There are more mothers than ever in the workforce. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the last census (2016) revealed there are more than six million mothers and, of those, 114,800 work, study and care for their children at the same time. It’s likely those numbers have risen in the years since the census but what wouldn’t have changed is this: the role of a full-time working mother can lead to stress due to the divided attention between family and work. It’s no surprise many parents struggle to keep up with the multiple demands of their kids’ activities.
At myWhānau we believe it is all too common for parents to be so overwhelmed with their busy lives that it’s easy to mix up events or miss a child’s event entirely! With that in mind, we spoke to Anna, a single mother of four who believes she is a “typical” parent struggling to remember the busy schedules of her children and (in her words) “failing miserably!”
She tells us about the various ways she has managed to “stuff things up” because she is juggling too many things at once and has no perfect mechanism in place to help her. (Yes, she needs myWhānau!)
Here’s how Anna summarises a few days in her life.
Tuesday: “I totally forgot my 16 year old’s parent teacher night. You could think, ‘Well she is 16, she could have reminded you?’ But let’s face facts – most 16 year olds do not want their parent to attend parent teacher night because they might find out things about their daughter that they might not have known about!” says Anna.
“My daughter was delighted that I forgot about the night, however, I will be chatting to her teachers on the phone instead, which will just make my work day more difficult. That’s just one example of something I’ve missed. And I did write it in my diary but then I couldn’t find my diary and so the vicious cycle continues.”
Wednesday : “You’d think I’d get my act together after Tuesday night’s debacle but I managed to mess up another event that I’d made a “mental note” to take time off work during my lunchbreak for. My 8 year old son was appearing at a lunch time piano recital in the school hall. This is something that I hadn’t bothered to write in my diary because I thought I’d remember it and my son did remind me the previous night. But, due to stress at work and having to cover for a work colleague who was unwell, I completely forgot to drive to the school in my lunchbreak. My son was very upset when he came over after school to tell me he was the only kid whose parent hadn’t turned up. Mother guilt is real!”
Saturday: “After messing up twice in one week, I thought I at least had a handle on sporting events. My 12 year old daughter insisted that her netball game was next to a local rugby field and I texted another mum to double check and she said that it was a different field. I turned up to that field only to see that none of her team was there. The other mum was as clueless as me. I got her to the other field eventually but, after being stuck in Saturday morning traffic, we were 30 minutes late and my daughter’s coach “punished” her for being late and kept her on the bench for most of the match. My daughter told me I need to “get organised” with all the sass of a tween. She is right.
Sunday: This was the icing on the cake. I’d written on a “post it note” and stuck on the fridge the time my 14 year old girl was supposed to be at Luna Park for a friends’ birthday party. I still don’t know how I managed to screw this one up but I dropped her there at midday and 30 minutes later she texted me to say nobody else had showed up. It was only then that I double-checked the invitation which was somewhere in my inbox – she was two hours early!
myWhānau Family Calendar Assistant is the perfect way to help you manage your life.
It works more effectively than any other calendar app because myWhānau becomes your own, affordable, family assistant service that fully automates your family calendar. Not only does myWhānau diarise all your tasks into one easy-to-manage place, it also automatically adds all the vital information from multiple sources; from the school, the sporting events, music lessons, driving lessons and everything else that is causing you stress.
If you’ve had enough of missing events or taking kids to the wrong place at the wrong time, myWhānau is here to help you!