A Fine Parent

A Life Skills Blog Exclusively For Parents

About Cortney Kilby

Cortney Kilby owns Kilby Reporting, Inc., a freelance court reporting agency serving Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois. She and her husband Brian were married in June 2003, and have a 7-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son, both with flaming red hair and personalities to match.
When not running from deposition to deposition and/or editing transcripts -- or going from dance class to soccer/basketball/t-ball to Girl Scouts -- or saving her son from eminent death via jungle gym/eating spare change/running headlong into the street/being accidentally impaled by his sister who seems to operate without regard for the existence of other physical objects or lifeforms -- Cortney enjoys sleeping (because: Narcolepsy), using the bathroom alone and starting 10 craft projects at once, none of which will ever be completed. Cortney is known for having funky hair colors, and has what others have described as "an unhealthy obsession with day planners and office supplies in general."

Myth of Multitasking: How to Stop and What to Do Instead

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(This article is part of the Mindful Parenting series. Get free article updates here.)

Myth of Multitasking - Main ImageDoesn’t it sometimes feel like it’s impossible to be a parent and not multitask?

As the mother of two very active children, aged 7 and 3, multitasking is not only a necessary evil, but crucial to me. When you add in the fact that I opened my own one-woman court reporting firm in July 2015, plus I have a host of health issues, things become much more difficult.

My husband is not only understanding, but does more than the average bear around our home. That doesn’t change the fact that, as Mom (Momma, MOMMYYYYYYYYY!!!!, MOTHER!), I do 90% of the listening-to-every-sound-and-analyzing-it-for-potential-likelihood-to-cause-death-or-dismemberment / organizing of activities & rides to and from activities / generalized and often unnecessary worrying around here.

And since I work from home, I also do a great deal of the housework.

All of this obviously requires a heck of a lot of multitasking.

I need to be able to change a diaper while I listen to my older child’s long – and I mean, like, I’m-not-gonna-be-able-to-attend-your-4th-of-July-party-because-I’ll-still-be-listening-to-this-story-my-7-year-old-is-telling-me long – story about some kid I’ve never heard of who pushed down some other kid I’ve never heard of, the story ending with, “And then my hand started to hurt,” which has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with anything she previously said, and I have to be able to convincingly feign understanding while avoiding being peed on by the diaperless one.

And I know I’m not alone.

In a lot of parenting situations, multitasking is completely unavoidable.  [Read more…]