or do you struggle through,
quietly wishing there was an easier way to 'have it all'? 

With two children under five, I was working full-time, studying for a Masters degree and writing my first book.  As far as over-committing myself goes, I was having my cake, eating it too, baking it in the first place and washing up afterwards. 

Within one year, I was holding a publishing contract in one hand, divorce papers in the other and staring feverishly at my bedroom ceiling trying to ignore the acute Glandular Fever that I was bedridden with and – worse - the fact that this was preventing me from staggering to the pre-school Nativity play, like the good mum that I so desperately wanted to be. 

This was not what I called ‘work-life balance’.

Wits’ End Before Breakfast! Confessions of a Working Mum was reviewed by OK Magazine as ‘Hilarious!’  Fellow mums ‘will sympathise and find comfort,’ the review said.  ‘Those who are yet to breed will consider sterilisation!’  

It was a nice review for an author to get, and a bit of a debacle personally.  It wasn’t until I found myself accidentally and distractedly consuming a Lieutenant-Colonel colleague’s salad (because I was so distraught about having left a crying child to go to work that I no longer recognised my own Tupperware), that it finally occurred to me that life didn’t have to be this hard. 

I began looking for different ways to do things.  Better ways to be.  Ways of saying ‘no’.  Eventually the light dawned: life wasn’t this hard at all – I’d been making it this hard. 

Bit by bit, I clawed control back over my family, my career, my identity as a woman – the works.  I worked out that I could have it all, just not necessarily all at once, and certainly not at the cost of my health, sanity or most special relationships.  The more I spoke about this at seminars and fund-raising lunches, the more intensely the message seemed to strike a chord with the parents I met, many of whom were plain exhausted from the struggle.

Five years on, the contrast in my life couldn’t be more pronounced.  I don’t juggle any more with the things that matter most to me – it’s too precarious and I might drop something. 

Instead, I carefully weave my family life, friendships and personal aspirations into a career that I adore: coaching others to make a similar transformation in their lives.

Emma Grey (Robertson) is Director of the life-balance company, WorkLifeBliss.  She is a published author, speaker, coach and facilitator on work-life balance, time management and prioritisation. She has over ten years’ experience in the public sector and qualifications in Arts (Hons), secondary teaching, professional communication and coaching.  

As Director of WorkLifeBliss, Emma is passionate about assisting her clients to manage their lives, and about developing ‘soft skills’ within organisations.  Her clients see positive transformation in their careers, family lives and personal focus.  Her coaching style is warm and direct, and her workshops and seminars are regarded as valuable, entertaining and highly practical for participants, and the organisations for which they work.