Ever since Maia was born, I have stayed home one day a week (for the last year or so, it has been on Mondays). The purpose, in my mind, was always two-fold - save some money on child care costs, and give me some more quality time with our daughter. Part of the impetus for this decision, as it relates to spending more time, was that I was involved in so many "extracurriculars" that I would have upwards of 8-10 nights a month where I wasn't home before Maia was in bed, due to meetings and other obligations.
These evening commitments became more and more difficult over the past year for me, just in trying to maintain a good balance. As such, in the last few months, I started to cut back, saying no to some new opportunities, not agreeing to continue to serve after my term was up, etc. As a result, my evening obligations have already been cut in half, and by the end of the year, I should be down to just a couple evenings a month where I will have something. I'm already looking forward to the exhale at the beginning of next year.
But that's a small digression. An obvious consequence of staying home one day a week was attempting to manage my workload on one less day a week (believing that using a weekend day would defeat some of the purpose of staying home a day during the week). My success at this has ebbed and flowed, particularly in terms of how it affects my stress levels, but one consistent result was me getting home later and later on the days I was at the office. To the point that now, I get home, rush to get dinner cooked, and by the time that's done and clean up is done, its pretty much time for the night time routine with Maia. In other words, the at least partial result of me staying home one day a week is that I barely have any evening the other 4 days of the work week.
This is my dilemma. What's to be valued more - a whole day, one on one? Or getting home consistently earlier, allowing for a couple hours each night of family time? To me, there is great value in each, which makes finding the right decision (perhaps there is no wrong decision?) so difficult.
"You can keep pondering on which thing to do first or which path to take or by simply taking action now of most any kind, you may just find yourself on the way to where you most needed to go." - April Bryan
"Sometimes, all that is required of us is to come to a decision, a decision which would determine our course thereafter, which is sudden, which is made in an instant and not out of introspection. Because the more we happen to brood, the more we burden the mind, with doubt with dilemma, whether to or whether no to.
Sometimes it is this decision that furnishes to be the highlight of our lives, it may cause us to diverge from our paths and lead us to new ones or narrow down our destinations altogether, either way it cherishes significance." - Chirag Tulsiani
"You can keep pondering on which thing to do first or which path to take or by simply taking action now of most any kind, you may just find yourself on the way to where you most needed to go." - April Bryan
"Sometimes, all that is required of us is to come to a decision, a decision which would determine our course thereafter, which is sudden, which is made in an instant and not out of introspection. Because the more we happen to brood, the more we burden the mind, with doubt with dilemma, whether to or whether no to.
Sometimes it is this decision that furnishes to be the highlight of our lives, it may cause us to diverge from our paths and lead us to new ones or narrow down our destinations altogether, either way it cherishes significance." - Chirag Tulsiani
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