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Four Steps to Enjoying Your Life as a Working Parent
In my last post, I shared the unique approach we've developed at The Argenal Institute to help working parents defeat burnout so they can finally start enjoying these precious years of their lives called the Whole SELF Lifestyle™. The Whole SELF Lifestyle™ is an approach to life as a working parent. It’s not a solution in and of itself. It’s sort...
Identifying My Core Values Was the Key to Kicking My Soul-Sucking Lifestyle
Returning to work after I had my oldest son was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I thought I was prepared, but within just a couple of months, I was struggling. Hard. Every single day felt like a sprint. My commute flat-out sucked. I raced out the door after work to jump on an hour long train ride. Then I sat in traffic for 30...
The Whole SELF Lifestyle™ | A New Approach to Working Parenthood
A few days ago, I let you know that we're changing the name of the Working Parent Resource to The Argenal Institute. If you missed that post, you can learn more here. A lot has changed since we started the Working Parent Resource four years ago, and it's time our name reflected our expanded purpose. The mission of The Argenal Institute is to...
Announcing The Argenal Institute!
When I started the Working Parent Resource in September 2015, it started out as a single page on a website that listed my favorite books, articles, and podcasts related to juggling work and motherhood. As a new mom with a demanding full-time job in the legal field, my only goal at the time was to have a central hub of reliable information I could...
How Working Moms Are Selling Themselves Short, and How to Stop
There's a lot of talk about what's "possible" for working moms in modern society. For some reason I've been hearing a number of comments recently about a commencement speech that Shonda Rhimes gave in 2014 at Dartmouth University. She has a lot of wonderful advice in her speech, but there was one part I took issue with, which is what I want to...
The Hardest Thing About Being a Parent
There's a whole lot about parenting that's hard. Being a parent is challenging in general. You have sleepless nights and tantrums and your heart is ripped in two when your child is sick or hurting. Parenting is NOT for sissies. But as a relatively successful professional, there's something about parenting that I didn't really expect, and it...
3 Sneaky Procrastination Traps to Avoid
The working parents I talk to all have one thing in common: they all want more TIME. I don't know ONE working parent who says, "nah, I'm all good on time, I have plenty of it." So when I came across a particular chapter in the book I'm reading, Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success, by Rory Vaden, I wanted to pass this little nugget...
7 Simple Ways to Practice Self-Care When You’re a Busy Working Parent
Before I had my son, I was a pro at self-care. Here's what a normal weekend looked like for me: I woke up leisurely after a full night of sleep (those were the days!). I would meditate for around 30 minutes in my comfy bed, then I would write in my journal and read a few pages from my favorite uplifting books. After that I would drive to a...
3 Realizations About Parenting that Instantly Improved My Life
There's no shortage of parenting advice out there these days. I'm an education junkie (not to mention a recovering perfectionist), so as a new mom I figured I could find everything I needed to know somewhere out there. I went out of my way to search for other people's research, advice, and opinions about parenting. I inhaled as much as I could...
11 Tips to Improve Communication with Your Toddler
How many of you struggle with communicating with your toddler? Are you tired of all of the tantrums and outbursts? Does your child "communicate" by hitting, biting, and other aggressive actions? I wanted to create a list of tips for parents who are looking for a better way to communicate with their young children. Here are 11 tricks that have...
3 Problems with Trying to be a Perfect Parent
I'm not sure if you've heard of the parenting trend called Positive Parenting that's become very popular over the last decade or two. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Positive Parenting approach, its roots are based in the Positive Psychology movement. People who practice Positive Parenting promote gentle understanding and guidance...
10 Quick Ways to Reconnect with Your Significant Other
We all know how easy it is to put our marriage on the back-burner when work, kids, and the daily demands of everyday life compete for our attention. Here are a few tips to quickly reconnect with your spouse when life has taken over: Start and end your day on the right note. Give your spouse a nice kiss goodbye before you both head off in the...
What Is Your Purpose as a Parent and Why Does it Matter?
Everyone's purpose for parenting is personal. Your reasons for raising your child may be different than mine, and that's exactly how it should be. We're all motivated by different things, and your goals for starting your family are unique. Why does it matter what your purpose as a parent is? Well, parenthood has changed a lot over just the last...
3 Myths About Working Parent Guilt and the Number One Tip to Overcome It
One of the biggest issues many working parents deal with these days is guilt. The guilt may come from many different sources: those "perfect" families on Facebook, traditional parents from a different generation, friends who have chosen to "stay home to raise their kids," or even your own internal beliefs about what you "should" be doing....
How My Husband and I Stay Happy With Two Full-Time Jobs and Two Kids
I spent most of my adulthood thinking I would never get married. I had a long history of dramatic and unhealthy relationships throughout my twenties. My parents divorced when I was just 5 years old so I never really had a positive marriage model growing up. Marriage mostly sounded like a prison sentence to me (or, at the very least, something...
Maximize Your Time (Part 10) | Be Authentic
I spent the majority of my life trying to please everyone around me. I was completely consumed with trying to gain others' approval. I wanted everyone I came into contact with to like me and think I was a "good" person. Ultimately, I needed them to validate me so I felt worthwhile and loved. What a colossal waste of...
Maximize Your Time (Part 9) | Remove Energy Vampires From Your Life
As a working parent, you don't have any time to waste. Yet as life becomes busier, it becomes more difficult to evaluate what might be wasting your time and energy. Some things that used to inspire and motivate you now seem to drain you. You can't put your finger on it, but you know there are areas of your life that sap your energy. These are...
Maximize Your Time (Part 8) | Let Go of Busy as a Badge of Honor
"The busier you are, the more successful and important you are." This message has controlled me most of my life. Working in the litigation profession taught me that being overwhelmed and out of time reflected success. The "best" attorneys were always stretched for time, which made them seem more in-demand to me. Add to that a...
Maximize Your Time (Part 7) | Establish A Morning Time
Before I had a baby, I spent the first hour or so in the morning meditating and writing in my journal. I eased naturally into my day, and set a calm and positive demeanor to my day (well, most of the time). Once I had my son, my mornings no longer belonged to me. I was in "Mommy Mode" from the first moments of my day (usually awakened by loud...
Maximize Your Time (Part 6) | Efficiency Essentials
Last week we talked about the best way to narrow down your to-do list by eliminating, automating, and delegating tasks that you don't absolutely need to do. This week, we're going to focus on maximizing your time with the tasks that are left on your list. I have implemented all of the tools listed below into my life, and I can't tell you how...
Maximize Your Time (Part 5) | Eliminate, Automate, Delegate
Many of the posts in this series so far have highlighted the importance of focusing on what is absolutely essential in your life, rather than just taking it all on and struggling through your day. If you're feeling overwhelmed, "crazy-busy" and out of control, you're going to need to begin to cut out some of the tasks on your current to-do list...