Me First

Where to now?

A final word from Alice, 90 days on.

Alice

Without question, I have more time. I have more than 30 hours back a month to do what I love. I am doing more work, spending quality time with my family and — importantly — making time just for me. Olive and Henry can see the difference — I overheard them talking about me and Olive actually said, ‘Mum is fun!’ I’ve always wanted to be fun.

I definitely feel a lot less guilt when I head off to work, knowing that tonight when I get home (to a clean house courtesy of our housekeeper, and a meal cooked by John) I can sit with the kids and help with their homework rather than rush out to the supermarket, run the vacuum over the floor, clean the toilets and make dinner.

And I feel no guilt at all when I sit down to family time. I still have some guilt about putting myself first, but funnily enough, the more I do it the easier it gets!

On the downside, I still have to keep on top of the kids and their chores. I can’t tell you how tempting it is just to clean up their stuff myself. But, I am staying strong! Yelling a bit, but they are starting to get the message. John, on the other hand, is transformed in his ability to put his dirty clothes in the wash — my threats to not wash anything that wasn’t put in the laundry did the trick.

We have a housekeeper, a mother’s helper, a guy who mows the lawn — and it has changed my life and our family life.

My biggest challenge is staying on top of the Rejects list. I thought this would ...