No, I did’nt win the mega millions powerball lottery I was hoping to, but my son Marcus won the lottery to attend the elementary school across the street from our house. This is school is highly rated in the District, and due to many homes and children in our area, the school is very popular. The developer did not anticipate the number of children in the community so insufficient amount of space was allocated to the school to meet the demands of the community. As a result, there is more applicants than available spaces for incoming kindergarten each year, and a lottery system has to be used. Most years, there is far more applicants than available spaces, but as luck would have it, this year the numbers were not so bad. There were 71 applicants for 60 available spots. Actually, it is 35 applicants for 24 spots. 36 spot are automatically given to siblings of students already attending the school.
It is an answered prayer for me because it means that I can walk my son to school, and that he will be attending a good public school. I had been living in the community even before there was a school built, and assumed that when I have kids, that they would be able to attend this school. However, with the overcrowded situation, and the lottery system that was not a guarantee. In fact, the odds seem to be against it happening, so it is a relief, and a surprise that Marcus is able to attend this school.
I share this good news with you not to talk about the problems of the public schools, but to illustrate a point of having the proper attitude and focus in the business world. Since I started working at home, I have had the opportunity to take my son to his preschool each morning, and pick him up. The parents of the other preschoolers are all Moms, so I have the opportunity to interact with the other Moms in my son’s class. That is something most Dads don’t get a chance to do, so I am grateful for this chance. In my interactions with other Moms, the hot topic lately has been which kindergarten would their children attend in the fall. The usual debate between public and private schools, and whether to hold their child back a year or not. I have never heard of so many parents holding their children back for non academic reasons. That just was’nt done when I was young, and I think its kind of silly, but I digress.
There are other Moms in our neighborhood in a similar situation, of possibly losing out in the lottery and having to attend another elementary school. The interesting thing is the reaction of some of these Moms. They are absolutely “freaked out” at the possibility that their child may not attend the elementary school of their choice. They rant and rave at the inequities of the system, how they have been paying taxes in this area for so many years, and how their child’s future may be hurt if they don’t attend this school. On and on they complain, and rant. To me it seems like a waste of energy and unnecessary stress.
Now, I am also concerned about my children’s education and future as all parents are. However, my attitude and approach to this concern follows several principles I also apply to my business dealings. Most stay at home Moms have been out of the workforce for awhile, and tend to get emotional rather rational when it comes to their children, but I think they can apply some of these business principles to managing the household. I would apply these 2 principles to this situation:
- Control what you can-Don’t worry about you can’t: This just means don’t worry about things you cannot directly control. Worry only causes stress which leads to poor health and grey hairs. Find out what the root cause of the problem is, and see if anything you can do about it. In this case, the root cause of overcrowding at the elementary school is poor planning by the developers, many years ago. What can you do about it now? Nothing, so the best course of action is not to worry or rant or complain about the situation. What is the best course of action?
- Make Alternate Plans: Any good coach will not only have a good game plan, but also an ability to adapt the game plan to changing conditions during the game plan. If plan A is not working, go to plan B, and if necessary plan C. Give yourself as many options as possible, instead of complaining that plan A is not happening. If our son did’nt get into the school of our first choice, we were prepared to evaluate the other elementary schools, as well as private schools. I don’t know what we would have done, but there were acceptable alternatives, and we were ready to move on. That is positive action rather than worrying about circumstances you cannot control.
As a business owner working from home, my time is stretched by many demands, from family to running my business. There are not enough hours a day to satisfy all my competing obligations. So, it is more important than ever for me to make the most of my time, and not waste any of it. Wasting time and energy by worrying over things you cannot control is not not a produtive use of one’s time. I am seeing first hand that being a full time Mom or Dad is difficult and time consuming, and it is most likely the most difficult job, and important job anyone will ever have. It is no different than other jobs in that there are a lot of people demanding your time with projects and deadlines. Unlike the workforce, being a full time parent meansalways being on call. I have had the chance to see my business world and home life blend, not always successfully, but I can see where some business principles and attitudes used in the corporate world can be applied to the business of raising kids.
