A working mum is having a job, raising children, and looking after the family – it is exhausting and immensely fulfilling. People talk about work-life balance, but it does not exist for a working mum.
I have been a working mum for as long as I’ve had children, and believe me, I’m still trying to get the balance right. So I don’t pretend to have it all together, in fact, I don’t think you ever 100% get it right, but there are some shortcuts, and that is what we’re going to talk about here.
For a working mum, she must know life-changing hacks that can help her perform her work faster and spend quality time with her children.
Make a Cleaning Schedule and Involve Everyone
Cleaning a house is very challenging for a single person, so people dedicate a massive chunk of their weekend to cleaning the house for the upcoming week. Sod that!
Rather than dedicating the whole day to cleaning the house, you can divide tasks that need to be done with all the house members and schedule one per day. This approach works not just for daily chores, but also for keeping up with essential home maintenance like AC and heating system checks. Once you’ve handled the basics, it’s a good idea to schedule a visit from a trusted West Austin TX AC repair expert or one in your local area, to ensure everything is running efficiently, especially before the weather really heats up.
For example, you can schedule Sunday for vacuuming, clean the kitchen on Monday, clear dust on Tuesday, collect rubbish and recycling on Wednesday, clean the bathroom on Thursday, and so on.
If you can follow this rule, the house will always be clean, and you need not separate a single day for cleaning purposes and save your time. Either that, or it will all go to pot and you’ll end up needing to call in pest control to save the day (psst, these are the best people to go to if that happens https://www.pestcontrolexperts.com/local/new-york/). Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
Even when everything looks spotless on the surface, it doesn’t mean your home is completely in the clear. Airborne irritants, hidden mold, or poor ventilation can still mess with your space, especially if you’re not paying attention to the invisible stuff. That’s where Air Quality Testing in Littleton, CO or services in your local area, can really come in handy to make sure your home isn’t silently collecting allergens or mold. You might be surprised how much healthier your home feels once hidden air quality issues are tackled.
Similarly, if your children are old enough, you need to make them help them and get them involved in simple chores like cleaning the table after a meal, managing bed sheets, putting laundry clothes in the basket, and cleaning dishes. Obviously, your partner gets involved too, they don’t get away with it. If you’re both working, it should be equally distributed.
Keep your Devices Charged.
It can be more serious when your digital devices seem to have a low battery. You might be in some emergency work, and your device won’t support you due to a low battery where your children can disturb you. So if you keep your device fully charged, you can focus on your work by providing your child with your mobile or a tablet and distracting them. Come on, we’ve all done it.
It can make them calm, and you can focus on your pending work. Similarly, a working mum should handle their work life and personal life, and you must have a mobile or laptop all the time with you to become updated with all kinds of deadlines and responsibilities.
When you have multiple devices to be charged, you can use a fast charger or a multi-device charging station to keep all the devices fully charged.
Use Parental Controls
When it comes to a busy mum, she cannot spend quality time with her children. A mother plays a role model in every child’s life. So if she cannot pay her quality time with children, they might not get effective parenting support. There might be a chance of their child going on the wrong track when they grow up.
A working mum (or indeed a non-working mum) can use parental control software to guide their child. Fenced.ai helps working moms ensure their kids are safe at home. It allows you to get every update about your child remotely.
You can use this software on your child’s device and make sure they are in the place they should be by tracking their location. You can also track your teen’s browsing history and know what they watch online throughout the day.
The app also allows you to block all the inappropriate sites from your child’s device and protect them from digital hazards and online dangers.
With this app, you can hire an expert who can help you in parenting virtually and protect your child from the wrong track if you cannot give time to protect your child. As digital technology continues to evolve, the emergence of AI adds another layer to keeping children safe online. AI and Safeguarding are often increasingly linked, as many platforms now use AI to recommend content or interact with young users. This tends to make parental controls even more valuable, helping parents monitor AI-influenced activity and ensure their children receive guidance and protection even when direct supervision isn’t possible.
Make Easy Meals
To save time, you can make an informal meal which can be prepared sooner during workdays. It takes a long time to prepare a traditional meal alone.
For preparing easy foods, you can pull together a salad, layout some crudites and hummus, and buy and cut up a rotisserie chicken and let everyone pick what they want. You don’t need to serve everyone a meal all day. I love making big snack plates and a jug of squash for the kids around 10 am and they can graze on it, especially if I have a work deadline and they are at home.
During your busy day, you can prepare a simple and easy meal that does not consume time and layout simple, healthy options, and tell everybody to take what they want. You can also prepare noodles or pasta in your meal as preparing traditional food takes a long time.
Similarly, to save time, you can set bowls out on the table, prepare and pack lunches for kids and make everything ready the night before as it just takes an extra minute to organize the things when you plan it earlier.
When you make everything ready the night before, you need not worry the next morning, and it does not become complicated. You can also chop vegetables during your free time and keep them inside the refrigerator to help you save time.
If you batch cook mince and make it 3 or 4 ways then freeze the portions then you have easy meals to grab from the freezer like spaghetti bolognese, shepherd’s pie and chilli.
Give Yourself a Break
Many simple hacks make your life flexible. But for a working mum, it might be an annoyance to become available 24/7 for their kids. Although you want to spend more time with children, the situation does not allow you.
On the other hand, your kids might not feel that they are always your priority, and there will be a gap in the mother-child relationship. Therefore, you can separate regular dates with your child to spend
quality time and give yourself a break from work. You need to be organized to help you navigate your days a little better, and you can manage time for your kids.
Similarly, you need to take a break to keep your own sanity — make a self-care routine and follow it religiously. For instance, you can go out shopping for your makeup products, try out a new hobby, or even opt for massage therapy by looking up “massage near me in Greenville” or a similar phrase on the Web. Remember, these activities will make you feel better and more relaxed.
It can take more time for you when your kids misplace their uniforms, books, pens, shocks, or so on. So once you make them a habit to place everything organized, it will not hamper your time.
Also, you can make everything ready the night before by taking out little time; it will not be a hassle in the morning.
This is one of the ways to reduce morning stress by keeping your kid’s shoes, socks, backpacks, jackets, etc., organized. If you do so, you can find everything in the same place, and you should not worry about making your kids ready for school.
Do Multitasking During Lunch Break
During your lunch break, you can do those things you don’t have time for and complete it. For example, being a busy mum, you might not get separate time for workouts during the morning. So you can do them during your lunch break to keep yourself fit and active.
Similarly, a mum can multitask during lunch break, such as keeping clothes in the washing machine, making her kids do homework, and so on. Various tasks can be done during lunch break, such as visiting a bank, post office, laundry, etc. You can also make a lunchtime run to the grocery store and buy fruits or vegetables.
A mum who is working from home can give time to anything during lunch break. When a mum is working from the office, she doesn’t have time to waste, and she should immediately continue work after having lunch. That’s why I’m glad I work from home most of the time, but when I do my nursing shift I fully relax during my lunch break and get off my feet! I do sometimes answer emails, but that’s it.
Make a Habit of Online Shopping
With the development of technology, online shopping is becoming a new trend. It has provided lots of benefits to people by delivering their ordered goods to their home address.
As a working mum, you might not have time to go shopping. You become busy even during the weekend, and there will be no chance of going to shopping centres.
You can use various e-commerce websites such as Amazon to buy items. It is not time-consuming as every item will be available according to your need, and you can order them by providing your home address.
Wear Comfortable Clothes
In my experience, a working mum should always be ready for anything at any time. So they must be dressed comfortably and efficiently. You can wear a dress that makes you comfortable to do any work. Wrap dresses in stretchy material look smart and are still comfy.
Similarly, you can carry an extra dress in your office bag if your uniform does not make you comfortable. You can fold your sleeves up or wear a sleeveless dress to feel comfortable.
Sometimes, many mums have rushed through a marathon in the morning with the kids to arrive at work within time, wearing a different dress. So they need to keep their uniform and extra pair of shoes packed in the office for an emergency.
Use a Grocery Delivery Service
While you go to buy grocery products or items, it becomes time-consuming. You can order grocery items for a whole week on a particular day and take them home the next day while returning from work.
You can order all groceries for the whole family for the entire week and spend only a little time on the actual task as visiting departments daily to buy groceries will be more time-consuming.
When you get them delivered for a whole week, you can save a lot of time and spend that time with your kids. Especially when they save your favourites.
Do you have more life hacks that can be effective for working moms? You can mention them in the comment section below. Also, if you have any queries about this content, you can feel free to ask.
