Moms everywhere struggle maintaining the harmony between family and work. It doesn’t matter whether that work is inside the home, or in an office across town, or even how much it pays. The guilt is the same: If you’re spending time with the kids, then something’s not getting done…but if you’re busting your hump around the house or downtown, then you feel as if you’re ignoring your own children.
Family or work? It’s a question that repeats over and over throughout a mom’s day.
Joanna Gaines understands. In a recent post, the interior design queen told a touching story about her own family of 5 children and how she balances them with her work life. Particularly, how she carved out quality time to spend with her daughter Emmie Kay.
“I took Emmie Kay out to the garden this morning and I let her lead and I just followed along in her imaginations and her curiosities,” she starts.
Gaines adds she was too tired to come up with anything else to do as her infant son, Crew, had not been sleeping well. But Emmie Kay didn’t seem to mind.
“She told me she wanted to pick flowers and put them in old books that only her and I would know about and then look for them later when we got older,” she continues. “We gathered some large old books in the shed and picked out our favorite flowers from the garden and then wrote our names and date in the books.”
So only Joanna Gaines would keep antique books in her shed, which clearly has worked out beautifully.
Photo Credit: Instragram
Photo Credit: Instragram
Mother and daughter decided to press individual petals for later framing. But when they opened one of the books, they found pretty leaves someone else had pressed a long time ago. As Gaines so poetically expressed, the find was like “a treasure that reinforced how we would feel when we find the flowers again one day.”
Gaines continues, “I know at times it can be hard to find simple ways to connect with your kids. Especially in the tired and the hard and busy times in life. It can feel like it’s all or nothing. But I really believe it’s somewhere in the middle where the grace is extended and these simple, unplanned moments are actually the sweetest.”
She is right. Time with your children doesn’t need to be a big, expensive outing or an all day party. The unexpected, small times of togetherness are the most tender.
“I write all this for any of you out there who may experience ‘mom-guilt’. I promise you that’s a never ending cycle that leads to nowhere. Replace the word guilt with grace,” she says. “Look for grace in the moments, the small wins that lead to the greatest investments in their little hearts.”