Working moms, when do you cook, clean, do laundry, work out???
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Anonymous
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I work full time. When my husband is out on travel, we are in survival mode - healthy home made meals, clean house are definitely bumped further down the priority list when he's not home to divvy it up with me.
When we've both home, while one of us gets dinner started, the other keeps the kids occupied and throws in a load of laundry, and we have the kids learn to help out from a really young age - my two year old puts her own laundry away in her dresser, she puts her shoes on the shoes rack in the closet, wipes up her spills with rags and puts the dirty rags away in the laundry hamper, etc. For extracurricular activities - our kids get plenty of arts & crafts and outdoor time at schools and before & after care. So weeknights are focused on dinner, picking up, family story time, baths, and bedtime. Any extra dance classes are weekends only. I would not consider a weeknight dance class for DD. For my workouts, I either work out at the gym at work or do a weekend morning class. I also walk a lot for my commute so if I just throw in a few toning exercises at home for 10 mins in the evening after the kids' bedtime, I'm able to keep myself looking fit enough. |
Anonymous
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I'm a single mom of two working full time, but home one day a week.
I cook two big meals on Sunday and freeze half. For example, tonight is eggplant parm that I made last Sunday. I also do bulk healthy snacks (carrots, melon, pineapple) on Sundays so on it's always on hand. The rest of the week is easy, health meals (omelets, grilled chicken with 2steamed veggies, etc). Work on developing a meal plan so you can cut your effort in half. We order in pizza the last Friday of the month (yay tonight!), otherwise I cook every night or eat leftovers. Laundry starts the night before the day i work from home after the kids go to bed and I finish through the next day. And I just started working out again at home with videos and weights. I clean up every night. Alternate light and deep cleaning every other weekend. I pay someone to mow the lawn. |
Anonymous
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Cook - as soon as I get home, or make double batches of pasta, entrees, etc. when I cook and then just throw together a veggie or salad and starch.
Clean - I don't. Weekly housecleaners. Just wipe down the kitchen and bathrooms as needed. Laundry - 5 days a week. After dinner, throw in a load. DH or I will put it in the dryer. He folds, and he and the kids put their own stuff away once it's done. Work out - twice a week with a personal trainer during the work day (I use my lunch hour for it). Run or bike on the weekends with family. |
Anonymous
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I cook 4/5 weeknights. My spouse and I split dropoff/pickup. On days when I get home by 5 or 5:30, I'll make something that takes a little more time. If I get home with the child at 6 or 6:30 I make something that can be on the table in 20 minutes. This week I've done pickup and gotten home on the later side, so I've made quick meals
-the chicken soup with fresh salsa that was in the Times a few weeks ago (had chicken cooked in advance) making soup and salsa probably took about 30 min -corn tortillas, beans, rest of the fresh salsa, spinach on the side -tofu stirfry with spinach and peas and rice noodles It's definitely tiring because I walk through the door, take off my coat, and start cooking, but it is what it is. Some weeks I do a lot of cooking ahead on the weekend and that makes things easier. Cleaning: whoever isn't doing bedtime does dishes and a quick cleanup. We save major cleaning and laundry for weekends. |
Anonymous
And working out: I walk 3 miles a day, swim once a week, and do light weights and stretching at home in the evening. |
Anonymous
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New mom to an 11-month old here. DH and I spend a decent chunk of time on the weekends getting our house in order:
Saturday: big clean (bathrooms, floors, laundry, kitchen) Sunday: big grocery shop and prep. In the summer we grill 3-4 proteins for the week, in the winter, I put together 3-4 crockpot/frozen meals for the week. I also wash and prep all of the groceries on Sunday so cooking for the week is pretty easy. During the week, I do both pick-up and drop-off. (7am/4pm) DC and I get home and walk the dog and then I clean/pick-up one room in the house (rotating daily schedule) while DC plays within view. I get started on dinner around 5 or so. DH gets home around 6 and we all eat dinner. If the weather is nice, we take a family walk, if not, DH plays with baby while I prep for the next day (lunches, pack daycare bag). DH does bath and puts baby to bed at 7 pm and I go for a run or do a DVD workout in the basement. Once the baby is down, DH cleans kitchen and I jump in the shower. We settle down to watch a little TV and have a glass of wine around 8:30 and then head to bed around 10. |
Anonymous
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DH and I meal plan together every weekend, I do the Giant run and he does the Whole Foods run.
We split cooking about 50/50, we try to get home about the same time every night and usually have dinner prepped the night before and just reheat - unless we are doing something simple like eggs, spinach quesadillas, etc. that can be made night of. My husband packs lunches in the morning. Cleaning - we have a cleaning service 2x month and a fairly small house. I tend to do the bathroom every few days during bath time and he tends to do the decluttering every night. We just clean up the kitchen every night as part of our routine. As long as the kitchen and bathroom is clean, I don't really care if there are dust bunnies under the bed in between the deeper clean that the housekeeper does. Laundry: I usually do laundry, it's not a big deal, I do it every few days, it gets put away eventually. My oldest child is pretty good about helping me. I've never found laundry that big of a deal. Work out: I walk a ton during the week since it's part of my commute. For weights, I do two mini workouts during the week and a longer one during the weekend. Usually before work when the house is quiet I can find 25 minutes or so to squeeze it in 2x a week. We are pretty active on the weekends, hiking/long walks/running around with the kids etc. I find being a working mom very manageable, but I've always worked and my husband has always been very hands on and had a VERY flexible job. He doesn't travel that much. We also have grandparents relatively close by and they are a big help. My advice is: outsource what you can, and make sure your husband is on board with pitching in. As for activities, our kids are a bit younger so haven't gotten in the thick of that yet, but my neighbor is a SAHM of one child and they have her way, way overtaxed with activities in my opinion. She told me recently the kid was exhausted all the time and they were eliminating a few. Don't feel like you have to have the kids in a ton of activities. That seems to be a new thing with our generation of parents - I wasn't in that many when I was younger. |
Anonymous
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Cleaning service every other week.
Husband cooks weeknights. I do kitchen clean up and laundry after dinner. Husband does his own laundry. I haven't figured out how to fit in exercise on a regular schedule. I do walk most days at lunch. But that's not really the same. |
Anonymous
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Cleaning - Cleaning lady 1x/wk
Laundry - DH and I both do it, usually on the wknds but occasionally a load on the weeknights. Either of us will do it, either of us will fold it. Cooking - Simpler meals than I used to do pre-kids. We usually grill Fri-Sun and relax all together. Often on Sunday I make something for the slow cooker for Monday, since that tends to be the roughest day for us. One night per week we tend to order in. You can definitely eat healthfully without putting hours into meals. Working Out - this is the hard part and what normally I put by the wayside. I get up very early for work and am out the door at 6:45am so I just can't make myself get up any earlier. Weeknights I try to jump on the treadmill after kids are in bed. Again, use Saturday and Sunday as your primary workout days and then feel victorious if you can wedge in 1 or 2 more days during the week. DH's hours aren't nutty, but they are longer than mine so I typically handle both drop-off and pick-up. He usually does bedtime routine as a result. But, if you can afford it, stay part-time. I wish more than anything that I could be at home more!! |
Anonymous
| I am a working mother with a husband that does his share of everything. That said, we pay a cleaning service $135 2x/month to do all the heavy lifting for cleaning - i.e. bathrooms, vacuuming, mopping, dusting, etc. As for cooking, we set a menu prior to the week beginning - it usually has 3-4 homemade dinners that take 30-45 minutes to make and a longer dinner for the weekend. Otherwise we have sandwiches, eggs, frozen meals, pasta. We do Peapod online based on that and I pickup the groceries from Giant on Sunday or Monday depending on schedules. I make the lunches and my husband does drop off and I do pick up of one child. He picks up other child because the kids rarely have same schedules. Whoever gets home earlier starts dinner. I usually oversee homework, although the oldest does most of his homework in aftercare. We don't do team sports because our children are not interested in them. They do get plenty of exercise in other individual sports like tennis, martial arts. I do my laundry and sheets/towels. Husband does his laundry and usually the children's - although we tend to split folding the children's laundry. He puts it away. Kids pick up their public spaces - media room and playroom. Kids do litterbox. I sort mail as it comes in - if its junk it goes straight to recycle box. I review kids folders usually everyday, but sometimes less. I review the worksheets, etc. for problems and successes but I keep very little - it mostly gets recycled. |
Anonymous
You are my hero. Really. kudos to you for doing all this on your own. |
Anonymous
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I work 40 hours a week and have a child in elementary school. I am married and my husband works similar hours. He travels a couple times a month for work.
We do laundry on the weekends. I cook pretty much every night. I get home around 6 and dinner is usually on the table around 7. It doesn't take hours to roast veggies or bake chicken. If you want to make stews, this is why the crockpot was invented. Re: cleaning. I clean while I cook, and everyone in the house, including my 4 year old DD, has chores. If your kids are old enough to have extracurricular activities, they are old enough to have chores. DD is responsible for feeding the cats, picking up her room, putting her laundry in the washing machine, and keeping her toys in the common areas of the house neat. She also tends to put all of our shoes by the door and sweeps (though she's not the best sweeper ever and often needs an assistant). She helps fold the laundry (not just hers) and put away what she can reach. DH is in charge of kitchen deep cleaning, anything related to cat litter box, vacuuming and mopping, taking out the trash and any car work that is required. I clean the bathroom and do most of the cooking and grocery shopping. I don't work out regularly these days. I used to work out either before work or during my lunch hour, but it's been really busy lately and I have not had time. I try to go for a run on the weekends and maybe once during the week while DH makes dinner. I also walk everywhere I can, take the stairs instead of the elevator, etc. As for the schedule, DD has dance on the weekends. While she's at dance, I run or do grocery shopping. I have a volunteer night mid-week, which is usually when DH and DD binge on mac and cheese and watch Frozen. DD does not have homework yet, but when she does, I'd imagine that that will either happen at aftercare or while I'm cooking dinner at home. |
Anonymous
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DH and I both leave the house at around 8:00 and aren't home until 7:00 p.m. Two preschoolers.
Cleaning/laundry - we have a weekly cleaner that also does adult laundry. So we don't do much other than the occasional batch of towels. Childcare- we have an au pair who handles cleaning the kids' rooms and their laundry. Food- we don't eat with the kids during the week; we're home too late. We generally eat quick snacky-meals while handling the evening routine. Exercise- I walk with a neighbor each morning at 6. |
Anonymous
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Workouts - typically work out at lunch during the week, or drop the kiddo off a bit earlier and work out before work if need be. Weekends - take her to the gym w/ me.
Cooking - we do takeout or restaurant meals a couple days a week, and I try to cook quick, simple things on the other days. Cleaning - during the week I'm doing little things in small pockets of time (stripping the beds before work and throwing the sheets in the washer, then into the dryer when I get home, folding laundry next to the bathroom when my daughter is bathing), with any deeper cleaning on the weekend. I typically vacuum once a week on my telework day. (which is good for laundry too.) Lawn - I mow the lawns once a week, on the weekend, while my daughter is with her dad or watching TV. |
Anonymous
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Cooking - Sunday afternoons, cook 3-4 dishes and freeze half. Then just reheat and make salad during on weekdays.
Laundry - the one day a week I work from home. Grocery shopping - when my son is at his piano class. Cleaning - maid service one every two weeks. Gym - at work during lunch 4 days a week. |