The Daily Balancing Act

For women of my generation, it was the "juggling act." Jobs, marriage, children, homes, and aging parents were the balls we added, tossing them in the air as our lives filled up and praying they wouldn't come crashing down on our heads. Younger women, many of whom watched their working moms try to "have it all," seem determined to find a better way. They shun the term "juggling act" in the same way they brush aside the word "feminism"' as an outdated notion with little relevance to their lives.

For this generation, the "juggling act" has been rebranded as "work-life balance." But while young women today tend to think quite strategically about how to achieve the equilibrium that's right for them, they are just as preoccupied with getting it right as their mothers. Even after all these decades of experience, finding the balance between work and family is still a struggle -- often a daily struggle -- for women, men and the children they are working so hard to raise.

This week, we'll be taking a closer and deeper look at the daily balancing act. We're all curious about how other women manage, so in Celebrity Soundbites: Hollywood Moms Speak Out About The Work-Life Balance, we'll hear from working moms in the spotlight including Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Garner, Kate Hudson, on how they manage careers, kids and the glare of the paparazzi.

We're also bringing you A Peaceful Revolution, a series of blogs sponsored by MomsRising, an organization that promotes family-friendly policies. Each day we will hear from a leading thinker in the field of work-life balance. Mary Ann Mason asks, "When is a good time to have a baby?" Irma Herrera tackles equal pay for equal work -- an ideal we are still far from reaching. John de Graaf advocates reviving the three-week paid vacation. And Robert Drago writes of the growing demand for part time work and why quality part time work is a good vision for the future.

A Peaceful Revolution kicks off with today's post by Joan Blades, co -founder of MomsRising.org and co-founder of MoveOn.org. "Work and life need not be a nerve-wracking balancing act that leaves frazzled human beings crumpled by the side of the road," she writes. "It should be a joyful dance."

So check out Joan's post and the rest of the Peaceful Revolution series -- and use the comments section to join the conversation. We'd love to hear your take.

Comments

[QueenCeleste]

I think it's time women finally accept that just maybe they cannot do it all. Or perhaps they can, but not necessarily that well. Unless, that is, they are wealthy and can hire excellent, reliable help to look after their children and keep their houses. It pains me to constantly hear celebrities complain about their delicate balancing acts and how they cope with all of the tremendous demands on their time. Yeah, right. When one is picked up and driven to a t.v. or movie set, pampered all day, then driven home to a clean house and cooked meals, it is no doubt hard for average working mothers (and even us childfree women!) to relate, let alone find inspiration. I realize it's all relative, but please.

[dadw5boys]

A joyful dance indeed!
Our Society allows so many attacks on the family thru advertizing, employment and access.
Parent fight daily to keep food on the table, bills paid, transportaion and to prepare for the furture. All the time know that one illness can destroy all their hard work and put thier family in the street making them homeless.
All the while dealing with growing kids whose feet never stop growing. School that demand anything from snacks, to class trips, and allow their kids to be exposed to deliquent behavior.
Money, money, money come in so slow and races out the door leaving only the feeling that your keeping your head above water. Getting to the end of the month with gas in the car and food on the shevles all to often is the battle for many parent.
Parent get up at 5:30 or 6:00 and pass out around 1:00 or 1:30 praying that enough things have been done so in the morning everything goes smoothly.
Then the weekends when it's catch up time. Mow the lawn, fix things, laundry, laundry, clean the house, food shooping for the next week, mend clothes and maybe ,just maybe talk to the kids. The weekend ball games or mid week ball game trash any plans a parent may have. They certainly kill the free time to just "BE".
Men watch with dismay as some women with high drives try and do it all and nearly kill them selves in the process. Men, that I know, have long ago surrendered to the fact the they can't even fold a towel correctly and are better off out of the way to aviod an argurement about how he folds the towel wrong.
So the man heads outside out of the love of his life's hair so she can fight the battle she has set before her without his apparent incompentence. He remembers folding towel and laundry before getting married but he must have misses an issue of REDBOOK on the new methods of towel and laundry storage.
HATS OFF TO YOU LADIES! WE LOVE YA!

[curiousasheck]

"It should be a joyful dance"

Right. And who's going to do all the hard sweaty work while others are dancing?