5 y.o. C. really puts things in perspective. He’s been doing alot of processing about “last day of school” as he finished naíonra (totally was not me crying behind my sunglasses picking him that day)
As I left for work, he prepared for a day of leisure: “No school”. He asked me then “When is last day of work?”
When indeed?
When I paused he continued: “Is it when you die?”
Ok, well… intense but entirely valid way to put work-life balance into perspective.
Life needs to be more than work then die.
Work-life balance is so important because life shouldn’t wait – can’t wait – until your last day of work.
Lack of work-life balance isn’t just a philosophical problem. Lack of a boundary between work and the rest of your life can cause real physical and mental health problems, and from the inside, solutions to this can often seem overwhelming. This is one of the downsides of working from home. In no way is this advocating that people return to the office if unnecessary, but quite the opposite: that they approach the arrangement conscientiously, structuring work from home so that “work” is separate from “home.” (for some of my real life patients, this is sounding familiar because we regularly cover it)
(In case you were starting to hear strains of “Cat in the Cradle”, don’t worry. C. and I have all day off tomorrow together. And this weekend. It certainly wasn’t always this way. Like many docs, work-life balance was not a thing for me before my boys!)
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