Radio Mom

I spend my workdays as a radio DJ. Monday through Friday, from 9am to 2pm, you can hear me on 94/7 Alternative Portland. I love my job; it’s my dream come true. The perception of people in radio is a bit different from the reality…I don’t spend my nights rocking out at clubs or hanging with bands on their tour buses. I’m not up all night and sleeping all day on the weekends. The reason?

I’m a mom.

In my mind, I am a mother first and everything else comes after that. Working women have been wrestling with this for as long as they’ve been in the workforce.

When you’re a working mom, you’re judged on your ENTIRE life. Are you neglecting your kids because you’re working, or are you neglecting your job because you have to rush off to get your kids? I have missed school functions. I can’t go to my sons’ classrooms and volunteer my time. And I’ve turned down job-related stuff in order to spend as much time with my kids as I possibly can. Finding the balance between work life and LIFE life can be a challenge, but I think I’ve finally managed to get my act in gear and make it work. Essentially, my life is a loop of kids-work-boyfriend-repeat. Sometimes I do things for myself…like read. Or get my nails done. Or go to a movie. And I make sure I get a decent amount of sleep every night, or I would be insane.

On top of all this, I’m a DIVORCED, working mom. So I get even less time with my kids because sometimes they’re with their dad. This is something else I’ve had to learn to be okay with. It’s taken a lot of time to be able to drop them off with my ex and his girlfriend and drive away without bursting into tears. The boys need their time with their father, and I need my down time. This doesn’t mean I’m dancing for joy when they leave me, and it also doesn’t mean I’m wracked with guilt. This is another case where I’ve learned to balance things. When we’re together, my sons and I have a great time. We laugh, we cuddle, we hang out, we do all the things a family does. They know how much their mother loves them (as I tell them about 23,905,720,375 times a day) and they’ve adjusted to the schedule we’ve set.

My lifestyle is definitely unusual compared to most working mothers, but I’m sure it’s similar to some others’. In this blog, I’ll talk about the dichotomy that is my life, and I hope that it’ll help other working moms (whether it’s out of the home or not) find their own balance.