full-time working mother schedule?

Re: full-time working mother schedule?

• SmrBrd2012 member

  August 2016

  Being in a household where both parents work FT is SO hard! First and foremost, I suggest giving yourself a break. Maybe this is pessimistic, but you will never be able to juggle everything perfectly. It's always a balance. Some weeks are better than others and some things will slip one week while other will slip another. My schedule is pretty similar to yours (minus the exercise- good for you!). A few recommendations:
  
  1) Try to get your daughter in bed by 7:30 or 8. My time after that is so helpful for getting things in order for the next day or just getting some time to relax.
  2) I clean during the week too but not as much as you list. I'd recommend trying to save some of that during nap times on the weekends. With your current schedule, I don't know how you aren't burning out!
  3) Lean on your husband more to help with chores (it's hard to tell from your description what he does besides drop off /pick up)
  4) Cook meals for the week on Sunday if you have time and then freeze them.
  5) Can you avoid using 2 of your 4 bathrooms? That way you don't have to clean them as often.
  

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• nackie member

  August 2016

  I'm still getting up 2-3 times a night to nurse my LO, so I'm exhausted and have eliminated as much as I can from my schedule.
  I get up with the baby between 5-6am and get both of us ready for the day.
  DH takes him to daycare at 7:30 and that's when I leave too.  We're both usually home from work around 5.  We feed DS, walk the dog and have playtime until it's DS's bedtime between 6-6:30.
  DH preps our dinner while I nurse the baby. After we eat, I pump again, prep our lunches, pack up the baby's stuff for daycare and do a light cleaning of the kitchen.
  DH usually does a load of laundry every evening.  I'm in bed by 9 most nights.
  All other cleaning gets done during naps on the weekends.

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• karlimonster member

  August 2016

  My first reaction to your schedule is that it looks impossible to maintain! I hope you give yourself some breaks. We have a 1.5 year old, here is a break down of my day. 
  
  6:00 - He wakes up, one of us gets him, changes diaper, etc
  7:00 - Breakfast 
  7:30 - Dad goes to work 
  Son and I will play, go for a walk, I'll pick up a bit, etc until it's time to go
  8:15 - Leave for daycare 
  9:00 - 6:00 - Work
  6:20 - Home, bf has started dinner with son, I join
  7:00 - Bedtime routine starts
  8:00 - Bed
  
  Depending on the day I might try to pick up or clean or do laundry, but some days we both want to sit and do nothing. If I have a lot of cleaning or long to do list ahead of me I do my very best to break it down into one small manageable task/goal per day. Otherwise I get discouraged and overwhelmed. 
  
  The schedile also doesn't reflect that my bf deals with the cats, trash, daycare pickup, usually all the dishes, maintains the pool and so much more. I would be lost without him. 
  
  Good luck! I don't think there is a magic formula. All that matters is trying your best and not forgetting self care. 
  
  
  

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• snowflake2214 member

  August 2016

  It looks like you have got a pretty good schedule going. If you need a break maybe let a little of the house work go in the evenings. Could you do the bulk of studying on the weekend?  That way you could go to bed earlier. 

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• klirwin82 member

  August 2016

  FWIW we cancelled our cable subscription and replaced it with a Roku which saved us about $100/month which we put towards a housekeeper who comes and deep cleans every 2 weeks. Now the house is pretty much always clean (you can't mess up THAT MUCH in just 2 weeks) and the limited time we have at home evenings/weekends is no longer spent cleaning. Best money ever spent, highly recommend it. 
  
  
  

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• amorcito27 member

  September 2016

  We are planning to eliminate our cable once our contract runs out as we pay almost $200 for cable and internet a month and now that we have a baby, we don't even watch that much tv. Just wondering, how does roku work? Neither of us are tech savy, but hear there are so many options to cut back on cable costs.

  Me: 30   DH: 33

  TTC #1 since June 2014

  Baby #1 coming March 2016

  My Chart

  

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• crsanchez87 member

  September 2016

  I explain it to people as its basically like having a tv with only DVR as an option for watching. I have a "smart" TV so when I turn on my TV its like I'm looking at a bigger version of my iphone with "apps", I have a few that I pay extra for, amazon, hulu, netflix and hbo and then a bunch that are free like pbs, happykidstv, nick, disney, abc, cbs, and some other tv/movie channels. you can also hook up a free antenna and get the free basic channels for news, weather, etc. I love my roku and I don't think i'll ever go back to cable. I was paying over $200 a month for cable and internet and now with my internet connection and the apps I pay for, I pay less than $100/month. 

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• TRA0816 member

  September 2016

  We gave up cable a while back. We bought an antenna that pulls all the free channels, and we have Netflix. We don't miss cable much..We usually just watched reruns on cable anyway. If there is a show we really want to see we will pay to stream it. Still cheaper than cable/satellite.

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