What are your childhood memories of your mum?
In honour of International Women’s Day, there was a lot of discussion on various aspects concerning women (and not just women) last week. Personally, I took part in a summit celebrating the day and promoting #BalanceforBetter (more on that later).
On the 8th March, I also asked the question “What are your childhood memories of your mum?” because back in the ’80s, I remember that on this date we celebrated Mother’s Day in Bulgaria.
Here are some of the memories of my wonderful mum. I wonder if they speak to you, too.
My mum commuted for over an hour across town, changing a couple of highly unreliable busses to get to her full-time job. She was a programmer accountant for a big national textile company. This was during the time before PCs existed when computers took up a whole big room and spat out perforated cards.
Even to the present day, she talks fondly and with pride about how much she loved that job, even though the office politics were terrible – she was often mistreated and her colleagues regularly took credit for her hard work and achievements.
When I was about 6 or 7 years old, on occasion, I remember going to her office when she worked late. After several hours of trying to keep myself entertained eventually I’d get bored of drawing, reading etc… and my way to keep awake and amused was to spin around on the
In the evenings, my mum cooked delicious meals making sure that my brother and I had homemade food left over so that we can reheat it for lunch in the coming days, while she was at work. (In Bulgaria, we didn’t have school lunches provided. Plus, from the age of six, the education system was such that one month students would go to school in the morning and the next month they’d go to school in the afternoon.)
At the weekends, she cleaned the house, which was always kept pristine. I did my best to help her out and usually did the dusting. My brother would chip in a bit, too.
As my mum did the laundry, she’d help me prepare for school. I vividly remember reciting poems that I had to remember off by heart. My mum always
During those years, my dad worked even longer hours for another big state company and was often sent to work around the country and sometimes abroad. So he wasn’t able to help much at home.
Does the above story resonate with you? Do you see yourself in it? Or does it remind you of someone dear to you?
Personally, whenever I look back at those times, I really admire my mum and how she coped with it all. And I know I’m not alone – lots of people shared their stories and admirations for their own mums in response to my memories of my mum when I posted about this on LinkedIn.
This is one of the reasons, why I’m so passionate about helping women,
But it’s not just about mums and women.
It’s about dads and men, too. Last year, I spoke to a dad and a husband whose business was taking up so much of his time and energy that at the weekends when his kids wanted to play with him, he was too exhausted. In fact, he spent most of his Saturdays sleeping trying to recover from the sleepless nights during the week.
This affected his family so much that his wife burnt out from taking care of their children and their home that she was admitted into the hospital. Not only their marriage was hanging on a thin thread but so was his wife’s life!
In fact, it doesn’t matter whether what gender you consider yourself or what roles you play in your life be that daughter, son, husband, wife, partner, mum, dad, brother, sister, nephew, niece, grandad, grandma, friend… (you get the gist)…
as a human, you have one life and how you spend it is what matters.
So…
If you’re tired of being exhausted and spreading yourself too thinly all the time while running your business and juggling all that life throws at you…
Or…
If you love what you do but feel like your life has become all about work and taking care of everyone else while you’re missing out on taking care of yourself and enjoying life…
Or…
If you want to spend more quality time with the people you love…
And you’re ready to take that first step towards getting your life back while running a successful business but are not sure where to start, then you’d love my latest webinar on “How to Achieve More Balance in your Life as an Entrepreneur“, which was part of BrightTALK’s summit celebrating International Women’s Day.
In this webinar, you will discover:
✔️ The 6 key obstacles to achieving balance in life
✔️ The 2 fundamental pillars to leading a balanced life and creating success on your terms
✔️ Simple and effective strategies to reduce overwhelm and get your sanity back
✔️ The N# 1 mistake you’re making that’s draining your energy and stealing your precious time
To watch the FREE recording click below.
Yes, I want to find out How to Achieve More Balance as an Entrepreneur!
If this post has inspired you to create a more balanced life for yourself and those you care about, do yourself (whatever your gender) and those you love a favour and check the webinar out. You’ll be so glad you did!
Pop back and let me know in the comments below about what you thought of what you’ve learned and what’s the first step you’re going to take towards creating the lifestyle you crave.
Photo Credit: Magda Fou – Unsplash
