One thing that I seem to experience with my child is the battle of my career and spending time with him at his. My son is in 1st grade and typically they have all these school events that happen during the school day. At times I find myself feeling as though I am missing so much of his school life because of my schedule.

How do you explain to a seven year old that mommy has to work and is unable to attend the mid-day school event? He doesn’t understand I can’t take time off work for everything. He has to choose what he wants me to attend. Usually, I explain to my son that although I am very excited about his event but we have to work something out for me to attend something else on another day.

I emphasize the big events such as parents come to school day. I look for things like this and make it out to be huge and explain that mommy would not miss it. Another way I deal with the mishaps of my son asking why I can’t be more of a volunteer at his school is by using my job and explaining ways of how I am helping people. I tell him how I work for AIU Online University and how students rely on me so they continue with school.

I draw it back to him; he loves school so I explain things to him like how he would be sad if he couldn’t go see Ms. Becker (his teacher), my students need me to let them know if they can go back to school. It’s all about making your child apart of your career world.