The divorce papers have been signed. You've moved out of the house, or your spouse has. All the fund transfers have been pushed through. Now that all of those issues have been taken care of, there leaves one big area to fix: your life with the kids. Specifically, the new work-life balance you have to create at the same time you're trying to discover how the new you will take on the world.
Mandy Ravin, who manages the MomsCharlotte site for The Charlotte Observer, decided to take on that question. She came up with a few points that she thinks are integral for any parent who now has to go it alone with their kids. These are a few of them:
1. Don't do it all by yourself. It's hard enough to maintain enough face time at work and at home. If there are ways for you to be less stressed about the kids, like babysitters or after-school programs, take advantage of them. You can only miss so much time from work to pick up the kids before your employer starts to say no to your requests.
2. Prioritize. Life will always come at you with a million things you have to do. With kids, those time-sucks increase ten-fold (per kid!). A key to maintaining a balance is to list all your to-dos and create a priority list of how you want to attack them. Not only will it force you to focus on tasks in an ordered method but also in a way that uses less mental energy.
3. Spend quality time with your kids. That means no TV, electronic games or phones — just talking. It will be tough at first — your kids probably view taking their devices as a form of torture — but it will pay off in the end by creating a bond between parent and child that will last forever.