The Divine Secrets of the WOHMan sisterhood -- for Rosie Irene, please come back.

[Eleusis]

Let's try this again and see if we can give some constructive advise to poor RosieIrene, her OP here:

By RosieIrene on Mon 11-Jun-07 23:30:27 :
I work FT at a city firm and have two dd 1 and 3. Have a full time daily nanny but still can't cope. Work all day, come home and put kids to bed and work all evening to make billable target or have to go to client functions. So stressed out that on weekend just want to sit in garden with kids and do nothing. Can't sleep, can't talk to anyone. How do people manage?

[Tortington]

my advice would be to look for a career change.

i haven't posted on the other thread.

[Quattrocento]

Sorry that the other thread got hijacked with lots of arguments that were irrelevant.

People manage through muddling through. It's good that you are seeing the signs of stress - believe me that sometimes it is possible to be overwhelmed but NOT see the signs of stress. That's worse.

So what are the options for you? Well I know all about the pressure of billing targets and recovery targets. Is it possible to get a job without them? Or maybe take a career break for a year or two?

It is hard. Really hard. It doesn't actually get much easier as they get older either. The demands are different. The skill is to be able to compartmentalise as much as possible. I know that it's impossible to switch off at home in that sort of role. But you can switch work off for a period of time "I am going to switch work off for three hours while I do xyz, then I will fire up the blackberry."

Best of luck and lots of love.

[Eleusis]

I agree with Quattro, that sometimes you just have to switch off. You know like on Saturday I am going to play with my kids, on Sunday afternoon, I can sign into work for two hours at 2:00, but at 4:00 my kids and I are going.... blah blah blah.

It's down to strict scheduleing in my life I guess.