Life of A Writer

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Good evening, friends! First, I want to admit that I did not create or print a single invitation to my daughter's graduation party last night. But wait; don't start judging me yet. Instead of creating invitations, I decided to do the invitations over the phone. One, it will be more a more personal invite. And two, we could use more trees. ;) Okay, I'll also confess that a couple of those invites may also be done via e-mail rather than phone. However, I have a reason for that too. A couple of my family members travel as a part of their job, and because they travel, it's much easier to reach them through e-mail than any other way.

Okay, back to what I originally intended to blog about this evening. While reading an article in an e-zine I'm subscribed to, I agreed with most of what the writer said. However, there was one thing she said that I had to disagree with, and that one thing had to do with kids. I won't mention the writer or the name of the e-zine, because I don't want any hard feelings. Besides, the e-zine does contain some very interesting information at times, but just this once I had a difference of opinion. Most of the rest of her article was great advice, and many writers may also believe the part I disagree with is also great advice, but hey, we're all entitled to our own opinions, right? In her article, she was giving tips on increasing productivity, and one of tips suggested that… basically, we should forget about the kids. Maybe I'm the only "writer mom" in this world that believes my children will ALWAYS come before my writing or anything else, but I can't help it. It may be the way I was raised -- that family and your children come first -- but I can't help how I believe. I have always put my children first. I will stop anything I'm doing if one of my kids needs me. Everybody has a pet peeve, and one of mine is that I can't stand to see parents push their children aside in order to work. I've seen it done many times on "Wife Swap," and in several movies. In my opinion though, business can wait. The business, work or etc. will always be there, but my children may not. I can't count how many times I've stopped writing to nurture a skinned knee from a bike wreck, or to just listen to one of my kids tell me what's making them so sad.

Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm not criticizing your mothering skills, nor am I saying that you're a bad mother if you forget the kids for a little while to write, because I understand the reason we do our job is for the income so we can take care of them, feed them and put a roof over their head. This is just something I believe in, and I guess I felt I had to put my two cents in. No matter how you choose to juggle your family and write, please know this: You ARE a great parent no matter what, and you're great because I'm sure you have set aside time for your kids as well. Just think about what I said the next time you're writing and one of your kids comes to you with a problem: "The work will always be there, but your children may not."

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Posted by Misti Sandefur, Christian author/freelance writer at 11:26 PM