balancing work and family

Spendless

I need your thread more than ever now Kimberley. I've upped my hours today starting from this week. :eek::j

BTW- Depending on what childcare you use. Look into sorting it now for the school Christmas hols, just in case your area is like mine and it's pretty non-existant at this time of year. (fortunately for me hubby has days to use before end of year).

barbiedoll

I know that your OH works long hours but so do you. My husband works long hours (nights) but even he has to do the morning clear-up, it's only a few breakfast things so he can't moan too much

Paperwork: Make sure that you do it as soon as it appears. Don't leave bills etc, to mount up, that's when you start avoiding them and making it worse.

Ironing: Again, a bit at a time is the key, rather than spending a whole Sunday doing a huge pile. And stop ironing things like sheets, no-one cares if they are creased!

Have a word with some of the other parents at the clubs and maybe see if you can car-share every other week? Beware though, someone always tries to take advantage and if you're not careful, you can end up running around after someone else's kids too!

Don't feel bad if you have a night flopped in front of the telly and nothing gets done. All working women seem to spend their "free" time running around after everyone else. Make time to just sit and chat with the kids, the housework and ironing isn't going anywhere so just chill now and again.

And flylady is very good, it just helps to know that there are others as bad as us :rotfl:

theladsmum

Absolutely agree that OH should do his fair share. Not saying that long hours on nights is to be ignored, but he must have some time available to chip in and do his share of chores/childcare.

Work out what HAS to be done, then anything else is a bonus! I think a lot of people share your feelings that there is never time for anything, or even to catch a breath sometimes.

I also think that children today can do too much out of school activity. They also need time to relax, rest and enjoy life, rather than constantly moving from one thing to the next, to the next.

Gingham_Ribbon

I'm in a similar situation too, Kimberley. Seems there's a lot of it about at the moment!

All I can say is that I'm sleeping better thanks to the exhaustion!

Good tips from everyone else, that I can't really sensibly add to.