How do you organise yourself as a working mum?

[Izzie74]

I am going back to work full time in September as a teacher. Lo will be with a childminder from 7.45-5pm, earlier on all days I can possibly do it. I have to provide meals and snacks til she is on 'proper' food. She'll be nearly 9 months when she starts. Health visitor said she can drink water all day and bf at night feeds.
How do you all plan your time? When do you prepare food? What time do you get up/go to be Do? Where do you fit in cleaning, shopping etc when you want fun weekends with lo?
Top tips and ideas welcome please.

 

[Zeri]

It's hard! A constant juggling act. My LO is almost 9 months and has been in daycare since 4 months old - that's when I went back to work.

I live in the Caribbean and work 2 minutes from where I live.. but generally I get up for the day at 6:30 am - pack lunches for LO and DD, have breakfast, and get DD and LO ready for school. At 8:10 am I drop LO and DD to school and then come back and get ready for my job at 9 am (which is 2 minutes from my home, thankfully!).

9 am-5:30 pm - work, then pick up DD and LO

5:35 pm - home with DD, LO and DH. Feeding, homework, bathing etc - till 9 pm (children's bedtime). DH cooks dinner.

9-11 pm - these are the only 2 hours I really get for myself! Usually I'm so tired that I crash on the couch, maybe surf the Internet, watch a TV show etc. I sometimes use these hours to fold laundry, do a bit of cleaning, or personal/work things that need to get done.

In our house, DH does the cooking and I do most of the childcare and also the cleaning (very unbalanced, really.. )

Weekends
There is never enough time on the weekends. I used to try to clean on the weekends but it impossible with the 2 children at home, and I found that all of my time was being eaten up by housework and not enough time doing fun stuff.

So now I try to build in relaxing things (going to the beach, going for icecream, church, etc), and I concentrate on getting 2 major household things done on the weekend 1) Laundry 2) Braiding DD's hair for the schoolweek

Cleaning
I shifted the cleaning to two weekdays. On Monday, I clean 1/2 of the house, and on Tuesday I clean the 2nd half. I found that it was easier to divide the cleaning into two sections, rather than do everything one time in 3 hours.

Shopping
Minor shopping gets done on weekdays after work. Major shopping at the end of the month.

I find it's very stressful being a working mother. I feel like I'm constantly going....and that's there no spare time for anything much, really. For now, LO is on Gerber foods but I really should be pureeing home-cooked meals for him. Not sure where I will fit that in- maybe on weekends.

 

[Beanonorder]

I go back to full time teaching in August and it's going to be interesting to see how everything works.
I have the major advantage that I have a nanny/cleaner so I don't have to worry about laundry and dishes and things. Dh will take dd to kindergarten and ds will stay home with the nanny. I do a lot of grocery shopping online so that saves some time there. I also plan to do a lot of lesson planning over the summer so I'm prepared. I have a very strict 'no taking work home' rule so I have to be really organised. I also do the cooking so I will have a meal plan to make life easier.
I think the key is to plan ahead and be as organised as possible.

 

[Cattia]

I will be returning 4 days a week form November when I finish my maternity leave. This is my third baby so I've been through this before but starting back is never easy! I am also a teacher.
My kids get dropped with the childminder at 7.30 apart from the days when my mum comes in to do the school run. DS is the only one who needs a packed lunch as DD has school dinners but when I go back I will be needing to pack lunch just for LO as both the older ones will be at school.
The key for me is to do everything the night before. I get the clothes ironed and laid out, bags packed, shoes and coats ready, sandwiches made etc.
We get up at 6 and get the kids ready to be out the door at 7.20. That's the worst bit of the day and usually involves a lot of yelling
My DH finishes before me so he usually picks them up at about 4.45 and starts their tea. When I get in we finish tea and get them in the bath, do DD's reading, bedtimes stories etc and they are in bed about 7.30. We then cook and eat and get everything ready for the next day. About 9pm I start work and will often work for about an hour or so in the week.
I don't work at weekends unless I'm really pushed and then it would only be in the evening, never in the day when I am with the kids. We usually shop one evening in the week and we clean as and when, but we have a cleaner once a fortnight. It's hard work and there is never any time for ourselves. Teaching is hard because of all the work you have to do at home but at least we get the holidays!

 

[shinona]

I agree that it's all about organisation and having everything laid out the night before. All our clothes are laid out. Bags are packed and by the door together with jackets, shoes etc. There is nothing more frustrating and time consuming than looking for a missing shoe or hat when you're trying to get out the door! I always set my alarm for 6.15am so I can be showered and face on before the kids wake up. I also try to have dinner made and set the oven so that it is ready for us coming in the door in the evening. Pasta bakes are a life saver. Or have bolognaise sauce cooked on the weekend so you only have to stick on a pot of pasta.
You'll.find a way to make it work. Xx

 

[Cattia]

I agree that it's all about organisation and having everything laid out the night before. All our clothes are laid out. Bags are packed and by the door together with jackets, shoes etc. There is nothing more frustrating and time consuming than looking for a missing shoe or hat when you're trying to get out the door! I always set my alarm for 6.15am so I can be showered and face on before the kids wake up. I also try to have dinner made and set the oven so that it is ready for us coming in the door in the evening. Pasta bakes are a life saver. Or have bolognaise sauce cooked on the weekend so you only have to stick on a pot of pasta.
You'll.find a way to make it work. Xx

Oh yes, the curse of the missing shoe! I once had to send DD to school in snow boots as I justcouldn't find her second school shoe anywhere. Now I line up shoes by the door the night before!

 

[Tattoo]

I'm a teacher, too. I went back to work when my first baby was almost five months old, and I went back full time. This is what my day would look like:

6am Get up, breastfeed baby, express on the other side, eat breakfast, wash and sterilise breast pump, get dressed

7:30am My mum would arrive to look after baby and I'd leave for work (15-20 minute drive)

12:00 Express over lunchtime. I'd try and express from both breasts, but usually only managed time for one. I'd also mark the morning books at the same time.

3:20pm School finishes. If it's Monday then staff meeting until 5 o'clock. Otherwise I'm gone by 4;30pm.

I'd breastfeed immediately when I got home, then just feed on demand ausual. I'd express again straight after the bedtime feed. Once baby was asleep I'd finish any school prep for the next day. I usually go to bed around 10 o'clock.

I manage to keep my weekends reasonably free, by doing all my planning in my PPA time.
I also host student teachers in my class, which frees up a lot of time and lets me get on top of things a bit.

 

[MindUtopia]

We're a bit different in that we don't get to nursery until 9am and I don't have to pack food because nursery provides it. Our daughter was BLW, so she always ate normal food and ate the food they provide, which is home cooked normal food, from the start. At 9 months, your LO will likely be moving into eating finger foods if you haven't started already before that, and if you are doing purees, then they're easy to pack if you're using the pre-made stuff. For dinner, I pick my daughter up at 5pm, and we come home and start on dinner. She helps me by standing next to me at the counter and putting veg I chop in the pot or roasting tray. I cook for about an hour. We have dinner at 6:30 and she goes up to bath at 7, in bed by 8. As for getting things done, we do cleaning before/after working in the mornings/afternoons, one of us will clean and the other will do the meal. I order a shopping order online mid-week (usually Tuesday or Wednesday) and I do a shop on Saturday or Sunday (I can't manage only one shop a week because we buy mostly fresh food and it all goes bad after about 4-5 days). When I did need to pack a meal for the day (like when she's home and we're going somewhere), I do it the night before or the morning of, while my husband does dinner or breakfast. I also just accept that the house is sort of a mess and we don't stress too much about it. I'd rather do fun family things on the weekend than spend the morning cleaning the bathroom.