The many hats of Sandra Tayler
The many hats of Sandra Tayler
I am a wife. I am a mother. I am a writer. I am the chief financial officer for a business. I run inventory and shipping. I am a cook. I am a housekeeper. I am a tutor. I am a cub scout den leader. I am a teacher. I am a chauffeur. I am a counselor/therapist (primarily to my kids, but sometimes to others.) I am a gardener. I am an editor. I am a reader. I am a friend. I am a daughter. I am a sister.
I’m going to stop there because that list is already and insane number of things for one person to be.
Occasionally I get asked how I manage it all. I think they are hoping that there is some grand secret that if they can just grasp, life will get easier. I wish there were. Mostly I stay sane by switching hats a lot. Occasionally I wear several hats at once, but then I have to walk funny to make sure that they all stay balanced. The important hats get worn every day. I make sure I block out sections of time to just wear the mommy hat. I also block out sections for the wife hat and the business hat. As much as possible I try to wear just one hat and focus on it. But frequently this means I’m switching hats back and forth over a matter of seconds. When I’m on my A game, I get really good at that. Some hats sit on the shelf gathering dust. A glance at my yard will show that I have not been wearing the gardener hat much this year. I keep looking at it gathering dust, but not taking the time to put it on.
It really helps when I have Howard standing next to me helping me switch out hats. He came home early today for that exact purpose. This was good cause I’m only just barely keeping stress-panic at bay. The stupid thing is that most of the stress is merely because I’m so stressed. All the pieces fit. It will all work out. If I could just believe that rather than worrying over stuff, this week would be fine. I just need to handle the task that is in front of me and deal with the rest when I get there.
How do you walk a long road? One step at a time. How do you fill a hundred roles? One hat at a time.