Working Mom Series – Julie from Fab Working Mom Life

My guest today is Julie from Fab Working Mom Life.  She manages to work full-time outside the home, as well as being a single parent while her husband is on active duty.  I don’t know how she does all that and still makes time to blog!  Read on to hear about her life.

Describe your home life – how old are your kids? Does your spouse work as well? Or are you a single parent?

Both my husband and I work full-time outside the home. We have a two-year-old boy who is full of energy and doesn’t sleep enough. My husband has been away on active duty this past year so I have essentially been a single parent. More changes are coming this year but I don’t know what they are yet. So the picture of our home life is a bit fluid at this point haha.

What do you do? Describe your working life.

At my day job I do environmental compliance. I work for a consulting company but currently am working out of a client’s office. For this client, I work with their environmental management system to create actionable tasks based on their environmental permits. I also work on the annual greenhouse gas reporting.

And how many hours do you work in a week?

Full time – 40 hours a week.  Plus a long commute. Of course then there’s the blog. So, a bajillion.

How soon did you return to work after having a child?  And is your work life the same now (same job, or role at that job?)

I got my 12 weeks off and I took them. Then, it was time to return. The work life is the same, as in I had the same job and the same role before and after, and was working for the same client and out of the same location before and after having my child.

What do you do to treat yourself?  Do you have something in your routine that you do just for you?

I love to curl up with a book. I miss reading actual books without interruption, but at least I can listen to audio books on the before mentioned terribly long commute.

Touch on your most and least favourite things about being a working parent.

Let’s start with the favorite – being able to be around professionals and adults. I do enjoy working and the satisfaction of project completion and using my brain (what’s left of it). I love that my toddler enjoys daycare and is learning so much more there than his stubborn self is willing to learn from me.

Least favorite – the hours away from home. The rush to get everything done at home. The struggle to get out the door on time.

What are your goals going forward?

My goals are to get my goals in order. Ha! I want to get organized – with my home life, meal planning, etc – so that my responsibilities don’t continue to fall through the cracks or get winged at the last minute. It would be lovely to be able to reduce my hours to part-time, and the goal is to be able to do that with my blog as a supplemental part-time income. Hoping to achieve that soon.

Any tips to share for balance in your life?

Make sure your priorities are clear. Keep a good mental divider between work and home if at all possible, so you are fully present where you need to be. Understand that you won’t be perfect at everything but we all are doing the best we can.

I’m Julie, a new mom and military spouse who works full time and blogs, all while wishing I had more time to read fun books. I write about being a working mom in order to help myself and other working moms in our journeys to find a balance between family, responsibilities, and hobbies so we can thrive both at home and at work.  I can be found blogging at FabWorkingMomLife.com and Chapter Break, and hanging out on social media: Twitter ~ Pinterest ~ Facebook ~ Instagram

If you like this post and want to stay on top of my Working Mom series be sure to subscribe to my blog! 

If you’d like to be featured, email me at modernmom@jessicafoley.ca or visit my contact page for other ways to get in touch.

To read all the posts in this series click here for the complete list.

~Jess