The reality of self-care and parenting

I really believe in self-care, but find I can get to the end of the day and realise I actually haven't done it.  Running a small business and medium sized family looking after myself is really important, or I will get burnt out.
 
So, I thought this week I would schedule it in.  

I sat down at the beginning of the week and thought Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon, they look like good times to have a few hours break to myself.  Monday and Tuesday I will work on my business doing admin, marketing, exploring possible new sub contractors etc.  Wednesday afternoon I have private clients, Thursday I need to work on assessments and client notes/plan, Friday assessment to do. 
 
So welcome to Wednesday morning.  My youngest has had ongoing minor medical health issues.  These popped up again on Tuesday, so first priority this morning was to make an appointment for him and take him.  Then my middle child informs me that they, and a number of other students, were excluded from important career sessions at school and they have not been informed of when they will be allowed to catch up.  So,  parenting task no.2. 
 

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Rang middle child's school.  The person in charge of careers said they had nothing to do with the careers assessment and gave me a contact name.  The person was unavailable.  All possible avenues to speak to at the school were unavailable.  At this point I have left phone messages with two different people and am waiting for a phone call.
 
When I dropped my youngest child back at school after their medical appointment I popped in to see the Special Needs Co-ordinator about some of the clients I have at school.  Had a quick chat and picked up some paperwork that required action.
 
Okay, so I’m home now, just a couple of admin tasks to do before I could have a work free morning, or an hour or two.
 
Came home and called the parent of the child whose paperwork it was.  Received permission to forward paperwork to another professional.  Went to scan paperwork that I had picked up, and discovered the scanner on my printer wouldn’t work.  I have never used it before.  Looked up and tried to follow instructions on website, didn’t work.  Contacted HP support.  They explored and told me the driver hadn’t been installed properly in the first place. The support person was helpful, and proceeded to fix the problem, but there went more of the morning.  When call had finished, scanned documents, sent email.
 
I quickly checked emails and had responded to latest email from potential sub-contractor.  Organised information that needed to be dropped off to another allied health professional.
 
By then it was lunch time……

I am currently writing this whilst listening to a work related youtube video, as my first client for this afternoon cancelled. I have ten minutes before I need to go to work.  
 
I’ll try again Friday…..

ps all was not lost.  Wherever I am I can practice informal mindfulness.  For example, when waiting in the medical appointment I practiced mindfulness in the chair.  Grab it when you can....