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ADVICE RATING |
 4.81 (Highly recommend) from 15 votes (908 Visits) |
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Creative Parents: How To Stay True to Your Path While Raising Kids |
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by jenlemen  (January 2007) (rank 4th) |
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Parenting is a serious challenge for parents who are trying to stay true to their creative path. Here's a grab bag of ideas to keep you focused without compromising your commitment to the ones you love the most.
- Zen in the laundry. I have spent plenty of time resisting the mundane tasks of housewifery thinking that they were keeping me from my "real" work as an artist. That resistance to actual housework is still very strong in me, but when I do break down and start plowing through the mess, I find my best ideas emerge. There's something about the mindless, repetitive tasks of cleaning that clear your mind and help you sift through ideas for your next project.
- Steal away. Very early on in my parenting career, I realized that time alone, away from my children and husband, was essential for my artistic development. Not every woman is wired like this I'm sure, but in my case, I had a very hard time deeply relaxing as a mother of small children. I felt on-duty even when they slept. Too much time on high alert and I was too stressed out to think, let alone create. Thankfully, I'm married to someone who could see I was losing it, so little by little we built in time for me to get away. When my children were babies, I could only leave for an hour or two at a time, but eventually as my kids got older, we worked up to larger chunks--sometimes even 3 or 4 days away. Now as a mother of preschoolers, one weekend away can supply me with months of material for my creative work. Not everyone will be able to do this--some find it more stressful to leave than to stay--but for me, it's made all the difference in the world.
- Kids make for the best material. I could try to organize my creative life in harmony with my off-duty hours, but in my experience, it's not a practical solution. When I'm completely overwhelmed with my kid related responsibilities (read: 90% of my whole life!), often the best solution is to do whatever I can to completely surrender and sink into the experience. It has taken me years to learn how to do this, but now I know that being completely in the moment is another way I mine material for my next essay or painting. To this day, creative work related to my experiences with my children gets the strongest response from my readers.
- Stop the clock. I have caused myself (and my family) endless stress by being in a perpetual panic about when I'm going to get to my work. Because I don't have a guaranteed work schedule, it's easy for me to worry all the time--and nothing is more detrimental to my creative mojo than stress. I am learning to adjust my expectations about how much I can accomplish with the time that I have. It's a much better strategy to give myself permission to slow down and give myself time, then to impose artificial deadlines that are completely impossible to attain.
- Micro-projects. I would love to be spending the next two months 24/7 working on a two hundred page art book right now, but that is a completely unlikely goal--given my current status as primary caregiver to my children. Because I really like the sense of accomplishment I get from finishing something (and because I don't have the attention span for long projects), I focus on itty bitty projects instead. The first two weeks in January, I produced a 24 page full color zine. My family can handle it if I'm obsessed with one thing for that short amount of time, and I get the joy of finishing one more item for my portfolio. I imagine over time these little micro-projects will add up to quite a resume when I finally do have bigger chunks of time for bigger projects.
- Make a trade. I know from experience that the hours between school pickup and dinnertime are going to be non-stop action in the parenting department. Since there's no way I can get any work done during this time, I have an open door policy instead. Kids can come to our house most any day of the week, and I'll provide snack, homework supervision and drinks on demand. The moms on my street appreciate a much needed break, and I know they'll be plenty of people to call the next time I'm up against a big deadline. The kids love having friends over and I love knowing I have a strong network of support when it's time for me to clear out the house and focus on my work.
- Self-care mandatory. I know lots of artists who try to do it all--I've been one of them more often than I care to admit. Nothing leads to burnout faster, let me tell you. You'll do better on all fronts when you eat healthy, sleep longer and remember to get in the shower and wash that paint off your hands. I am constantly struggling on this poing, but I know that this is one of the secrets to success for artists. This summer I decided to focus on my general health, since having the kids home from school was sure to slow down my projects. In the end, it was a great decision. Just two months of healthy snacks and an active lifestyle increased my energy level and helped me return to my work in the fall at a hundred percent.
What helps you preserve your creative self while raising your kids? |
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| ADVICE RATING |
4.81 (Highly recommend) from 15 votes |
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 Related keywords: art, artists, creative, kids, management, parents, self-care, strategies, stress, time
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