Photo by Sai De Silva on Unsplash
School time traffic, plenty of stress, deadlines, and crying; the best way to describe your lifestyle as a working mom is LOUD. Of course, being able to provide for your beautiful child or children while growing your career is rewarding. It’s when those nasty periods come about when all your responsibilities seem to stack up into an infinite pile, where it can be difficult to feel the gratitude. Here are five ways you can regain control and get back on top:
1. The Right Child Care Arrangements
Choosing the right care for your little one can be a challenge. You don’t want to disrupt their routine too much, and you also might feel conscious about missing their developmental milestones. Opt for a childcare center that is focused on creating a balance in your child’s life and is open to discussing and supporting your child’s individual needs.
For security, ensure that they employ qualified educators and have a good teacher-student ratio for optimal supervision. You need to choose a place that both you and your child feel comfortable with so do not worry if it takes a bit of time.
2. Weekly Meal Prepping
Meal prepping is not just for the vigilante fitness bloggers and it really is not as difficult as you may think to prepare meals and snacks for weeks in advance. After all, you’ll be preparing meals you would normally cook otherwise that can be refrigerated or frozen. The only difference is you’ll be cooking a week’s worth. This is also a great way to avoid excess food waste and encourage a regular, balanced diet.
You’ll need to schedule a time, ensure you have all the right ingredients, utensils and cookware and allow a couple of hours to stock up on all the needed groceries and get the cooking and packing sorted. You will not miss the rush of trying to prepare kindergarten or school lunches and snacks for the family on a tight morning schedule.
3. Strategic Carpool and Play Dates
Chances are, you are not the only busy parent in your child’s life. Reach out to your partner, family members, friends and peers for some shared responsibilities to help each other out during demanding activity periods. This could be alternating carpool days to daycare or school, sharing drop-off and pick-up duties or organizing a weekly play date at a friend’s house on that afternoon you have the biggest workload – in exchange for returning the favor at a different time.
4. Flexible Work Arrangements
Employers are generally understanding of childcare and parenting duties and will want to keep their hardworking staff happy and satisfied at work. Schedule a meeting with your boss or HR department to discuss flexibility in your routine. This doesn’t necessarily need to mean working remotely 100% of the time but possibly adjusting your hours to accommodate for school pickups or having one day a week where you can work remotely to accommodate your other responsibilities.
5. Embrace Quality Family Time You Do Have
It’s unfortunately common for working mums to feel a bit of occasional guilt over not living up to preconceived expectations they may have. While you can overcome this fairly easily with some mindfulness or reflection, you do not want to be projecting your feelings of guilt or scarcity to your children. Instead, make the most of the quality time you have with your family, switch your phone to Do Not Disturb mode and join in play time with your kids!
Being a working mum can be hard but by following through with these five tips, you’ll be able to regain your work-life balance and enjoy better quality family time. Don’t let seemingly endless responsibilities stop you from enjoying the journey that is motherhood.
