Falling short

Today's post follows on quite nicely from last week's. This morning my daughter's class was hosting assembly for the first time. She had a passage to read out and they had a song to sing and dance along to (I will save you the annoyance of getting it stick in your head because I am kind). It was one of those things that wasn't exactly exciting but was obviously important to her.

The thing was, today was also the day of the final practical exam for a class I'd been working with at uni. Assembly started at 9, uni at 945. So I had to catch the 925 bus to make it on time. She was reading 8th, so I figured I should be able to at least see that bit.

Turns out I forgot how long and drawn out (and boring) school assemblies are. I had to leave without seeing any of her parts and I felt a bit sad about it.

Now I am pretty lucky as far as work goes, I hardly ever have to miss out on stuff. Even if it's infrequent it still doesn't feel great. But I need to get over it.

Because the reality is, even though some people tell you it's possible to have it all in perfect balance if you work hard enough, a lot of the time you just can't. You have to make a choice one way or the other which may mean fallng short in the other.

It's ok to fall short every now and then. It's part of being human. Kids understand that, I don't think there's a need to fake it. I think the more honest we are about the struggles we face, the stronger they will be. They're the only critic that counts in this domain, afterall.