Work Life Balance for Working Mums: How To Feel Like You're Giving Your Kids Enough Attention

Since the advent of smart technology the line between home and work are becoming increasingly blurred for working mums and not just for those that work from home. It is all too easy to find yourself answering emails at the breakfast table asking your kids for a 'special no talking breakfast'.

Feeling like you give your children the attention they need and deserve is challenging enough for any parent with active lives, let alone for busy working mums. If you have wrap around childcare the beginning and end of each working school day, it is easy to feel distant from your child's school day and the events that have happened, especially if you have boys who are reluctant to say hello, let alone tell you the highlights of their day.

Here are some thoughts to ensure that you, as working mum, can remove the guilt and spend some extra quality time with your children.

1. Quality not quantity. Remember that the time of non-working mums is not necessarily made up of the bliss of indulgent parenting we can otherwise be made to believe.. Often spending more time with children can lead to an under appreciation of that time. TV can be more of the equation that sitting reading especially as the household chores build up. Counter intuitively perhaps, when working mums spend lower amounts of time with their children, the time tends become more valued and more focused.

2. Make mealtimes count. Switch off the phone and leave the mess in the kitchen until later. Sit down at the table with your children during their meal times, even if you aren't necessarily eating with them. Introduce conversational themes and habits, such as everyone sitting at the table discussing things that have happened during the day or within that week. Just being there to listen is all a child craves and will provide them with the self-confidence and belief that their views matter.

3. One on One. If you have more than one child, attempt occasionally to spend time with them individually, doing activities that are special and appropriate to them. Although spending time as a whole family is critical at weekends, it can, once in a while, be seen as the perfect opportunity to divide and conquer. Attention that is tailored to age appropriate activities is seen as real treat when the usual family focus is often geared toward to lowest common denominator - the youngest sibling.

4. Plan in fun. Yes the post is waiting for you when you walk through the door, as are myriad other chores but take a deep breath, take off your coat and go and have five minutes of fun with the kids. Whether it's a game of chase or a sedate board game, you'll be amazed at how quickly the stresses of the day fall away as you regress to childhood. Just think - not only are your kids enjoying time with you, you are lowering your blood pressure at the same time!

With these tips in effect, you are sure to begin feeling like your kids are getting the attention they deserve.

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