Finding Balance as a Home Manager :: Day 5 {Re-Define Your Role}

**The following is an excerpt from the opening chapter of the book, The Family Manager, by Kathy Peel.**

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"Do you work?" 

     The same question can cause women with jobs in the marketplace to roll their eyes.  They may spend anywhere from twenty to eighty hours a week at work, be anything from a real-estate executive to a nurse.  Ask a woman who works outside the home this question, and she probably will answer the question saying what she does for a living.  Probe a bit and you begin to get the stories behind the statistic that women who work outside the home, no matter how much time they spend "on the job," spend twice as much time as their spouses working around the house.  "I spend three hours every night doing laundry and cooking and cleaning just so we can have a few free hours on the weekend."  Or, "It's all I can do to get dinner on the table.  But That means the weekends are filled with chores left over from the week."  Or, "I sure do work; I hold down two full-time jobs -- one at my office and one at home."

     Single moms, whether they work outside the home or not, carry an even greater burden since they don't have a husband to help them.  They are often nagged by guilty feelings:  Are they spending enough time with their children?  Finding proper male role models for their sons?  Stretching the budget to fit?  The list goes on. 

     I believe it's time for a name change....

     What do we call a person who runs one (or several) departments in any kind of organization?  Who's responsible for getting the right people and the right things, with the right tools, at the right time, to the right place, with the right attitude?  We call that person a manager.

Women who run homes, and raise families, who take responsibility for managing time, finances, food, special projects, home and property, needs of family members and friends, and their own personal growth deserve a new title that reflects their work:  Family Manager. 

(or Home Manager) :)

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Moving forward, I encourage to Re-Define your Role in the HOME.  Embrace the idea of your responsibility as that of a manager.   Then, try to act that way. 

Be a professional.

How differently would things look and feel in your home if you approached your duties there as if it were a job?  

If you're at home most (or all) of the time, it's so easy to enter into each day in a "Lazy Saturday Morning" sort of mentality, isn't it?   Now, don't get me wrong, if you're in a season of life caring for an infant you very well should be in that mode.  However, once all your kiddos are firmly established in toddler-dom, try to enter into your days with a little more intentionality and pride in your role.

For a little more motivation / encouragement to this end, check out the links I posted a few months ago:

5 Motivations for {at home} Moms

OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES:

Day 1 : Introduction
Day 2 : Get Adequate Rest 
Day 3:  Defining Priorities 
Day 4:  Where Does Your Time Go?