I had a dear friend over recently. It was a quick catch up, we both worked on our own small craft project and chatted. We have known each other since primary school. We went to the same secondary school and then both left our country town to come to the big smoke to go to uni.
I adore this girl and we have loads in common, but we are also quite different. For years I would extol the wonders of menu planning, but could never quite convince her to get aboard. So amongst the varied topics we discussed, I asked her a question I had been thinking about for a while in general and wanted her answer to it. She works almost full time outside of the home, as does her partner and they have three beautiful kids in primary school.
“How do you do it?” I asked. “How do you get everything done when you get home from work? Feed the kids, get the reading done, wash clothes and the like?”
She took me through her day. As they live inner city, work in the city and live very close to the kids school, the kids don’t have to get up until 7.30am and she can drop them on the way. Usually they walk to school, but on the nights where they have after school activities to get to, she might drive the car and park (within her permit area) close to the school so they can head to them straight away. She spoke to me more about her day and I loved hearing how she did it – and she now menu plans!
But it wasn’t just how she did it that I had been thinking about. I know many women who work full time and I often wonder how they do it. And by do it, I mean fit everything in that they want to and need to do for themselves and their families. I think I am pretty lucky to work part time from home, so I can cook meals in the morning, do washing through out the day and the like.
I don’t think any way is better than others. What ever approach you take to parenting and working has advantages and disadvantages. As I have written about recently, working for yourself from home can easily have you feeling like you never have a break. I have thought on more than one occasion it would just be easier to get a part time job outside the home. But then maybe the grass is greener!
The key take away from that discussion with my friend was that we all have tricks up our sleeve to make things easier and for making the best of our situation. And even if it wasn’t formally written down like my weekly schedule, my friend knew where she needed to be at pretty much any given time across the weekday.
And this is what I would love to hear from you. How do you do it? How do you manage to fit in the things that are important to you? What has to go? What tricks or tips do you have to share that could help another family in similar circumstances?
If you would like to share how you do it, I would love to hear from you. I would love to publish on the blog other mother’s “typical” days. Of course we all know there is really no such thing as a typical day in family life, but I am looking for a day that best reflects what happens at your house.
So I can capture all the right info, I have made a form which you can see below. (If you cannot see the form, please click here to go directly to it.) The form will be open until June 30, 2015.
It can be anonymous if you like, the name field is not compulsory. I have included a spot for email addresses, but again it is not compulsory. You can fill the email address in only if you want me to let you know if/when the post will be published. You can tell me as much or as little as you like too!
My aim is to run 3 – 5 posts on what other mother’s do and I am looking in particular for mums who have circumstances different to me. My family life is just one of the many varied forms out there and I would love to share with readers stories from mums who:
- Have a child with special needs
- Work full time outside of the home
- Word part time outside of the home
- Are at home full time
- Are a single parent
If you are a blogger who wants to share, feel free to add links to any posts on your blog that may show in more detail how you go about your day.
Any questions, let me know! Looking forward to reading what you do!