman she was before she had children and some quiet time or time out can help her do this :)

Also, remember this website not only offers caregivers for children but pet sitters, elder care, tutors, housekeepers, and more!

To enter the giveaway:

1) Mandatory entry– Leave a comment below with what you would do if you had a day to yourself.

Additional Entries (make sure to leave a separate comment below with each entry):

2) Become a friend of Care4Hire on Twitter

3) Become a friend of Alicia (Making Time For Mommy) on Twitter

4) Subscribe to the Care4Hire blog

5) Subscribe to the Making Time For Mommy blog

6) Tweet the following: “Free month of services at Care4Hire.com from @aliciamarie112 & @Care4Hire at www.makingtimeformommy.com #giveaway”

7) Become a fan of Care4Hire on Facebook

8) Become a fan of Making Time For Mommy on Facebook

This giveaway will end on March 4, 2010 at 11:59pm Central Time. The winner will be contacted via email so be sure to leave an email address.