Who has the time?! ... and other realities of Working Motherhood

It has clearly been far too long since I've been able to work AND get my kids where they need to go AND take care of said kids AND blog AND go to school. Just like any other mama, I struggle with the day to day responsibilities of family, work, home, activities, and maintaining my own sanity!

I am now the mama of an official preschooler. My little boy is too quickly becoming a little man! But wow, with the age of 4 comes a whole new set of issues; the 'why' finally dwindles, the tantrums get fewer and further between, and the ability to 'wait' increases by about 1 second. Now, I have found, comes the corrections, the specifications, and the absolute inability to focus for more than a half a second! o.m.g!

What I already find myself regretting, is my inability to properly function as a 'working mother' (who ISN'T a working mother, right?). My days off are spent catching up on cleaning, laundry, and attempting to spend time with kids. Baby A, inevitably, takes the majority of my time. My little koala.

My little Spiderman is a bit more self sufficient, but nonetheless wants to constantly barrade me with questions, watch an endless array of movies, play with action figures (which of course requires my presence lol), color, and create various 'projects' that do little except make a mess of my house.

On top of all of this of course, my husband and I share the responsibility of getting our teenager where she needs to go (usually in her original home town, which is about 40 minutes from where we currently live), and make minimal attempts at making sure our dog is still alive at the end of the day lol! And lastly, I am back in school- so there is homework. Ahhh, how I have missed homework (yes, I am a total dork).  Albeit it's certainly not as easy as it used to be- 3 kids, husband working typically 7 days a week, so no sitter, trying to read/write between naps, while trying to clean house, and spend quality time with the kids. Wowww...

So how do YOU make sure the potentially little time you spend with your kids is full of quality? And do you really think quality is better than quantity when it comes to spending time with your kids?

I am not so sure.

I had a little over six months as a SAHM after Baby A was born. Near the end of that, I was SO happy to go back to work. I wanted a life again. I wanted to be ME again, and not just 'baby A's mommy' or 'spidermans mommy'.  So now I've been ME again for about  nine months- and I'm not sure my kids are benefiting.

It's stressful trying to get everyone where they need to be, being on time (which to be honest, I never am), still not benefiting financially, and then feeling like I have NO time to actually spend with my kids- as in, spend WITH them... in the moment.  The quantity of in the moment parenting time can be what kids need most.

What are your thoughts?