Time Management-Describe Your Typical Day

[attached2ethan]

I am looking for advice and ideas from other SAHM's on how to better manage my day so I can get more things accomplished, in addition to attending to my kids needs a little more. I was previously a WAHM for the last 3 years, and a lot of my day centered around that- but we're about to have baby #3 (due in a few weeks) and I am trying to get back into the swing of NOT working- but it seems like nothing is getting done!

A typical weekday goes something like this, and I'm really looking for ideas on how to manage my time better and see what other moms are doing:

7am-9am: Wake up, feed everyone breakfast, get 7yo DS ready and off to school.

9am-10am: Check email, spend some time playing with 4yo DS, drink tea and start the day

10am-1pm: Typically spent out of the house doing activities (playgroups, park, library, errands, appointments, etc...). I try to set aside 1-2 days per week to stay home and get things done, but this doesn't seem to be enough. But we have to leave the house, LOL!

1pm-3pm: Lunch, Reading, and Naptime- I've been napping too since I hit my 3rd trimester, and I have high blood pressure, so this rest time has to happen unfortunately- I can't use it to clean, etc...

3pm-4pm: Pick up 7yo DS from school and come back home, sometimes run errands afterwards if needed.

4pm-6pm: Kids play outside with neighbors most days, this works out great but ties up my time because I'm constantly mediating, watching them, tracking them down, fixing boo boos, etc...I usually start dinner during this time and occasionally am able to get a few simple chores done like throwing in laundry or a load of dishes.

6pm-7pm: Hubby gets home, kids come in, we eat dinner and have some family time.

7pm-8pm: Kids baths, my shower, time playing with kids if we're not too late

8pm-9pm: The bedtime routine (have snack, brush teeth, read stories, tuck in 7yo, lay with 4yo for a while till he falls asleep)

9pm-10pm: MY time- sometimes with husband,sometimes catching up on my DVR shows, sometimes reading, lately I've been sleeping earlier too, try to be in bed by 10-ish.

This is how a typical day goes, but there is NO time for me to do the amount of housework that needs done (and right now my house is a wreck- and I'm starting to feel like nesting so it's driving me up the wall)- but I don't know how or where I can change things much. I'm also supposed to be resting a lot more than just once in the afternoon because BP is so high, but with 2 little people to care for it's very hard. Your stories and suggestions are welcome! I'm just afraid my baby is going to be born into this chaos and I'll NEVER get it done!

Jessica, Mom of Three
DS #1 (age 7)
DS #2 (age 4)
DD due soon!

[wife&mommy]

Well I can tell you when I wake up and when we eat and stuff but I don't have a specific time to clean each day or anything. I just do it when I am able to. Like when the kids are involved in play or after they go to bed for the night, I usually have a couple of hours.

So... here is our day at the moment.

7 or 7:30 - Kids wake up. DH gets up with them and feeds them breakfast. He usually does a load of dishes and cleans up the kitchen after making breakfast, too. I come out about 8 after taking a little longer to wake up, shower etc. We can do this because DH goes to work later and does not see the kids when he gets off work, so he sees them in the morning instead.

11:30 - Lunch (or about then, not set in stone)

12:00 - 2 year old naps. 4 year old has quiet time for as long as he wants and then we do something fun together of his choosing until 2 yo wakes up and then she can join. crafts, or sometimes he wants to do things like dot to dot worksheets or whatever.

2:30 or 3 - They usually want a snack.

5:30 - I start making dinner. We usually eat around 6. They they go to bed by 7 most nights.

In between all that is when I do all the household stuff, run errands if we need to, plan meals, laundry, sweep, mop, dishes, dusting, make appointments, pay bills and of course play with the kids. We plan to homeschool so I guess soon I'll be adding more of that in as well.

[mommariffic]

I'm in my third trimester too! I hired a mothers helper a few afternoons a week for a few hours so that I could rest, because DD doesn't nap and is a wild woman until she goes to bed. She comes 3x a week and takes her to the park down the road or in the backyard, so the other days of our week look like this:

7-7:30 wake up. Normally we spend some time in bed giggling/snuggling and talking about our day. This is part sheer laziness, part because it's a lovely way to start the day. DD is a huge huge cuddle bug

7:30-10: Kitchen time. This includes making breakfast, eating, cleaning up, and doing whatever kitchen chores. If I'm baking something we'll do that, if we are going to do dishes we can do that [she helps, or plays]

10-12: Shower, upstairs chores, crafts, gardening etc. I am a homeschool/unschooler [we aren't very "radical"] and so we do crafts or activities I picked out during this time. Sometimes it's finger painting, sometimes it's planting in the yard.

12ish is lunch time

The afternoon we normally try to go out [unless we have something planned for the morning like a playdate, in which case we switch our morning routine around..] We go run errands, go to the park if I'm up for it, or do something special like go into Manhattan. If I'm NOT feeling good, we may just read or hang and watch a movie on the couch, because I've got a few more weeks of pregnancy left and I'm not sleeping well, so need rest.

5ish: Dinner prep+ clean up.

After that it's family time with Daddy, although he works from home so he's there through spurts during the day. We read, play, take baths, etc. Bedtime is around 7:30

[becoming]

I'm a work-at-home mom, so our day is a little different, but not much. I get up at 5 & work for two hours, then get my oldest up at 7 to get ready for school. He leaves at 7:30 (my mom takes him for me), and by then my little one is up. DD has preschool two days a week, so on those days, I get her up around 8 & we all eat breakfast together & then she gets ready. We take her to school & are home around 9:30 if we don't have any errands to run. My little one & I play & do chores until around 11, then I work for an hour while LO watches TV or plays. Lunch is at 12, and we're usually in the kitchen until 1 or so, eating, cleaning up, prepping for supper, etc. If it's nice out, we go outside at 1 & stay out until time to go get the big kids at 2. If it's bad weather, we just play inside. After we're all home again at 3:15ish, we play outside some more. We come in around 4, & that's my "me time" -- I watch TV or read a book while all the kids play together. I start supper at 5, and we're usually done eating & cleaning up by 6. Baths are at 6. We just play & hang out until bedtime at 9. Then I work 9-11. When DD doesn't go to school, we do the same things, just with DD added to the mix And I get a lot more time to myself & time to clean when DD is home, because she & DS2 play really well together.

[becoming]

Oh, & I do take a shower & get ready sometime in there Lately I've been showering at night & just doing my hair & make-up at some point in the morning, which is much easier than doing the whole shower/hair/make-up routine in the morning.

[kevinsgirl]

This is amusing to me, because I just blogged about this yesterday.
A link to my blog

I didn't include times, but I get out of bed around 8 (notice I didn't say wake up :-). Lunch is 12:30, quiet time is 1-3 and I say DON'T use that for cleaning or anything...keep it mama time! Dinner is 6or a little before. Cadrian, 21 months, goes to bed at 6:30 and the girls 3 & 5 go at 7. i go to bed about 11.

I have another times I've done this too...

here

It's good for me to look back and see what a day is like in reality. Hope it helps you!

Flylady has some great ideas for incorporating routines into your day, it's helped me a lot to think about housework differently, even though I'm not all that great about doing it to the letter, I still get a lot more done than before I started her ideas.

[Kelly1101]

Hmmm, I only have one kid so far (until this fall). And she's still a little one.

But here's what our typical weekday looks like:

around 6:00 am - wake up
6:01 am - the "snooze button" nursing session
6:10 am - that stops working, she's ready to be up
- we change the diaper, stop by the bathroom to brush my teeth, and then go into the kitchen to fix breakfast
- I wake up my husband, start the coffee, fix breakfast for all of us
6:30 am - baby eats her breakfast (usually toast and fruit of some sort) in the high chair by the computer while I eat breakfast and check my forums and facebook, hehehe, and husband showers and dresses (he eats breakfast while driving to work) and leaves
7:00 am - husband's gone, breakfast over, baby and I sit on the floor and play, while I try to think of what I have to do today. Put diapers in the wash.
8:00 am - get anything ready that needs to be mailed out, bills paid, list of phone calls I need to make or little household things like that to be taken care of
8:30 am - baby has another snack while I pack diaper bag and get dressed, and put diapers in the dryer
9:00 am - we're out the door to run errands and/or go by my cousin's house to check on the garden (we're doing a garden together in her back yard), and/or go to the park and take a walk or sit outside and play in the grass
by 11:00 am - we're back from errands and visiting. we have lunch, then baby goes down for her nap. while she's napping I waste time on the internet *ducks* or read a book or do some other "sanity" activity.
12:00 pm or so - she's up from her nap, we play more toys and books on the floor.
1:00 pm - she goes in the mei tai and we clean the house
2:00 pm - baby gets a snack, then we play on the floor again (I spend a ridiculous amount of time sitting on the floor playing with blocks and reading books)
3:00 pm - start thinking about/prepping dinner while, you guessed it, periods of playing on the floor (the play area is connected to the kitchen)
4:00 pm - kind of get serious about dinner
around 4:45 pm - husband gets home, washes up (he's a housepainter)
5:00 pm - dinner
5:30 pm - husband and baby play on the floor, haha, while I shower
6:00 pm - husband and baby continue to hang out while I do my little prenatal exercise DVD thing
7:00 pm - baby bedtime
7:30 pm - I sneak out of bed and go hang out with my husband-- we watch TV or a movie together, or talk about stuff, or have "together" time, or he plays his computer games while I read or watch TV
around 9:30 or 10 pm - my pregnant butt is exhausted, I go to bed.
And... then get up in the morning to do it all over again


Haha, times may vary (except for waking up time, husband gets home / dinner time, baby bedtime... those pretty much stay the same), but that's typically what our day looks like. It's gotten very routine and easy, so I reckon we just have to add another baby into the mix so I can get back to chaos and pulling my hair out.

[jpaigeadams]

Look, here's what's important:
You can only do so much. Let the rest of it go. Here are the few things you have to do:
laundry, food/dishes, sweep kitchen, diapers, pick up. Everything else can be let go. Let the house get dusty, let the tub get soap scummed. Don't vacuum. Don't even think about organizing anything. Husband/Partner's job is to deal with all the trash.

Just do what you have to do. And if ANYONE asks if they can help, say YES, please come over and XYZ (clean tub, dust, vacuum).

Pick up the house/toys once a day. It really does help to feel less chaotic the next day when you wake up.

I also strive not to go to bed with the kitchen sink dirty, but I only succeed about 70% of the time - and that's only bc my husband has recently been really good about cleaning up after dinner (while I start the kids on bath/bedtime routine, of course).

Really, truly, your kids are only this age once, they are so much important than your house (as long as the condition of the house doesn't affect their health, of course). I have had many days sitting on the floor of the living room playing with my 3.5 yr old and my 1.5 yr old, having so much fun, but knowing that the house could be taking by attention - but I choose not to give it.

[kevinsgirl]

6:01 am - the "snooze button" nursing session

I love that phrasing!& know what that's all about! LoL.