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Change Management

Specter of Change Haunts Again

April 3, 2018 by Elizabeth Drake

Change is not something humans tend to love. I mean, Harvard can’t be wrong.

But more seriously, change is difficult. Change is stressful. There’s a reason why some of the most traumatic things in life involve change: death, new job, relocation, etc.

Change.png
Every mom’s life.

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you know I have two small children. For those who are new (hi! glad to see you!), I have two small children and a demanding day job.

For better or worse, I am the primary income in our house, and after trying being a stay-at-home dad during his paternity leave, my husband was so ready to go back to work. That meant we had to find quality childcare.

It’s insanely expensive (basically another mortgage payment per child you have in daycare), but we figured there is little more important to us than our kids, even our retirement, so we grumble and pay it. Yes, it’s meant having a smaller house and older cars, but it really didn’t feel like a choice.

We searched, found a really good daycare center, and our oldest child thrived there. She taught herself to read before she started 4K. She loved the other kids and the socialization. She loved showing off her skills and the praise it earned her. It made her work even harder. It was the perfect place for her.

But, the center had some turnover. Some of the teachers we loved have gone on to do other things. Our second child is not nearly as outgoing or self-motivated as her sister. Unless you give her a nudge, she’s happy playing by herself. She sort of cares if you’re happy with her, but she is much more concerned with pleasing herself.

Daycare
I am waiting for the day.

Yes, the teenage years for both are going to be quite the challenge for us!

Thing is, my youngest wasn’t getting the nudge she needed (okay, full on shove sometimes).

I started doing a little bit of research back at Christmas to find a new center, but then some other things came up concerning her. While everything turned out okay, it convinced me this was not the right place for her.

I discussed what was happening this with a couple of people who have a master’s degrees in teaching, and they all made me feel much better about my decision to change day care centers. Still, it’s a big decision, even if I think it’s the right one.

Now, for the huge undertaking to find a place that will be a better fit for our little one!

How about you? Ever have to make a decision like this? Or something similar? How did you know you needed a change? How did you go about deciding how to make that change?

Filed Under: Change, Uncategorized Tagged With: change, Change Management, children, daycare, Kids, Learning, Stress

Why Change Sucks

November 29, 2017 by Elizabeth Drake

Change sucks. We all know it. It’s why there are entire books , seminars, and courses in change management.

change1

Humans are resistant to change, and there are reasons why. I won’t go into the historical reasons why, but here in the modern day, we like knowing what to do. We like being right. We like figuring things out once and them going smoothly.

We don’t look discord. We don’t like screwing up. We don’t like failure. All of those things are significantly easier to do when you’re making changes.

My family has been going through a lot of change lately.

  • My husband started a new job last December, and it wasn’t a choice. They were re-organizing, his position was eliminated, but he fortunately was able to find a similar position in a different part of the company. Still, it’s a lot of change.
    • New bosses who aren’t as good at communicating (I keep trying to tell him that’s the norm, but he’s still skeptical).
    • A different set of expectations.
    • A lot of other new people in his new group
    • A series of people out on FMLA have made the transition even harder. Hopefully, in the next few months, things will calm down and he can learn what his new job really is.

change2

  • My daughter started kindergarten. You’d think that would be no big deal, but I have found the difference between private daycare and public kindergarten striking. Communication is much different.
    • At daycare, I had a daily two minute informal conversation with the teachers and always knew what was going on.
    • Now, I’m not even allowed near the classroom for security issues. I get it, but it’s still hard.
    • Things like billing, which was previously direct-pulled from my bank account, isn’t possible in public schools. I have to remember to get cash for some things AND remember to go to their online portal for a slew of others. There are no low balance messages to let me know I need to replenish my daughter’s lunch money.

 

Yeah, we’re figuring it out, but it’s still a change. A big one.

stressed

I’m also still dealing with some medical issues, and that’s never any fun.

Balancing all of this and writing has been hard. Very hard. But I refuse to give up this time. I have put off writing so many times in my life to focus on things like my career, grad school, and kids that I’m now mammogram age. I don’t have time to put it off any longer. So yeah, that’s a change, too.

Never-Give-Up

And I can tell you, during grad school, I read my fair share of change management books. I even dusted off a few lately, but they’re about as useful to me now as they were then.

 

Do you have any tips and pointers? Any way that you’ve successfully dealt with change? Or did you just soldier through it?

 

Filed Under: Change, Goals, Uncategorized Tagged With: Balance, change, Change Management, daycare, Kindergarten, Never Give Up, New Job, Stressed, Writing

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