Being a mom can be an overwhelming experience, and being a working mom is an even more challenging experience. The responsibilities of a mom include but are not limited to taking care of the kids, house care, food, groceries, laundry, etc.; at this rate, any mom will need an essential survival guide. A survival guide is crucial to getting through your life as a working mom, stay-at-home mom, or mom who owns your own business. I am also a mom, wife, and work-from-home mom working on a side business. There are days when I wish I could have a quick list to keep in front of my eyes of what I need to do to help get through the crazy days.
Harvard Business Review states that there are “Five Core Challenges” that most parents face as working parents: transition, practicalities, communication, and loss of identity. And that the solution to the problem is rehearsing, auditing and planning, framing, using “today plus 20 years’ thinking, revisiting, and recasting. However, as a busy mom, I want these classifications to be more specific. Therefore, I made a list of practical everyday mom hacks for busy mommas as a sanity check each day on how to survive crazy days as a mom.
The quick parenting life survival guide for busy mommas includes nine essential things to remember daily to help moms get through the craziness of mommy life. The top 9 things every mom should remember are time blocking and scheduling, preparing ahead, creating routines, appointing days for specific tasks, the power to say “no,” kids’ nap times or bedtimes should be your golden hour, delegating responsibilities, self-care, and being present with your family.
So, what is a quick parenting life survival guide, and how can it help a busy mom balance all her priorities? I contacted two moms with different responsibilities who shared their daily life survival tips and included their experiences and opinions. Remember that each mom has different responsibilities, but all need these nine essentials to help them balance day-to-day responsibilities. These nine items are all essentials; one is not more important than the other.
- Time blocking and scheduling is essential to balance a busy mom’s life.
Time blocking and scheduling have been around for a long time, and most moms need to utilize these tools more. First, there is the excuse that I do not need it, it’s all in my head, or I go with the flow. Trust me; I was there once too. I believed I could keep it all straight in my head, too, until I realized that as things started to pile up, things were getting lost in the shuffle, and I was constantly stressed. Shifting to having time blocks and schedules became essential for balancing my daily responsibilities. Liliya, a local salon owner and busy mom with four kids, also states, “To ensure I get everything done. I do a lot of time-blocking.”
“To ensure I get everything done. I do a lot of time-blocking.”
Liliya, Mom of 4 and Local Salon Owner
- A busy mom should always prepare ahead.
Busy moms also needed to prepare ahead! Preparing is not only a time saver but also helps keep your life organized and helps to make the days flow more smoothly. For example, prepare ahead by doing a meal plan weekly or if you like meal prep for the week. Have your kids and your clothes ready for the next day each night. Thinking ahead and planning what little tasks you can do in advance will save you some emotional stress overall.
- Creating routines helps bring a better flow daily.
Morning and bedtime routines are essential for a busy mom’s daily life sanity. Mornings should be about your time, and getting up even 30 minutes before your kids get up to set your mind for the day with a cup of coffee will make you a happier mom and a more productive one. Bedtime routines are even more critical because they help establish a schedule for you and your kids when they sleep. I once heard a woman with no kids ask a mom, “Why do you get your kids to bed at 7 pm” and the mom of 2 kids responded, “Because that time is for me and my husband.” It is so true! Setting a schedule for your child to be in bed helps put time on your schedule to unwind from the busy day, reset yourself, and spend some much-needed alone time with your husband.
A busy mom of 2 under 2
I once heard a woman with no kids ask a mom, “Why do you get your kids to bed at 7 pm” and the mom of 2 kids responded, “Because that time is for me and my husband.”
- Appointing days of the week for specific tasks.
Setting aside a day or two days a week to work on essential tasks is another life-saving tool for busy moms. Liliya states that to accomplish her necessary tasks, she “Sets aside designated days for specific tasks, like today getting all my finances counted up.” Understanding that sometimes you have just to put something on your schedule and show up is essential. For example, I schedule an hour each day of the week for different cleaning tasks. To remember to do a deep clean of some areas of the house, I need to designate some time of the day for it. For example, making Monday laundry day always triggers me to get all the dirty laundry from the hampers to the laundry room for washing.
- A busy mom must know the power of saying “No.”
The power to say “no” is the most important thing, in my opinion, when it comes to being a busy mom. Having a schedule in place is incredible; setting aside days for specific tasks is great, but if you don’t know how to say “no” to random things that come up and prioritize tasks, you will be back where you started, stressed and anxious because nothing is getting done. As a people pleaser, I struggled with pleasing everyone and saying “yes” to everything. But I realized throughout my life and with my husband’s help (he is good at saying no) that I should not say “yes” to everything. It can wait if it does not build my life, give me joy, or improve my family or me.
- Kids’ nap times or bedtime routines should be your golden hour.
Tania, a busy momma with an online network marketing business and a baby girl states that her little ones’ naps are her time “to tidy up the home and get some work done.” As a mom of an 18-month-old, I agree that her nap times help me get some essential things done for myself and my accounting job. Being an accountant by profession, I have many deadlines that I need to meet, and having her nap in the middle of the day helps me accomplish those tasks timely. If I have a sitter, those times are for my workouts. As a mom, you know your top priorities or essentials in the day, and creating a routine with your baby’s naps can help get some much-needed work or personal time on your schedule.
“to tidy up the home and get some work done.”
Tania, Online Network Marketing & Momma to 1 baby girl
- Learn how to delegate your responsibilities.
If you look up mom life hacks, survival tips, or productivity tips online, you will see that all talk about delegation of responsibilities. And I 100% agree! Delegation is a powerful tool for keeping your sanity when it comes to a busy schedule and getting more work done efficiently. Delegating to other trusted individuals helps free up some more time for you to do the necessary work. For example, four days a week, I have my mother-in-law or my mom come by to watch my little one so that I can get my 9-5 work done. Freeing up time is essential to help me stay on track with my work responsibilities and improve my focused time to accomplish vital tasks weekly.
- Self-Care is essential for keeping your daily momentum going.
A mom’s self-care gets lost so quickly because it’s more important to do all the things instead of priorities your well-being. I was on this roller coaster ride for a good 1st year of my child’s life. As a people pleaser, I wanted to do it all for my little one and my family and was putting myself last on the list, and instead of making things better, I was making it worse. My health started to decline, as well as my emotional well-being. It affected my marriage, work productivity, and presence with my child and family. Therefore, learning that self-care should be a priority was a hard-learned lesson I am passionate about. For a mom to be healthy and do all the things they need to prioritize self-care
- Being present with your family.
Last but not least is learning to be present in the moment. Remember that your family is your lifeline and your main priority right after your self-care. Please don’t get so busy doing that you forget to engage in your time with them. When you find yourself disconnecting from your time with your kids or husband, please make a note to journal about it to find out why you are off-focus and not present in the moment. Usually, it’s because your mind thinks about all the other things you need to do. Therefore, go back to the first thing on this list, which is time blocking and scheduling, and find a place for that task in your schedule so that you know it will get done and you can get back to being present with the most critical relationships in your life.
For additional references for balancing life, work, and home, see the following articles-
https://hbr.org/2019/07/a-working-parents-survival-guide