Question About Transitioning Back To Workforce from SAHM

[Anonymous]

I may be going back to work soon, on rather short notice. I'm trying to make a list of the things we will need to take care of on weekends or evenings that I am currently taking care of during the weekdays. We would most likely hire a housecleaner once a month, so that would cover the deep cleaning tasks. I would be working in a school, so there is no flexibility to do things on my lunch break, although DH WFH so he would likely be able to do a few things during his lunch break. What am I forgetting?

-meal prep
-grocery shopping and other errands
-laundry
-dishes
-making school lunches
-my own doctor/dentist appointments would need to be after school

Also, if I am the one with less flexibility at work, DH is going to need to use leave for teacher workdays, kids' sick days and doctors appointments. What else am I forgetting there that he will need to take on?

[Anonymous]

Planning time-- camps, vacations, etc. Sometimes requires phone calls during the business day.
Dealing with kids' clothes.

In my experience when you really feel the burn from this is when multiple kids are sick so you need like a whole week off sick, when one parent is on travel, or when a grandparent or something requires a lot of care. Your cushion of having an adult with free time (or time that can be freed up) is gone, so you really feel the pain. And if it's an illness it's very hard to get childcare.

[Anonymous]

Having houseguests.
Home maintenance.

[Anonymous]

Meal prep, grocery, laundry= weekend, even if DH picks up this chore

Your routine medical appointments= your holidays

Camp planning= weekend, even if DH picks up this chore

Your DH will need to respond to the emergencies and last minute sick visits, when the bus doesn’t show up on time, when the teacher needs to talk to a parent same day, etc

[Anonymous]

Summer camps and childcare for all the days off from school like teacher work days and snow days.

[Anonymous]

Line up a coverage when the shi$ hits the fan.

[Anonymous]

Making school lunches - not necessary
Meal prep - may not be necessary

Rethink. With convince being paramount

[Anonymous]

I should note that, as a teacher, I would not need to worry about camps, but I also wouldn't have much in the way of money to throw at things before it didn't make sense to spend my time working.

[Anonymous]

How old are kids?

[Anonymous]

Have groceries delivered. Teach kids to be self sufficient. My 6 yr old packs her lunch and her little brother’s.

[Anonymous]

All these answers are crazy to me! Why do you have to do laundry on weekends? Throw in a load before work, dry it after. Or let DH do it who is at home! CleN a little each day. It’s not hard or stressful, you just need to schedule your time. I do none of these things in the weekend.

[Anonymous]

What’s the sick day plan? Make sure you have coverage if one or all of kids are out of school for 5+ days with Covid, but general illness too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old are kids?

Kids are 9, 7 and 4.

[Anonymous]

This is other stuff l do that takes several hours per month on average, ymmv. I suggest 2x / mo house cleaning if you can afford it. I work full time.

Yard care / gardening
Pet care
Planning and prep for birthdays and holidays
Planning and prep for vacations and weekend trips like camping
Car care
As others have said, planning for and booking summer camps and activities - some of the forms are crazy time consuming

Clothes / shoes / outer wear for me and the kids - shopping, mending, dry cleaning, gathering outgrown and giving away

I would like to spend more time gathering up all the stuff we no longer use to do a garage sale, but l never seem to make the time to make it happen…,it’s a lower priority than everything else above

I would also like to spend time to properly decorate the house, same problem

[Anonymous]

Start developing babysitter contacts because you will 100% need them when daycare/school is closed, especially if there is COVID nonsense still in their policies.