Can you do OS and work full time too?

Valli

cha97michelle wrote: »

I'll be watching this with interest. I return to work next March after maternity leave of a year. DS1 will be 29months old and DS2 will be 10 months old, and i am already dreading the thought of how i will do everything when i can't manage it all now. :eek: And it isn't like i can make them do very many of the chores, although i am training DS1 to do basics like put stuff in the bin for me, pick up his toys, and he thankfully is good at bedtime. DS2 on the other hand is a bit of a nightmare - he still doesn't let me sleep, so any tips i will be paying attention and trying to implement here.

Hi! I found you!

Valli

sunset_gold wrote: »

I have baked my weekly fruit cake and sliced it up and it's already in the freezer. Hoping to make the kids favorite chocolate cake today and get that sliced up and in the freezer too.

What a good idea.

6 hours without a break sounds illegal...I think you're supposed to have one after 4...but you would need to check (Factories Acts?)

Good luck with the job... remember don't be a martyr! Another tip ...If anyone has the temerity to moan about the state of the house hand them the duster/cloth and stardrops and tell them to clean it. My (ex) OH only ever complained ONCE that the dining room window needed cleaning...because I tartly retorted that it didn't bother me and if it bothered him he had better do something about it...
Stick a bleach tablet in the loo cistern once a month - that helps keep the loo clean.

sunset_gold

Thank you everyone for all the tips and advice, I have survived my first week! Was tired this morning and did plan to go to the gym at 8am but legs had no go in them! Am eagerly awaiting my first "big" asda shopping delivery (10am-12pm slot) and also I have ordered on-line an additional washing basket for the landing, which I am hoping will come before Tuesday (back to work day). Will put signs on them and see if the girls can work out which one to put their school shirts in and which one to put their pajamas in!

The girls did well for the three days I was at work, eldest didn't have her breakfast on Wednesday (was still on the table when I got home!) but early days.

The lasagne and shepherds pies I make at the weekend (and put in the big chest freezer I bought when I was offered the job) cooked perfectly from frozen, I left them in the oven all day to defrost and put the timer on to cook them to be ready when the girls got in from school. To the girls I guess the evenings were the same, just the mornings were a bit different with me leaving at 7.45am. Have worked out that it's better for me to leave them early (as my boss gets in by 8am) and then I can leave earlier than originally thought and get home earlier. Perfect!.

I did plan to use Monday and Friday as cleaning and batch cooking days but someone here did say I would feel more tired on my days off than when working and they were right! Am going to do all my jobs, but stretch them over the next 4 days and see if I feel better or worse. I did think that I would want a definite line drawn between my working days, my homemaker days and my weekend, but they may all just have to mingle into "days"!

Valli, a bleach tablet in the cistern? Never heard of bleach tablets, can I get them at asda and are they called bleach tablets? I have this week been putting bleach in the loo each morning, don't know why...maybe not being here in the day makes you think differently, would rather use the tablet idea thou.

fatpiggy

It is interesting that people say they don't have time to do x and y because they work full time. I'm 43 and both my parents worked full time. Mum was a teacher at the local primary and before you say well they only work 9 - 4, um, they certainly don't! We lived out in the sticks and had a large garden which produced almost vegetable we ate. Mum cooked everything from scratch (there weren't bottles of cooking sauces etc in those days) and even baked most of our bread, all our cakes and biscuits, plus supplied the old lady down the road. She also made alot of clothes for my sister and me, plus all the soft furnishings in the house. At weekends both parents were largely occupied with the garden (everything grown from seed) - Mum did the flowery bits and Dad did the lawns, veg and fruit. We kids had jobs to do - I hoovered downstairs every morning before I went to school, and we did the washing up in the evenings. Dad would clean the bathroom on Saturday morning before he had his projects to work on (servicing the car, repairing things etc.) while Mum cleaned upstairs and organized the washing (everything line-dried). The trick is time management and being really organized. Even now, Mum has a diary which she uses to plan every meal for the following week and writes her shopping list out based on that. She is adept at making something out of nothing and using up left-overs (that's what you get for being born during the war!!) and makes very good use of her freezer (we had two when we were kids). She now only has a small garden, but her veg plot produces quite a bit and she still loves blackberry picking to make jam etc. We went apple scrumping in an old orchard when I visited in the autumn! Mum swears by her combi-microwave and pressure-cooker for speedy cooking at low cost.

skintmostofthetime

i've sent a kid to school in pj's once.. with her clothes in a bag... it only took ONCE!)


Love it - bet they didn't expect you to seriously do it. :T

Magpie.

I'm glad this has been posted as I was wondering the same!

i'm a single parent working full time but I try and cook from scratch and freeze portions for other meals and also I love my slow cooker.

YummyMummyBigBummy

We always have 'roast dinner soup' on a Monday for dinner. I cook up twice as much veg and potatoes as we need for roast dinner on Sunday, keep in fridge overnight. Make home made chicken stock with carcass from chicken on Sunday evening. Reserve any left over meat from the chicken. On monday evening heat up the veg and potatoes in the stock and then blitz coarsely with a blender or processor or whatever (even mash it with a spud masher). Then add in all the meat, heat thoroughly and serve with freshly made bread. It's a winner every time, and always tastes a bit different depending on what veggies we had with our dinner on Sunday. And because everything is already cooked it takes next to no time to make. You can use any meat, we just happen to have chicken quite a lot! But it is really nice if you make it with gammon too, even better probably.

dorry_2

i have just agreed to do full time until christmas, so all together 4 weeks of full time!!!:eek: then i will go 30 hours a week in the new year!!

All i can say that is not easy! especailly when all year i have only been doing 18 hours!!:eek: :eek:

I leave the house at 8 when ds2 walks to school, this means i get to work for 8,45 and then can finish at 4.15!

I always make sure dw is emptied on the morning and then set breakfast bar with plates, cutlery for tea, this makes it easier later on.

I always order my weekly shop online with tesco and get it delivered friday teatime, this means no running out to the shops during the week and that all stuff for menu plan is in the fridge/ freezzer

i do washing as baskets gets filled and then iron it all on saturday afternoon for the week ahead.

This leaves me one free day to relax, sunday:T you definetly need some time away, the gym is a great idea! I walk the dog alot and this is my chill:T clear head time!!

I don't really mind doing 37 hours, but prefer 30 hours as it takes a little bit of pressure off, knowing you have an extra day to get things sorted!!

hth xxx

clutterydrawer

I think it depends on your situation. I work 40+ hours a week and spend 14 travelling to and from work and have to do a lot of studying in the evennings as im on an apprenticeship but would consider myself to be OS in *most* things I do.

If I had kids however it would be alot harder!

naturally_2

I work full time, am single and am reasonably OS. I enjoy cooking, which helps enormously. My typical week of cooking would be:
Monday night: pasta bake. Can get on with other things while in the oven. Tupperware up and freeze what I don't eat, apart from one portion, which goes in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch. If I'm organised I'll bung a couple of jacket spuds in while the oven's on, and either reheat over the next couple of days or freeze.
Tuesday: some sort of hotpot, which involves chopping up a lot of veg and bunging it all in a pan to go on the hob. Again, can get on with other stuff while that's cooking. I tend to include potatoes in the hotpot so its a complete meal, or I'll cook some rice or pasta to make it go further. Extra portions go in the freezer and for tomorrow's lunch.
Wednesday: there's usually one day I can't be bothered or am too busy to cook, so I'll have something I've previously made out of the freezer. Lunch for Thurs is sorted that way too.
Thurs: something quick, like pasta with a HM sauce of passatta and vegetables. I might stick a pot of veg soup on the hob too.
Fri: I must admit fridays I usually fancy being naughty and buy some oven chips!
Saturday is my "I fancy cooking something different" day. I try to be organised and soak chickpeas or broth mix the night before, and cook /freeze them ready to be used, and quite often do something in my slow cooker or a something that takes a bit longer. I always end up with leftovers which feeds a lazy sunday too!