“Time management conscious control over the amount of time spent on activities within a specific amount of time. It is also the development of processes and tools that increases business’ time-efficiency. I think it is not only about organizing time, it is also about how to spend time.”

Dinah’s Mother:

“I think it is very important because without time management, everthing will go wrong.”

Samyuktha’s Mother:

“Time management is crucial in life as it helps us to keep track of the things we’re doing within a certain amount of time”.

Nicole’s Mother:

“It is fullfilling my tasks by managing my time well.”

Phoon Li Wern

Samyuktha  

She usually works until 7pm and when she comes back she gobbles down her dinner and does housework like hanging the clothes and washing dishes.

After that, she STILL has time to spend with my sister and I. She has been doing this ever since i was born and seems to be coping well.

My mother works because she is the sole breadwinner of the family. Moreover, she has to wake up early to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner. But she can still find time to laugh a little with me, be my ‘aunt agony’ and stuff like that.

Therefore, i think working mothers can juggle work and family. 

Nicole Chan

My mother is not a housewife. She is a personal assistant. She works in a designing company.

She is the sole breadwinner of the family. She usually ends her work at around 6 in the evening. However she only reaches home at maybe 8, 9 or 10.

 You may think that I usually don’t spend much time with my Mother because she reaches home late. However, you are wrong. I am very close to my Mother. Despite her tight schedules, we even chat on MSN, go jogging together (if she comes home very early). 

During the weekends we even go out together. I even share everything with my Mother. She is like my friend too. My Mother thinks that it is a very important thing to spend time with her kids. No matter how busy, we will always be able to communicate each other. This leads to better relationship between Mother and child.

My Mother is coping well with her life, including her career and everything.

Therefore, I believe that working mothers are able to juggle family as well as workload.

Clarice Ho

My mum is not a housewife, she is a teacher and also the sole breadwiner in our family.

 As a teacher she has to stay in school for long hours so i only meet her during the weekends.

 During the weekends she will help me with my homework or we will go shopping with me and my sister.

Sometimes if there is a new movie we will watch it together. when we go shopping, my mum will usually ask my opinion and that is how i get close to my mother. 

I really treasure these times i had with her. Therefore, i believe that working mothers can juggle their career at the same time spend time with their family.

Dinah Seng

-Mothers feel lonely, isolated and unwell most of the times due to the demanding pressure given by the family

- usually feels stressed and depressed because:

1) of lack of time for partner and hence does not feel as close anymore.

2) Not being able to fulfill the criteria of being the perfect mum in their children’s eyes.

3) Not able to juggle children, husband, work, in-laws and life especially without any help.

4) Not able to concentrate fully on what she is doing because of the constant worry over her kids.

- percentage of whom mothers turn to when they need help

      Friend 62%

      Husband/partner 61%

      Family 43%

       Doctor 26%

      Internet message board 19%

       Health visitor 14%

I’ve often sat and wondered what makes a great mom.

You hear and see so many stories of not so great moms in the news on a daily basis and everyone talks about them, wondering what went wrong. But those moms are few and far between. There are so many wonderful mothers out there but you don’t hear everyone talking about them. The great mothers of the world don’t get the kudos they desperately deserve.

 Good moms come in all shapes, colours, races, religions, sexual orientation, and social backgrounds.

Some choose to have their children while they are young and full of energy, while others wait a few years.

Some moms choose to work, some work because they have to and others make the decision to be stay at home moms. So who is the “Super Mom?”

Each and every one of them!

A great mother learns very quickly that she must be self-less without losing herself.

She makes sacrifices every day.

She worries about every choice she makes and knows she is shaping a young mind. She is a Confucian in thinking. She nurtures her child in a suitable environment and cultivates good qualities in her child. She is always there for her child whenever mandatory. She never deters her child and always gives her every ounce of support that she can muster to make her child’s dream come true.

That is the defining moment of a great mom!

Therefore I would like to conclude by saying that every mum is indeed a great mom.

Dinah seng C Samyuktha

Working Mother Magazine recently conducted a survey and found that one of the cons of a working mom is being faced with the choice of missing work and staying home with a sick child, or sending the ill child to school or daycare.

The survey reports that one in three mothers have sent their sick child to childcare or school. Until that paid sick leave law (or one like it) passes, choosing between caring for a sick child or going to work will continue to be a one of the cons of a working mom.

Of the working moms surveyed by Working Mother Magazine, 70% felt guilty for sending their child to school or daycare while ill, 48.5% felt stressed and 31.2% felt frustrated. Almost 65% of the moms said that when one family member gets sick, other family members are likely to follow.

Working means spending less time with their child, and sometimes missing special moments or milestones, like the first steps.

To have as much time as possible with her children, an employed mother typically sleeps about five or six hours a week less than a stay-at-home mom.

Nicole Chan

For years, the conventional wisdom for working mothers has been, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” In other words, you can be there for your children, or you can advance in your career, but not both.
Balance is really a personal idea; mothers each have their own definitions, and in order to achieve balance they must figure out what theirs is and then strive for it. What they’ve found, though, is that they all expect too much.

Mothers all expect to be able to spend one hundred percent of time with their children when they are home and one hundred percent of time on work when it is job time.

This is, of course, unrealistic, which is why they believe they are always beating themselves up (and finding themselves totally spent at the end of the day).

Working mothers are challenged with juggling many different roles that they take on in their lives. Without life balance, there are feelings of being overwhelmed, lack of time, increase stress, and general dissatisfactions in their lives.

As the imbalance increases, working mothers get very close to “burn out” as frustration levels climb.

Fortunately, the prevailing winds are beginning to change, and women are finding they can balance work and family.

Samyuktha and Clarice