4 Replies
I have been a stay-at-home/work-at-home mom for four years. Life has been difficult but I do managed to survive it. I set a scheduled in almost everything that I do. Here's a rough sample of my daily routine: 6am - wake up, set the laundry, (we use automatic washing machine so I just leave it there and it will do the work), help our eldest son prep for school 6:50-8am - drive him to school then get back to the house 8-9:30 - prepare our daughter for day care and drive her to school then go home or go straight to the market or grocery. 10-11:15 - get the laundry, and do other planned house chores. Prep for lunch. OR buy what we need at the market/grocery. 11:30 - fetch my daughter 12-1pm - eat lunch, wash the dishes 1-2:30 - do house chores again 2:30-3:30 - fetch son 3:30-6 - house chores again or part time work and prep for dinner 6-7 - dinner 7-11 - bond with kids and husband or do more part-time work Just put a schedule to everything that you need to do. Eventually you will get the hold of it and everything will be a routine. Very tiring - yes! But it's all worth it because you do it for your family. :-)
Here is roughly my schedule for the day. I will wake up to feed baby then change him and my elder boy to bring him to school. Then I will go to the market if needed to for groceries shopping. Then I will head home and start cooking lunch for baby. Bring baby for nap. While he naps, I will sweep and mop the floor etc. He will wake up for his lunch and played. At times I get to do some simple chores if he is not extremely fussy. He will go for one more nap and I will do my things and prepare for dinner. When he wakes up from his nap, I will fetch my elder boy from school. Husband will come home then I will start cooking dinner and he will play with the kids while I cook. Eat dinner and wash up then we will spend time watching tv together before going to the room and make the kids sleep and we will talk about our day either in the room or living room over a cup of tea. Actually if you can plan your time right, you will have lots of time to yourself. I can bring baby out for shopping at times and still get work done.
I am a stay at home mom with no helper and hubby goes to work, i am able to do all the chores and even go out with the baby. My solution, babywearing! Not only does this allow mo to move about, but if you are a breastfeeding mommy you can even let baby latch while doing something. There are also multiple benefits to this aside from being handsfree, it is shown in studies that babyworn babies cry less at night time by 54% and reduces overall crying by 43%. They also tend to grow more confident toddlers. It also helps mothers fight post partum depression.
Hi Kaye! I set plans ahead the night before and prepare pre-cooked meals. During school days, I make sure to prepare everything the night before. Uniform, shoes, bags, lunch boxes. I keep in mind what to prepare for their lunch & snacks. When they leave the house, I make sure to maximize the time for cleaning and laundry. So when they arrived home, I can focus on them for homeworks. The key is time management. It's a tough job and very tiring. But soon if you get used to planning and organizing your schedules, you will get used to it. :)