Tips for Working Moms
Today we are sharing tips and tricks we’ve received from local moms who we think have a knack for balancing work and home life. These tips for working moms are great for all situations – those who work outside the home, those who work a separate job at home, and even those who stay home to care for their kids full-time. We all need a few extra hours in our day and below are great ideas on how to make that happen.
Tips for Working Moms
April B –
1. Keep a regular date with your husband. This could be dinner out or even a lunch together during the week once in a while. It’s important to spend that time together as adults, not just as “mommy and daddy”.
2. You need to take good care of yourself so that you are equipped to take care of others. Get plenty of rest, eat well and make time to exercise. It’s difficult to get a good night’s sleep sometimes, especially with an infant, but the benefits of getting enough rest cannot be overrated. I try to pack my lunch and bring it to work. It not only saves a significant amount of money, but also helps me to maintain a healthier diet than I would if I was set free downtown to eat whatever I wanted every day! I exercise not only for mental and physical health but also to set a good example for my son.
3. Have fun! When at home, put down the computer mouse and use those hands to push a Fisher Price bubble-blowing mower or a tricycle!
Julee N –
1. Get to know the other mothers at work. There’s no better support group. I don’t think I could have made it through the last almost four years without other moms to listen when I’m stressed about sick kids or to give advice when I’m facing a new challenge.
2. Use your paid time off. Back before I had kids, I never used all the time I had available to me. Now I use my vacation, sick, and child education time offered by my company. Unfortunately, I usually have to use the sick time when someone is actually sick. But, I take vacation and child education leave to get more time with my kids or to get caught up on other personal obligations.
3. Put everything on the calendar. I have found that I can’t rely on my memory for anything anymore! I put all my personal appointments, birthdays, parties, and kid’s activities, along with my work meetings and tasks in my Outlook calendar at work. (Unfortunately this doesn’t work so well when you put the appointment on the wrong day, which I did recently.)
4. Plan meals ahead, make them ahead when possible, and learn to love leftovers. We plan meals for the week when we shop, and either cook meals for the week on Sundays or cook quick meals that make enough for leftovers. Fortunately, my husband enjoys cooking, so he usually cooks dinner while I take care of the kids when we first get home.
5. Let the non-essentials go and focus on spending time with your kids. There are so many things that I want to do that I never get done, but given that I’m away from my boys for nine hours a day, I make sure that the focus is on them when we’re together. Someday my house will be cleaner, someday I’ll plant the flowers I want to plant, and someday I’ll get organized again… But I know that when that day comes, I’ll be missing these sweet, wild, adorable little guys who keep me so busy and wear me out so much!
Megan B –
“Goodness knows I am learning each day through trial and error how to make this work. The CEO of Pepsi was once quoted (I’ll paraphrase here) that the balance between work and home is more of a rhythm. You can never be the best at work and the best at home at the same moment in time. However, you can give your best to work when you are there and then your best to your family when at home. Her thoughts about this rhythm rather than a giant balancing act have really helped me strive to give my best at what I am doing in that moment. It helps to put things into a bite size reality rather than an impossible task.”
Kristie T–
The #1 rule I follow – don’t sweat the small stuff! Do I wish my house was cleaner? Yes! A lot has changed for me since I had kids. I used to try to get the house sparkling clean even if someone was just going to drop something by. Now, I have resigned myself to the fact that our house cannot be ‘clean’ all of the time. It is just not that important in the grand scheme of things. It does make me feel much better when I take about 10 minutes to de-clutter before I leave the house or after the kids go to bed.
Online grocery shopping – if you have a lunch hour and a computer…you can get your grocery shopping done in about 10 minutes. Even if you can’t do this on your lunch hour, you can get online after the kids go to bed and schedule your pickup for the next day.
Plan ahead – I try to get everything ready for the next morning before I go to bed. I line up the back packs, write checks for various school items/functions, sign papers, etc. so that if something unexpected happens the next morning at least everything is ready to go.
Online bill-pay or automatic withdrawal – I have almost every bill that we need to pay set-up online. All of our statements are sent to us electronically so we have less mail to open up and keep track of every month. I have an Excel sheet that I fill out for each bill as I receive the statement via email. It is so convenient and saves time!
Paige B –
1. Dream Dinners
2. Swiffer’s dusters & my cleaning “bucket”
3. Woman who vacuums & mops weekly for me
4. Washing, cleaning, grocery store, etc., during the week so weekends are for my family
5. Multi-tasking
6. Helpful husband
Suzy Fielders
1. Finding Short Cuts One of my favorite tips is finding short cuts, but making sure to not “cut corners” in these short cuts. A mother is naturally a multi-tasker and this skill can help make the two worlds more manageable. Find ways to incorporate tasks together when appropriate. If a child does their homework while waiting before an extracurricular activity, like dance or soccer, then there will be no wasted time. By combining tasks a mother will feel and be more productive. Just make sure to know your limits in order to not get overextended.
Another shortcut is cooking larger meals on weekends and saving some in the fridge so that on week nights when work and school are bogging everyone down dinner can quickly be heated up, but still be something healthy. Also, a working mom’s “best friend” is having a doctor’s office that has extended or weekend hours – for both sick and well visits.
Finally, the ultimate working mom short cut is using a lunch break to run errands; believe it or not a lot can be accomplished in that short time frame. This is a time during normal business hours so get the things done that cannot wait until the weekend or can be done much faster without the kids.
2. Be organized! The quicker a calendar appointment or household item can be found, the better the chances are for less chaos and more time for the important things. Take a weekend to sort through the family calendar and find out a system that works best for everyone, whether it be color coding, separate calendars, or even a personalized tack board where all appointments & schedules are posted. Don’t stop the organization at just the calendar though. The easier it is to find items at home and work, the more likely it will be to increase productivity and waste less time. Even a completely “messy” person can slowly sort through their house and office to get organized… just take it one step at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed.
3. Mommy Time Always set aside at least an hour or two every day for time for yourself, or “mommy time”. This time can be for anything from working out, to reading or just watching a favorite TV show. Having a little time every day to yourself can help in not getting to overwhelmed or overworked. Don’t fret if you want to exercise at the gym or take a Pilates class but have no one to watch the kids, as many gyms offer childcare and it is usually free with certain memberships.
Thank you to our working moms for such great information! If you have some of your own tips for working moms to share, please add them by commenting below!
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