Finding balance isn't easy, and sometimes it takes someone else stepping in to make you realize what needs to change.
I want to be perfectly honest in this post. Balancing family, work, and writing is not easy, and I'm not very good at it. I tend to have an obsessive nature. I get very fixated on whatever I'm doing and ignore other things I shouldn't. Maybe that means I get a lot of writing done, when writing is what I'm focused on, but it usually means I don't take the time I should to spend time with my hubby and kids.
Lately, I've really struggled with that. I went from working full time to only working part time, and it wasn't by choice. I felt a lot of pressure to make up for the income I wasn't getting anymore, but really, that was largely an excuse to allow myself to put off more important things I should have been focusing on.
I was spending too much time on my computer either writing, working on marketing, or wasting time on social media. It was consuming my evenings and being unfair to my family. I really was becoming completely conumed with all of this book stuff and it was causing a lot of problems. My husband and I finally had to sit down and have a discussion about it.
My husband is one of the best people I know. He's is extremely patient and supportive, more than I deserve most of the time. He's stuck by me through a lot of really tough years and he's the reason I haven't given up on many of my aspirations. My argument for spending so much time on my writing has been that it's my job just as much as my regular day job, BUT my day job has set hours. I go home when it's over. Writing has to be the same way.
As much as I love writing, I love my family more. I'll still be writing, but it's going to stay within the confines of my "writing hours" from now on. If I'm not online in the evening or on the weekends anymore, it's because I'm playing video games with my hubby and kids, watching soccer practices and games, trying to teach my daughter to sew without her getting her fingers poked by the needles, or just hanging out.
Finding balance has always been a struggle for me, no matter what aspect of life it is, but it's now my top priority. It's important to be passionate about something, but not to the point of shutting everything else.
