What are you prioritizing? (In my MOM ERA)

If you ever want to know what you really prioritize in life these days, examine how you are spending your time and where your mind wanders.

An easy way to find an answer is to look at your Google search history:
what have you searched for recently?

Did you Google flight prices to a certain city, as you’re planning for (or dreaming of) an international trip soon? This may mean you are prioritizing making memories. Or prioritizing leisure time or opportunities to unwind. Or, maybe it’s something deeper — like you just want something to look forward to and not deal with your current realities in life. Deep.

Or have you been searching online as to why your breastmilk supply can suddenly drop even though you’ve been trying to eat as much protein, stay hydrated and, on top of that, eat oatmeal cookies — because oats are good for you, of course! 

Going through your web history is a telltale way of knowing what consumes your mind, what you prioritize, and generally what you like spending your time, and possibly money, on. 

You can disregard the more random searches as one-offs — like if you googled GameStop to see why the “meme stock” is going up in share prices again. You’re just curious. And then you learn that the video game retailer makes more money selling stock than video games.

Baby alert!

This little one getting ready for her first swim day at 7 months old!

For me? My Google search history has a lot of baby-related, first-time mom-related content. Yes, that breastmilk supply query is mine and no, I never found a satisfying answer to my question (I’m concluding that I was just overly tired). I have also frequented many new retailers I’ve never been to before (ie. Baby Gap, Pehr, etc.) to browse and shop for baby things. Besides the baby content, my Internet searches included ideas for birthday parties, as I wanted to throw a special bonanza for my husband’s milestone birthday— his first as a father! (Spoiler alert: it a life-size cutout, tacos and beach balls).

Since giving birth in November, I feel like I have mostly been in my “new Mom” bubble— my usual interest in world news and current events has taken the backseat to my new (slightly obsessive) interests with my baby. I am not leaving the house as often to go on production shoots or in-person meetings, because my biggest production set right now is at home and my most important in-person meetings are with my child. I don’t even charge overtime for 12+ hour days.

The beauty of my current situation of taking care of an infant who needs your constant attention— is that I am more ruthless with my time and in prioritizing things that really matter. I’ve got a set number of ‘free’ hours (when the baby naps and goes down at night) where I can do whatever I please—go shop for cute little dresses at Baby Gap and work on my creative projects. Oh, and eat, too.

I don’t mind my new set of priorities, and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on the rest of the world. The rest of the world can wait and will continue to play out whether I am paying attention or not. I can always catch up with it when I want to. But this current phase of my life, of caring for my baby, will soon pass, and there’s no catching up that can be done.