Hello everyone and welcome to the Your Village podcast, Parenting Beyond Discipline, the place to learn about all things parenting and get your questions answered. I'm your host, Erin Royer. Today I'm covering a couple of questions with somewhat new topics. The first is from a mom struggling with balancing her work with

parenthood and all that that entails. The second question is from a mom who suspects her child

may have some form of highly functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome and is wondering if the

tips I share in several areas are appropriate to use and whether or not they would even yield positive

results or backfire with a child who has autism or Asperger's syndrome. So our first question is from

Jessica. She says, hi, Erin. First off, thank you for your podcast. I stumbled upon it and I'm so

thankful I did. I wish I had your brain. Thank you, Jessica. I'll take that as a really

big compliment. Most of the time it works well. So thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge.

My question has to do with balance. I'm the mother of a now one year old. I'm also a first grade teacher.

This school year has been

especially tough on me because it is the first school year I am a mother and a teacher at the same

time. I have been struggling with finding balance in both of my roles, not to mention my other

roles of wife, homemaker, friend, etc. I feel overwhelmed and guilty that one or more important

things are not getting finished.

I often choose my family over my work priorities because my family comes first. But that means my

students oftentimes get an unprepared, boring teacher because I didn't have time to prepare a fun

lesson. It is hard with a job that has take homework because when my son goes to sleep, I try to

give my husband attention so that our relationship stays strong too. I just don't know how to balance

all my roles. As a working mother yourself, got any tips. So Jessica, I think balancing our

lives is one of the hardest things there is. when it comes to being a mom, a wife,

a friend, an athlete, and a parent, it's really hard to manage all of these things and keep these

balls in the air. We have so many responsibilities and duties to keep moving forward. So first,

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