Balancing Family, Work, and School: My Journey - Essay Sample

Introduction

I am a mother of two teenagers and wife to Darris who have been very supportive in raising our children and taking care of our four guinea pigs, two dogs, and three cats. Besides mothering, I work as a veterinary assistant to cater to my needs and boost my husband in providing for the family. In the past year, life has been challenging hence I decided to go back in school at Penn foster to escalate my level of education and to be honest balancing school, work and family time is not as easy as I thought. This paper focuses on the time management process between my work, family, and school.

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I have had a hard time since I have to be at work at least four days in a week where I start my daily routine at 4:00 am with coffee and a trip to the gym then off to work I go for 12 hours of taking care of clients and their pets. At the veterinary hospital where I work as a veterinary assistant, every day is full of surprises, and you never know what the nest day has in store for you. My job has several facets including but not limited to being a nurse, surgical assistant, laboratory technician, x-ray technician, kennel assistant, record keeper, receptionist, a shoulder to cry on as well as an advocate for pets' health and wellbeing. The twelve hours a shift often leaves me exhausted, but they do leave me with three full days a week to be at home with my family.

On the family and housing, life has not been that bad since I spend three days a week with my two teenagers and a husband to care for as well as a house full of animals. We currently have four guinea pigs, two dogs, and three cats, all of which demand attention at every opportunity. There is a never-ending pile of laundry and if you have ever tried to keep groceries in the house for two teens for my struggle with shopping is too high. My two children are thirteen and fourteen homes schooled and have some special needs. My daughter has an autoimmune disease that we are trying to find a solution, which leads to having many appointments with the doctor. My son is autistic and has to attend the occupational and speech therapies weekly.

The idea of them studying from home has worked out for me this year since we do not have to fit our schedule in public-school calendar to schedule everything, but this also comes with the children needing help completing assignments and my husband and I need to make sure they maintain their grades and work. Besides all of the appointments and helping the children with school, I try to cram in studying as much as possible by constantly having my laptop, study guides and books with me and working on things when I can. When all is said and done after all of the laundry, housework, meals cooked, and schoolwork is done. I finally have a moment to myself to get down working with my studies. I usually have several hours at the end of the day where I can get stuff done but usually, by then I am exhausted and most of the time I fall asleep in my chair located at my desk until one of the cats wake me and I go to bed just long enough to get rest for the next crazy day.

I have struggled to say the least with trying to find balance in my crazy and wonderful life. To do away with the unstable moments of life I have set several strategies one of them being making good and close friendships with those who are close to me since they support me with everything that I need. I will never be able to quit working or reduce the hours I work, I have a very understanding boss that takes my needs with school and family into consideration when she is scheduling for me to be able to manage things. I have leaned on my husband Darris the most, for making sure that the household things get done and he has also stepped up with the amount of time he has dedicated to helping the children with their school. This support provides some relieve, by eliminating some of the tasks off my shoulders. Since my children are older and more or less self-sufficient they can take on several chores around the house to help, so I usually only have to go back through and finish things to my liking after they are done. We have also gone to using those meal kits in the mail to help lessen grocery shopping for my days off as well as utilizing grocery pick up services offered by the stores now and this has been the greatest time saver of them all for me since I no longer have to spend hours at stores shopping.

Besides the crazy moments at work and home, I also created time for my studies where I study using my laptop. I can attend the doctor appointments and my work schedule on the spot by adding dates and time when they are being made and then I use my phone calendar to update the family calendar in the kitchen with the latest so everyone is on the same page when it comes to working schedules, school deadlines, and everyone's appointments. Living in a small house, less than 1000sq feet, it has been impossible for me to dedicate a space for my schoolwork. While it works for the children to work at the kitchen table since they take up a lot less space than me I needed a place where I could store all of my books, study guides, flashcards and other miscellaneous things like pens and highlighters. I am fortunate to be able to have a very comfortable chair and a large folding tray table that I use in the living room next to a bookcase that we have dedicated to storing all of our school things for the children as well as me. However, this is not the ideal set up to be the most productive as there are usually so many distractions in what is the busiest room of the house. We have made it work and everyone is respectful of my study time.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a typical day for me usually starts at my workplace. Working for four days attending to animals in a week, where my shift is during the daytime and doing my house chores during the evening and doing my studies helps me to balance family, work, and education.