Finding Time vs. Making Memories

🎣 Quick Catch

The best moments don’t happen when you find time — they happen when you make it, even in the middle of chaos. Efficiency fades, but the memories you choose to make last forever.

The other morning, as I was prepping dinner at 7 AM (yes, you read that right), Luca looked up at me with those big eyes and said "help" - wanting to join me at the counter.

My first thought? "I don't have time for this."

My second thought? "When did I become someone who doesn't ever have time?"

The chicken was half-seasoned, my coffee still untouched, and the clock was ticking toward our morning routine. But something made me pause. Maybe it was guilt, maybe wisdom, or maybe just that look that only toddlers can give - the one that makes you question everything you think you know about priorities.

So I pulled up his learning tower, and together we made the messiest, most inefficient, most wonderful dinner prep I've had in months.

Here's what nobody tells you about being a working mom: it's not the big decisions that break you. It's these tiny moments of choice - hundreds of them every day - where you have to decide between efficiency and presence, between getting things done and making memories.

Some days, I feel like I'm crushing it. Like this morning, when I managed to:

• Prep dinner before dawn

• Hit my workout

• Get Luca dressed

• Actually enjoy breakfast together

• Make it to my first meeting looking (somewhat) put together

Other days? Well, other days I'm that mom in yesterday's workout clothes, serving dinosaur nuggets for the third time this week, firing off emails while my kid watches Trash Truck on Netflix, again.

Both versions of me are real. Both versions of me are trying her best.

What I'm Learning About Time

You know what's funny? Before becoming a mom, I thought I knew about time management. I had my perfectly scheduled days, my productivity systems, my morning routine.

Motherhood laughed at all of that.

Instead, it's teaching me about a different kind of time management:

• How to be fully present for 5 minutes rather than half-present for an hour

• How to stack tasks without stacking guilt

• How to find pockets of joy in the chaos

• How to let go of the myth of "balance"

The Truth About Those Instagram Moms

You've seen them - the ones who seem to do it all. Perfect homes, thriving careers, healthy home-cooked meals, and kids who apparently never have meltdowns in Target.

But here's what I know now: behind every "perfect" working mom is:

• A messy house somewhere

• A pile of unfolded laundry

• A partner or support system

• Choices and sacrifices we don't see on social media

• Days where everything falls apart

A New Way of Measuring Success

I'm learning to measure my days differently now. Success isn't about checking everything off the list. Sometimes success looks like:

• Having a dance party in the kitchen instead of answering emails

• Letting your toddler "help" even when it takes three times longer

• Ordering takeout so you can spend that hour playing instead of cooking

• Being okay with good enough instead of perfect

A Final Thought

As I finished up that messy morning dinner prep, Luca beamed with pride at the completely uneven seasoning he'd helped sprinkle on the chicken. And you know what? It was the best meal I'd had in weeks - not because of how it tasted, but because of how it made us both feel.

If you’re a mom juggling it all; some days, you’ll crush it. Some days, you’ll feel crushed. But every day, you’re enough. The moments you make—messy, imperfect, and real—are the ones they’ll remember.

xoxo

Miss Swedish Fish