balancing work and family

Kimberley82

Thanks for all the replys, nice to know its not just me lol.

I have a slow cooker and love it, so nice to come home to dinner already done.

I guess I just need to be more organized lol.

I used to do my shopping online and your right I should re start, in fact I am going to do it once I have got everything done tonight.

They dont both do something every night but between them they do, Monday my son goes to cubs, tuesday we do homework, wednesday my son does kick boxing, my daughter goes to stage school, Thurday my daughter goes to beavers, then friday swimming.

msb5262

Hello OP,

You've had some really good suggestions here.
The only thing I can add is that you should plan meals at least each week and ideally each month.
Get the children involved in finding 28 meals you all like, then put them on a month planner in a way that makes sense for you (eg. we always have a very quick pasta dish on a Wednesday because that's the hardest night of the week). List a main dish and a side dish (eg. frozen peas, tomato and cucumber salad) for each night.
Check that you aren't doing all the mince (or fish or pasta) dishes in a row, then see what you can batch cook to freeze.
Now make a quick shopping list for the first week's meals, and you're away.
Doing this (monthly) has really improved my day to day organisation this term and made life happier for everyone.
HTH
MsB
ETA don't forget to include one "night off" cooking each week - even if it's frozen pizza!

thorsoak

You might find it helpful to look at the Flylady thread ...they are all very supportive.

HariboJunkie

You sound like me Kimberly .

I too have gone back to full time after years of housewifery and working from home. My OH also works 50-60 hours pw.

I have had to let alot of things slide. I iron fewer clothes, I bake less and I don't wash my kitchen floor every day any more.

The key for me has been organisation. Religious meal planning, utilising the slow cooker and batch cooking on my days off. As soon as I'm in from work I tidy up, serve tea and then just keep going. That way I deal with the post, phonecalls etc, make packed lunches, put a load of washing on and prep the next night's meal. I usually get to sit down properly at about 8-pm, depending on whether there is ironing to do but I do farm out some ironing (bedding and OH's shirts) to a friend.

I have also implemented a Saturday morning clean where the girls do their bedroom, OH does the bathroom and the dump run and I do the kitchen and living room.

Unfortunately shopping is a pita for me too as no supermarkets deliver in my area. But with meal planning on a Sunday, I know what I need on Monday and shop in the hour and a quarter the kids are at Brownies.

You will get used to it but don't eat yourself up if things don't go to plan.

Spendless

Am in similar situation. Gone back to work after several years at home. DH doing similar hours though his are daytime but he can still be away early/back late/away o/night with no pattern to it. I also have a 86yo grandmother I take shopping, which is using one of my days up as it's a social event for her. Sometimes i take her on an evening instead but that depends on where hubby and kids are.

My kids are 10 and 7. Youngest does 2 clubs but fortunately one is on our street and DS can drop her off. DS doesn't do any but has suddently taken to going ice-skating with a mate at the leisure centre-so am finding myself in role of taxi driver, but the opther set of parents do do 1 journey. Is this something you could do, share the taxi-ing about. 1 parent drops off, another picks up. Getting everything ready night before is a big help. Are the kids on school meals or packed lunches. I have one on school dinners - and I write a cheque once a month, the other alternates but if i have a really busy week coming up I tell her that will have to be a school meal week. we can change week to week at the kids school.

What hours/days do you do and then we might be able to suggest some ideas to fit in here and there.

Good luck-I'm still finding my feet after 6 months.

DKLS

Could the children help out with some of the household tasks? to assist the family unit.

Souk08

Pop a half hour wash on when you get up. That way you can have it done and hung up before you go to work and most of it will be dry and ready to iron by the time you get home. I try to iron once a week, Sunday nights works for me and then it's all done. Do it in front of the telly if it helps.

paprework wise I have a file with tabs (from a pound shop) where everything gets put. You don't need to do anything with it if you have Direct Debits set up until it's time to renew when you can shop around for cheaper deals.

HTH X

property.advert

The only thing I iron is shirts and trousers for work. Why people iron t-shirts I will never know. My daft old mother used to iron hankies !

As said, bulk buying, planning in advance, homogeneous goods bought online leaves only quality preference items for you to buy personally.

I once worked nights, around 60 hours a week and I still had to do my own shopping, cleaning, etc. Get your old man to do something to help out.

gratefulforhelp_2

Don't feel guilty and you ahve made a big change so don't expect to get used to it straight away.

Come on over to flylady, we may not turn you into a domestic goddess but we will make you feel better about the whole thing!

Caroline_a

My children always had 'their' jobs to do, they were on a rota on the fridge and they were allowed to swap between each other (negotiating skills learnt ), so long as jobs were done. Also agree with the others re it doesnt have to be perfect - one of the finest pieces of advice given to me was by my first midwife - "Your house won't fall down if it's dusty!"

Your children seem to do a lot of afterschool stuff, which is fine, but it will be more difficult as they get older and have more homework. Just doing it on one night a week won't be enough very soon, so time has to be found for that.

I found that we eventually agreed on one activity a week that wasnt at school (so no running about), and they could concentrate on being really good at that, rather than being mediocre at a few things.

Oh - ironing - quote from some wise person - 'If it needs ironing, it isnt tight enough' :rotfl: