Being a mom is one of the greatest gifts of all time. We have the opportunity to watch our children grow into adults who go out into the world and make a difference. More importantly, we have the opportunity to guide them, support them, challenge them, and cheer them on.
As a working mom, we are also essentially home managers of our homes. In reality, this can be hard for a working mom who only has 24 hours in a day. As a mom with three children who have different needs and who has worked since the age of 16, I see you. At times I have failed in managing our home but thankfully I have also learned strategies to help the flow of my home.
If you often feel overwhelmed and have working mom struggles below are 6 powerful but practical tips for working moms that can help you.
No matter if you are a working mom with babies, a working mom with toddlers, or a new working mom, these tips for working moms will guide you and will help you save time!
1. Have Compassion
First, before anything else have compassion and grace for yourself! As humans, we overly criticize ourselves in many areas of our lives including our home life and work life as we often set high expectations in these areas and evaluate ourselves negatively.
Although there is a time and place for self-criticism, it is important to be kind to yourself and know that you are doing a great job as a working mother.
We all are human and being perfect in all areas of life is just unrealistic! Integris Health affirms that “Perfection is not something we can actually be or achieve. It’s an illusion, a legend, a myth.”
Practice having grace and compassion for yourself by meditating and thinking about your strengths in the areas of motherhood and your career. Use those strengths to make improvements in the areas that you would like to improve in.
2. Ask For Help
Although every mom is a superhero, remember that perfection is just an illusion.
Each day we only have 24 hours to complete various tasks. As a working mom, a huge portion of those hours are devoted to your career and job which means that you will need a plan to accomplish home tasks.
While in a perfect life, we would LOVE to complete home and work tasks by ourselves, it is okay for you to ask for help!
Help may come from a spouse, family member, friend, or you may be able to outsource help. It may come from all three!
I would love to have help from family members but as a military wife, our immediate family lives 6 hours away. Currently, we outsource help and it has been a game changer for the household.
We first decided to outsource help when my husband was assigned a tour overseas. Although he had been on many deployments, during the previous deployments, I was closer to home and now our family had grown (we had welcomed our baby girl) and I became the sole parent at home to three children on top of having a career.
We hired someone to bi-weekly to deep clean our home and we also hired someone to upkeep our landscaping.
Just by outsourcing these two tasks, I was able to gain back time to spend with my family and decrease my stress levels.
While I still had to clean my home between the cleaner’s bi-weekly visits, I was able to create systems that allowed me to maintain a clean home between the cleaning company visits.
One myth that I always believed before hiring a cleaning company was that we could not afford a cleaning company. However, we used referrals and were surprised that the cost was similar to our other monthly bills.
Below are common areas to outsource.
Areas To Outsource:
Landscaping
Housekeeping/Cleaning
Home Organization
Home Maintenance
Grocery Shopping (Pick Up or Delivery)
Laundry Services
3. Schedule and Plan Everything
As a working mom, it is important to make the most out of your time. It’s also important to manage your time. A good way to do this is to utilize a planner or calendar. In the planner or calendar write down birthdays, appointments, meetings, and any other upcoming obligations.
Review your planner daily and share the appointments with others involved. For example, If I have an obligation or appointment which requires my husband to pick up the kids, he will put the event in his phone. Next, I will remind him a week before and the day before of the appointment (Don’t judge me).
To-do lists are also a great tool. As a working mom, you will make many decisions at work and home each day which is taxing on your brain. As a result, you can often forget things.
Compiling a daily to-do list helps you keep up with things that need to be completed at home. If to-do-lists work for you at home, they may also help you at work.
Tip: Don’t create a to-do list with a huge list of items to complete. You will become overwhelmed. Prioritize your tasks and try not to exceed 5 items.
4. Have A Reset Day
Schedule and choose one day out of the week, where you intentionally plan to reset your home and plan for the upcoming week. Ideally, choose a day on the weekend or you can choose a day during the week when you are off.
Remember that you have to do what works for you and your family.
In resetting your home, you are completing home tasks that will allow you to set your week up for success.
One benefit that you will immediately notice is that in resetting your week on a Saturday or Sunday you will gain time back in your weekday due to your being proactive and completing certain tasks that you would normally complete during the week.
Here are some tasks to consider including on your reset day:
- Create a weekly menu and go grocery shopping or have your groceries delivered
- Meal prep
- Clean out your pantry and refrigerator
- Laundry (Don’t forget about your linen)
- Prep outfits for the week
- Complete home management responsibilities (pay your bills, review your budget, review any upcoming appointments)
- Clean your kitchen
- Clean your bathrooms
- Vacuum and dust
- Clean out your work bag and children’s bookbags
- Wash your linen
When my children were younger (and on a sleeping schedule), I woke up early and completed some of these tasks while they slept. Today with older children, I still wake up before everyone else to complete certain tasks (I am more productive in certain areas when I work alone).
5. Model For Your Children
If you feel overwhelmed as a working mom, you are probably juggling your career plus a huge load of housework. There will be seasons when this is the norm, especially when your children are babies and toddlers.
However, children are sponges and learn so much during their adolescent years. Teach and model for your children how to help around the home by cleaning and maintaining their spaces.
As they become older, they can be assigned chores that will help you with the housework.
Tip: Bins are excellent tools to use when teaching young children how to clean their spaces. After children are finished playing with their toys model how to clean up by placing their toys in the bins.
By placing the items in bins, you immediately reduce clutter and children are learning to pick items up and return them to their “home”.
6. Have a Strong Morning and Evening Routine
Lastly, we are what you do. If you currently feel that your home is chaotic, you may have habits that do not resemble structure.
Morning and evening routines provide so much structure in your home. By implementing a morning and evening routine in your home, your kids know what to expect each day. It also helps create a calm, organized, and time-managed environment. These aspects will always help you as a working mom as it will reduce your stress levels and build healthy habits in your children.
Final Thoughts:
This article contained tips for working moms. Remember to give yourself grace and that you are doing a great job! To improve in the area of being a working mom, try out at least one of the tips mentioned.
I would love to read some of tips that have helped you juggle motherhood and a career. If you plan on trying some of the tips for working moms, please let me know!
Read Next:
6 Powerful Benefits of An Organized Home-Free Printable
The Best Morning Routine For Success
What no one talks about: How to create a nighttime routine for success
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