Work Life Balance

This phrase didn’t exist a few years back. That begs the question of why it exists now.


I think it’s because work and life have both become so busy and complicated that it’s impossible to juggle both without going a little bit crazy. It’s expensive to live, much more so it seems than it used to be. But why? My thinking is that it’s because we have new technology. New technology was supposed to make life easier but didn’t it just make it more expensive?

Think back 25 years… did you have a cable bill? A cell phone bill? An internet bill? Nope! For fun let’s take an average modern family… Mom, Dad, 2.5 kids, and a dog. Because we can’t do anything without technology now, this family likely has 4 iPhones, 2 laptops for the parents, 2 desktop computers for the kids, a couple of flat panel TVs, maybe a couple more upstairs, and wireless highspeed internet access throughout (the kids don’t even know what dialup is). How much does this cost every month? Judging from my own bills and the ads I see: high speed internet- $50/mo, cable- $100/mo, unlimited family plan with texting- $250. So we’re talking $400-$500 a month for technology. That’s $4800-6000 a year!! And this doesn’t even include the price of all these gadgets in the first place (another $10K seems like a reasonable number).

What can you do with that kind of money?

Well, a lot of families might be able to afford a better work life balance. One reminiscent of the 1960’s where Dad works his 9-5, Mom takes care of the kids, and the family spends time together after work and school instead of watching TV, playing video games, and texting. Work then becomes work, a means to an end. Once you come home, you’re done with work. Without technology we can’t become Pavlov’s dog trained to jump as soon as that little red light starts flashing on the Blackberry. Life then becomes play, time to enjoy hobbies, play with your children, teach them about personal responsibility and the ways of the world and watch them grow up. But instead, we’re all too busy in the rat race to do these things anymore. We rely solely on school to teach our children, television to entertain them, and their peers to mold them. I’m thinking this could end up being the downfall of society.

I’m obviously not preaching though. I’m the first to admit my addiction to the Crackberry, and I’m writing this from a laptop while watching a flat panel TV. I’m just positing that maybe life is hectic because we’ve made it that way. I’m also not saying that all families are like this or that all people with jobs, iPhones, laptops, and cable TV are bad parents. I’m just citing the extreme and am nostalgic about “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best”. The term work life balance then becomes the desire we all have to be successful at work and have a healthy family life. We want both. We want the technology and the rat race and we also want the perfect family life. I’m just not sure it’s possible to fully have both extremes, something has to give.

On that note, the Product of the Day makes me slow down a bit. For moms, baby-wearing can be soothing and comforting for both mom and baby. And, it allows you to get what you need to get done: whether it’s fielding emails on a Blackberry or strolling through the Farmer’s Market on a lazy afternoon. This particular wrap is awesome, it’s easy to tie, easy to get baby in and out, and unlike the wildly popular Moby wrap, this one has some spandex in the fabric to provide some stretch meaning you don’t have to retie after you take the baby out. (And, as the picture shows, if you get a neutral color like black or grey, your man can wear the wrap too without looking like a ninny. This particular man looks pretty good IMO!)