This morning, my youngest ran his first kindergarten. He stopped every few steps to touch the artwork on the wall. “Ada, mama! Adda!” Animals, moms! animal! He barely glanced. Other parents enclosed their little ones, so I cried in the doorway despite my best efforts to keep it together. It was my second time in two weeks, but I found myself crying at the school drop-off. My oldest walked to kindergarten (with the same determined stride) just a week ago. Two boys, two milestones and one mother feel the bittersweet weight of time that passes too quickly.
Image above from an interview with Alex Taylor
Space between milestones
When I type this, my house is quieter than it’s been year. It’s only been my first time since I was a mom that I’m spending time not caring for, making small people, or chasing them. With all cultural accounts, this should be the moment when balance is ultimately possible. But if I’m honest? The balance is not what I feel. What I feel is space, stranding, unstructured space. And what I noticed is that parenting wasn’t really about balance. It’s about accepting the seasons along the way.
Why balance misses the mark
In other words, balance is said to be the gold standard. The ability to easily juggle family, work, friendship, health, marriage and personal growth. Just like a set of scales, perfectly uniform days. But real life doesn’t behave that way. especially It’s not life with children. Motherhood is in a constant movement. There are days when my family takes in everything I have. I have my job Authors and Health Coach Please more. It reminds me that there are days when nothing happens as planned, and that flexibility is more important than anything. It all, I stopped trying for balance. And honestly? My nervous system is therefore stable.
What I noticed was that parenting wasn’t really about balance. It’s about accepting the seasons along the way.
The season of motherhood
I can clearly divide my journey through motherhood. Baby year was the season of survival. I bleed in the morning at night and my body belonged to someone else. My career never faded, but I moved to the background. The year of toddlers was a season of intensity (please read). Those are the ridiculous parts and the big big emotions.
It was the season when we did everything in sprints. Writing during nap time, squeeze in early morning workouts, and have a quick dinner after the park. Like clockwork, the rhythm of our family life has changed again. For the first time in years, there is a space to rediscover yourself outside of motherhood (which I feel daunted and freed).
Seasonal femininity
Of course, it’s not just motherhood that moves like this. Their own rhythm unfolds in a similar rhythm. There are seasons where your health needs to be careful: postnatal recovery, navigating hormonal changes, or rebuilding energy after burnout. There are seasons where friendships flourish, and there are seasons where life is demanding elsewhere and quietly falls. There are seasons of career building and seasons of softening ambition. What I’ve learned is that the trick isn’t about balancing everything at once. It’s about realizing which season you are and giving yourself permission Completely Live it.
The pressure to have everything
Of course, society loves to tell us otherwise. A good mother also has a thriving career, glowing skin, toned abs, a full social calendar, and time for self-care. And if you don’t? Something has to be slipping. But what happens if nothing is slipping? For now, what happens if it’s not just season? During my baby years, I hadn’t climbed the entrepreneur’s ladder. And it wasn’t a failure. it was Alignment. I was celebrating the season I was in.
Now when my boy stepped into school, I feel another shift. There is space to expand in work and I can lean on it with energy I’ve never had before. Rejecting the myth of balance means rejecting the guilt that comes with it. It reminds us to take the central stage at different times when different priorities are present. And I firmly believe that it’s not a failure, it’s wisdom.
When we accept rhythm instead of balance, we learn to flow according to the demands of the moment. We stop asking, How do I do everything at once? And then I started asking, What do I need this season?
Name the season
As September unfolds, I think it’s grounded to pause and ask yourself: What season am I at now? It’s a simple question, but it all changes. It quietens the pressure to compare, guilt and interact more than realistic. I’m in the transition season now. The boys are out to school. I’m retrieving my own fragments. For years I have felt a pull to work and creativity. It’s not perfectly balanced, but I feel it’s true. And I know another season will come soon enough, change and surprise in itself.
Find freedom of rhythm
This morning’s kindergarten drop-off reminded me of how quickly the seasons change. One moment, I sway the baby and go to sleep, the next I stand in an empty house, wondering where the year has gone. Balance may be mythology, but rhythm is real. Life is always changing. The priority will go up and down. And summarizing it, these seasons weave a life that is far more abundant than balance promises.
So perhaps the question isn’t How do I balance everything? Perhaps a better question is this: How do we celebrate the season? Because motherhood and femininity were not in balance. It’s about the seasons. And each one is fleetingly enough, as it is.
Source: Camille Styles – camillestyles.com
