I used to be an over-achiever. Now I’m a parent.
Do you ever feel you just can never do enough? This workbook will help
Stop chasing productivity hacks and know when you’ve done enough. And that you are enough.
Anyone else need that reminder sometimes? Join me and get off the productivity hamster wheel. Click on the image at left or on the blue button!
The trouble with Overpacking
The first time I moved overseas, I packed WAY too much.
It was heavy.
It was stressful—I was terrified they might search my bag at airport security. There was nothing illegal in there, there was just no way I would ever be able to close the zipper again!
It was unnecessary—I could have bought what I needed once I had landed. Yes, the sale price would have been higher, but I was unwittingly paying a price for carrying it all with me.
But we carry a whole lot of extra baggage into our parenting, too. Don’t we?
We want to be prepared and know all the answers. Even if we don’t need them yet.
Learning to Travel light
I flew to Toronto last weekend with just one carry-on and a small sling bag. Neither was overloaded. Security was a breeze. It was so… manageable.
I didn’t worry whether my bag would fit in the overhead bin. It did. No problem.
That’s the difference, isn’t it? When we overpack, we expend a lot of energy worrying about all the stuff we’re carrying.
What we’re unpacking
At Unpacking Parenting, I unpack
What we bring to our parenting as professionals and academics
Where our professional skills and knowledge can serve us well.
Where SMART goals and hourly agendas will fail us—and how we can make progress on our goals despite this.
Approaches to planning, productivity, and prioritizing that work with children and home life (and are different than we learned at school and work).
Some very practical tools from the experts for managing the daily stuff, like food and laundry, more food and meltdowns, …
“When we overpack, we expend a lot of energy worrying about all the stuff we are carrying. But we do that in our parenting too, don’t we?”
Hi! I’m Colleen.
I trained as an engineer and, not too many years later, found myself a stay-at-home mom in a foreign country. The transition was a little rocky at times.
Since then, our 5 children have learned to walk on 3 different continents. We did 6 international moves over a period of 11 years. There have also a been a few stints of solo-parenting, back in Canada, while my husband Jamie travelled for work.
I’ve gotten really good at transitions. And yet, that first one—from professional to mom—remains one of the toughest because it wasn’t just my routines and location that had changed. It got at my identity—who I was.
And so, I created Unpacking Parenting to help other moms like me. So your transition from professional life to parenting life (and back and forth between the two!) can be less rocky. So you can enjoy your parenting journey and your kids (more often! Because enjoying every moment isn’t a thing. Let’s just get clear on that from the get go.)
What we’re unpacking here
Unpacking Parenting is a place for unpacking some of the challenges and frustrations we face in parenting. As we articulate our own expectations and sort what matters most in this season, we can learn better approaches to
planning and productivity—productivity can be a useful tool, but it is never the actual goal of our parenting;
relating and enjoying our children—and, let’s face it, they (and we) are more fun when we are not embroiled in power struggles, always running late, or drowning in laundry and food prep, hence
systems, rhythms and routines—both over planning and under planning can cause us problems.
Here are a few of the things we’re unpacking:
When your days look different than you imagined
We carry a lot into our parenting. Strengths and insecurities. Notions about how our lives will look. How we’ll nail this parenting thing, collecting accolades and inspiring awe as we nurture our little brood. (Yeah, that’s not going to happen!)
We have dreams for ourselves and our family. And high (often, unrealistic) expectations.
We also bring in our past lives—our identities as professional, over-achieving, accomplishing-types. We feel good when we get things done. We feel valued when we are the expert. We like our coffee breaks.
Being home with young kids is fun and frustrating, magical and messy, and notoriously short on coffee breaks.
Purging isn’t only for closets because clothes aren’t the only thing we grow out of. Some of those dreams, roles, and expectations just don’t fit in this season of our lives.
When SMART goals let you down, then what?
We’ve always been the ones who have the answers, who are qualified, confident and competent. We’re beginners to this parenting gig so we miss doing things we were good at.
But this is a season where “success” isn’t measured in the sales numbers or production units. This is a long game and visible progress can be a long time coming.
When we struggle to complete tasks
We like getting things done. Checking off tasks on our to-do lists. When we can’t do that, we feel, well, a little useless.
We know investing in these little people is valuable and important work. It just doesn’t always feel that way.
We need a new approach to productivity and to-do lists—one that fits this season. One that helps us make progress on the things that matter most!
When you need strategies to side step draining power struggles
We want to do this thing right, we want to teach our children the right way. And often that morphs into a power struggle. We have resources to help with that, too.
Some of us read up and consult the experts so much that parenting starts to feel like a puzzle to solve or a code to break. Or worse, our kids—or their behaviours—become problems to fix. We need to remember that parenting is, first and always, a relationship.
When food prep is stealing your joy
We juggle so many responsibilities and demands. We need tools and systems to help keep all our people fed and get them where they need to be.
I’ve revamped routines, tried hourly schedules (with limited success), reorganized cupboards—all in the hope that these changes would make tomorrow simpler. Some changes have helped. Some have been a waste of time.
I share about meal prep strategies and systems that have and have not worked for us, so you can make better informed decisions. I share small changes I continue to make that are working in the kitchen and in our daily rhythms.
When you feel guilty taking time for yourself
Sometimes we need someone else to give us permission to take a break, read that novel, or just not finish the to-do list today. You’ll find that permission here, too. Because sometimes recharging is that best investment you can make.
“…I always save emails from Colleen to read later… because I am confident there is something valuable... I am never disappointed… Colleen has relatable struggles and provides helpful perspectives and manageable tips for life and parenting.”
—Courtney, mom of 4
“Surely I would feel better about myself if I could just get more done!”
If, like me, you have ever felt that way, this workbook is for you!
If you’re drawn to productivity hacks because they might help you feel less behind, more accomplished, more… productive? This is for you.
If you want to be intentional—you want to do the things that matter most over the long haul—but the daily demands of mom life tend to drain your time and energy. This is for you.