Modern Mamahood: Confession Challenge Results

Me and RJ in the morning the other day;
Disconnected from my phone and connected to our moment

I promise this will be the last post in awhile about my personal motherhood experience, but I wanted to follow up on my recent post. Last week, I confessed that I worked with my 13mo old child around far too much and challenged myself to not work around her for one week. The results are in!

The Results:
I stayed true to my commitment 80% of the time. For the most part, I left the iPhone in another room or in the diaper bag while I spent time with Regina Jade -- out of sight and out of mind! I also started waking up about an hour before she does to read and reply to urgent emails or writing (like I'm doing right now).

Yesterday morning, I did have to transfer photos and video from my phone for a client, which was still pretty minor compared to writing articles and sending emails in her presence.

The good thing is, I missed absolutely nothing by waiting until she was down for her nap to work. I also felt much more present in general, which was my goal.

The Conclusion:
With the exception of deadlines that are in the red zone, or "fires" that need to be put out, working with your child around is a lot like checking emails in real-time; you feel like you are getting ahead, but you're really not.

I've also realized that because I work from home right now and full-time daycare isn't in the budget yet, there are going to be times when balancing work and baby will be very hard. I've concluded that this doesn't make me a bad mother and every family has their challenges they get through together.

Much of what I learned from this experience is to let go of trying to be the "perfect mama" because I'm exactly what she needs just the way I naturally am (minus the iPhone4 screen stuck to my pointer-finger). I think as moms, we always want to do better, which is a good thing, but we also need to feel strong and confident that if our child is thriving and smiles often, we are already doing a great job.

The Modern Mamahood Column on the Ladies Lotto Blog:

As our Ladies Lotto community grows and evolves, we now have quite a few mamas and mamas-to-be! The LL Modern Mamahood weekly column presents the issues and products related to being a Ladies Lotto Mama. Blogger: Lana Perry