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| Cant complain,"my hands are full", they are filled with joy |
Oh! I still remember
those days when I used to get scared by listening to people making a big deal
about having two kids. I always thought them to be super achievers and super
moms. But here I am today with my two lovely daughters and don’t feel any of
those cribbing to be true. This makes me think as to how does this happen. I often
heard moms saying,’with two you don’t get time for anything’. If you ask me, I feel
I get more time to myself than what I used to get earlier; as my older daughter
now has her sister as her company and I am relieved. I don’t say that what the
other mothers say is an exaggeration, but I certainly feel that my grueling studies
of management for five years has helped me to strike a perfect balance between the two
important aspect of my lives i.e. ME and MY KIDS.
Let me now compare parenting to a management project which
needs to be completed on a six sigma level. I would say so because my kids are
my most valuable projects and my pride. So in order to manage effectively we need
to plan, organize, delegate and supervise. I believe that in order to raise
kids perfectly without getting stressed, we definitely need these four things. By
planning I mean, planning for the future of your kids as well as yourself. We have
often seen that for some parents it is very important that their kid scores
well always, where as for some others it should be that the kid has to be well
dressed always and so on and so forth. So basically, subconsciously we all plan
what we want from our children when they grow up but we haven’t consciously
thought about it. When we start putting these ideas on a piece of paper, we get
the outline of the actual characteristics of what we expect our children to have. I always
prefer spending most of the time with them whenever they are free. Because for
me, that bond counts and as per my plan I feel I want them to be stronger
morally and ethically than other wise. So this becomes my primary goal.
We all know that we have limited time and resources. For me
to be able to spend time with them I have outsourced housekeeping to maids. I shall
focus on my prime goal which is to be with my kids and the household chores can
be delegated and supervised. In this way I ensure that the quality is
maintained. This reduces the stress because you are focusing on your prime KRA.
Lemme simplify with an example. Suppose if we call guest for the dinner, we
have a cook who has cooked the food or we order from outside. It so happens
that the food doesn’t taste that great. Who is blamed? Simple, either the cook
(maid) or the restaurant. Now let’s take another case, where the food is good
but the kids don’t behave well. The maid is running around after them, trying
to make them sit at a place and they are running around. Now whom would the
guest blame? The maid (baby sitter) or the mother? I guess the later is true. No
one would say “maid hasn’t taught anything”. Hence, my point here is that
helping hand is available for all tasks but one has to chose wisely as to for
which task you want to outsource. Thanks to my management lessons, I could
figure out that never take help in your prime KRAs or else your appraisal would
be affected.
Planning and delegating also help in managing time well. It is
always advisable to keep all the tasks as important but not urgent. I shall quote
my example, I always keep all the watches and clocks 20 mins early and I reach
everywhere 15 mins early. I would like to include the parreto’s 80:20 rule
here. In simple word parreto’s rule says that in order to do a task well and on
time perfectly always focus on those 20% aspect of your entire task which gives
80% of the result. I only schedule the eat and the sleep times of my kids and
the rest falls in place. Once they are well slept and well fed, they would play
well and it I bet you would want to spend more time with them.
All of this was the technical aspect. But, we are dealing
with humans and not projects and that to the most important people of our
lives. I bet no mother would feel them to be a burden unless she thinks it is
not her job to raise them. Kids do not require I pad, and I phone but they require
that “I” that is.” Us”, and if we are there with them then believe me they don’t
even care of ipads…
So I would conclude saying I feel that there isn’t anything
like a “super mom”, but if we plan our duties well we certainly would have “Super
kids.” parenting can be super fun if done efficiently. Today I certainly feel
indebted to God for giving me such lovely angels. Feel truly blessed.
Happy children’s day.
