Please tell me that I’m not the only one who has felt overwhelmed while attempting to balance the homeschool blogger life? If you have never felt overwhelmed, then I desperately need to know your secret! If you’re like me in your struggle to keep things “balanced,” here are a few tips…
Don’t try to do it all!
There are many things pulling for our attention as homeschool bloggers:
- Kids
- Spouse
- Home maintenance
- Extended family
- Homeschool curriculum
- Extracurricular activities
- Blog/business
- Friends
- Community service
- Etc.
If we try to do it all, we quickly find ourselves drowning. And as I recently heard, it doesn’t matter how deep you’re under the water – one inch or ten feet – you’re still drowning!
Figure out what is most important to you, and focus on doing it well. Allow yourself grace when you have to let something go (even if it’s only for a short season) or when you need to seek help… don’t try to do it all!
Remember that life is lived in seasons
Just as the weather changes with each season, so our lives change with each season. No two seasons are identical (though we can often identify similarities between seasons and use those to help us determine what our current season might bring), so we need to be constantly evaluating what our current season allows us to take on. Some seasons may be blog-heavy while others may need to have more focus on homeschooling or other responsibilities.
For example: I am currently in a transitional season. Our family is living in the midst of the “unknown” as we are in the middle of a major move. Our homeschool routine is “out of whack” because of our current season, and I have had to take a step back in the blogging/business realm. Part of this current season has resulted in my inability to be online during the morning/afternoon, so my work and social media routine has had to change. When our family life gets back to “normal” (a new normal from what it has been in the past), my season of life will once again change, and I will need to find a new balance.
By remembering that life is lived in seasons, I can find a good balance between homeschool and blogging and all of my other responsibilities by evaluating what that particular season holds.
Don’t play the comparison game
I recently saw one blogger ask the question, “How do you do it all?” to a group of homeschool bloggers. My easy answer? I don’t!
Remember that what you see on another blogger’s site is the “polished” version of her life, not the reality check that is her everyday life. We all have filters for sharing details about our lives with our readers, and many of us choose to share only what is “cleaned up.”
For example: I often share printables on my blog that were inspired by my kids. What you don’t see is that I rarely, if ever, actually print my own printables out for my kids to use. OR, if I do print them out, my kids might use them one time. In theory, I would love to make the printables I spent time to create in my own home, but it just doesn’t happen that way. BUT, my readers don’t necessarily need to know that – they just need to know that the printables are available and how to best utilize the printables in their own homes.
All that to say, don’t compare what your life really looks like to the “cleaned up” version of another homeschool blogger you see online. What you see is probably not the whole picture.
What tips do you have for staying sane and keeping life in “balance” as a homeschool blogger?
This post was originally written for Homeschool Blogging in 2013. It was updated, edited, and re-published in 2018 by Heather Bowen, HomeschoolBlogging.com owner.
