How many times a day do your kids ask you, “How come [my sibling] can [do this/eat that/go there/stay here]?”

At any given moment, at least one kid is convinced that you love the other kid more. But as the mom, you know that love is not a pie that gets eaten. Love expands. At any given moment, you might have to worry about one kid more than the others, because that kid might need more support/encouragement/help/whatever… but that doesn’t mean that you love any of the other kids less.

Any mama who is pregnant with her second baby knows that fear: How can I possibly love another baby as much as I love the first one?

And then you have the second baby, and you learn that it is totally possible. Love expands. Always.

My daughters are fiercely independent creatures. My six-year-old is absolutely the dominant personality in our family. All summer long, I talked about her in these very emails. Even my baby girl, this child who is not yet even two years old, knows exactly what she wants — whether that’s food, toys, cats, and so much more — and goes after it without hesitation.

My son, on the other hand, may not be the child I talk about, but he is the child I think about. He’s the classic middle child, the sensitive soul, the child who needs an advocate.

Once in a while, I have to take all three children out — say to a dentist appointment, or worse, to Target to buy clothes. During the time it takes me to check in with the receptionist or wipe down the cart, Daphne and Audrey will have wandered off, made a new friend, invented a hashtag, and updated their Instagram stories.

Henry will be clutching my knees desperately, because perhaps today is the day I’ll decide, “Hey, I’m good with two kids. I can just dump this one.”

On the one hand, Henry runs on autopilot.

Left to his own devices, he would be content to sit and play on his own with Legos for hours on end, creating elaborate worlds and filling them with fanciful characters who go on epic adventures.

But when Henry is out there in the world, he needs extra help and support. This is a kid who learned to swim — at age 4 — in a single lesson. Once he was in the water, he was an absolute fish, blowing the bubbles, grabbing the rings from the bottom of the pool, leaving the safety of the shallow end.

Getting him into the water, however, required surgically removing him from my legs.

So, yes, this child fills a significant portion of my thoughts, while his sisters just do their own thing and occasionally remember to glance my way.

I suspect that as my children grow, there will be times when one of the girls needs more of my attention, that this is a shifting, changing process.

Clients are the same.

You may have a client who runs on autopilot, where you hardly have to think about anything, where the work is steady and consistent and easy. And you may have a client who requires more from you for a period of time.

Managing your business effectively requires you to recognize that a client going through a transition or a launch or a pivot — or simply a client who has a personal life that has taken over — may need more of you right now, but that doesn’t mean you give your other clients less.

And because your clients are not actually the same as your children, if you have one who is always needy and demanding, who always requires more of your time and attention, who always is in the middle of a crisis, you may need to take a step back and ask yourself, “Am I the right person for this client? Is this client the right person for me?”

To put it another way: You’re stuck with your kids, Mama. But you can fire clients if necessary.

If you have a client who goes through a rough patch and needs some extra support, that’s one thing. You can adjust expectations, be the hero, and win the client’s undying gratitude and loyalty.

But if you have a client who makes it impossible for you to take care of your family, who takes so much from you that you have nothing left to give anyone else, then it’s time to re-evaluate and re-prioritize, mama.

Manage your clients, manage your business. You can do this — and you can make it work for you.

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