The Self Employed Mom

Vacation time needed, even if it’s in small doses

Back in June 2007, an MSNBC survey revealed that half of Americans did not plan to take a vacation over the summer, and those that did intend to take a break, would spend less time away from work than a year ago. MSNBC reveals several reasons for this vacation deficiency which include financial reasons, crowded flights and flight delays and rising gasoline prices.

Shirking the statistics, I began planning my own family vacation back in June, while simultaneously cutting back my work hours over the summer so I could spend more time with my kids. Our big vacation blast was to take place at Florida’s Disney World in October 2007.

Things don’t always go as planned. As it turned out, cutting back my hours over the summer meant we didn’t have enough spare cash for the big vacation extravaganza. Luckily my 6-year-old took the news well (much to my shock) and my 3-year-old is too young to realize what she missed.

I’m actually not surprised that this trip never got further than my imagination. I rarely ever take vacations for a variety of reasons (mainly lack of time and lack of money.) But avoiding time off is bad for business - and it really took me a long time to realize this. Working nonstop for two years straight contributed to a very bad bought of burnout.

Even though a trip to Florida is not in my immediate future, I’m not ready to give up on my family vacation yet. Since I don’t plan on taking a full week off from work until December, I’ve begun planning a series of three-day weekends to incorporate some special and fun events to enjoy with my family.

The first event of the Dooley vacation tour will take place in Saugerties at the Garlic Festival. My kids have never been to the festival, but my husband and I used to go every year when we lived in Saugerties. We also got married in Saugerties, and plan to show the girls the park where we had our ceremony.

Then on Sunday, September 30^th we’ll all travel into Manhattan to walk for an organization called Forward Face which helps support families of children with born or acquired facial differences. My daughter Emily was born with cleft lip and palate and this is our second year attending the walk.

After our three-mile walk along the Hudson River, we plan to pay a visit to F.A.O. Schwartz and let the girls pick out a toy. While this is not a totally free activity, it’s a lot less money than the four plane tickets, one week hotel stay and theme park tickets would’ve cost us. Anyway, who needs Disney World when you live two hours from Manhattan?

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This article was originally published in The Poughkeepsie Journal on September 22, 2007.

Making good health a priority

One of my favorite working parent blogs is The Wall Street Journal’s, The Juggle  which covers a number of issues that parents face as they try to juggle work and family.

In a post dated August 23, 2007 titled, “Health Takes a Backseat to Babies, Work,” Mark Gongloff posted about how taking care of himself has been difficult since his twin boys were born a year ago. Mr. Gongloff’s post addresses the difficulty of fitting exercise and a healthy diet into a full-time work schedule when you have kids and the consequences he suffered as a result of neglecting his health (namely, he threw out his back).

Although I feel bad for the guy, it’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one who has developed less than stellar self-care habits since the kids have come along. Between sleep deprivation, poor eating habits and an innate aversion to going to the dentist, it’s a wonder I’ve survived the last three years with my health (and all of my teeth) still intact.

This summer when work slowed down for me, I decided to focus on getting my health back on track. I joined a gym, went to the dentist after years of avoidance and caught up on all my routine doctors’ visits. I’ve dubbed this new method of staying healthy the, “I’m-not-25-anymore” approach. I’m determined to keep it up now that my schedule is picking up and my two girls are back to school.

Naturally, this is easier said than done. Going to the gym in the morning means I don’t actually sit down to work until about 10:30 a.m. I could conceivably workout earlier since the gym opens at the absurd hour of 5:30 a.m., but that would mean missing the kids’ morning routine which seems counterintuitive. One of the main benefits of working from home is being able to spend time with my kids in the morning.

Still, I have to admit that spending time on my own health has a positive impact on both the work and home front and that’s worth getting a late start in the morning. I feel better about myself,  more confident in social situations and have more energy overall. Plus, I’ve discovered that going to the gym is an enjoyable activity that doesn’t involve slaving over my computer or wiping any runny noses (other than my own). You can’t beat that!

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This article was originally published in the Poughkeepsie Journal on Saturday, September 15, 2007 with the title, “Gym time worth the inconvenience.”