Learning to Say No {finding balance}

May is a super busy month for me. I always forget quite how busy it is until it’s upon me and I’ve over extended myself and I want to take back all the yeses for things that I’ve committed to that I really should have thought twice about. There’s end of year parties and field trips and end of season games and parties. There’s teacher appreciation week, Mother’s Day, chairing school events and end of year projects. Particularly if it deals with my kids, I feel like I can’t say no. I mean, what if I miss that one field trip and they remember it for the rest of their lives? Or what if by not volunteering to chair the event it gets cancelled because no one else is willing? What if I miss a game and it’s THE game that they hit the home run? And then there is work.

May usually finds me frantically trying to prepare for summer vacation when my children are out of school and I cut back / re-arrange my hours so that we (my children and I and my husband when he’s off) can play together all day. I stress and worry even though there is absolutely no need. I know this, but I do it anyway. It’s almost like a tradition.

I’ve found that it’s really hard to balance work and family, especially when one has a problem saying no.

Clearly, I have a problem saying “no”. I’d like to say yes to everything that’s asked of me, especially where it concerns my children but if I truly want to find any sort of balance, I need to learn to say no.

So, this year, I’m going to:

Learn When to Say No

Don’t laugh. I really am. I mean, I think I am. At least, that’s the goal. Because, I think that if I can just learn when to say no, it’ll be much easier to find balance in my life, particularly with work and family.