If you have young kids and work full time what is your daily schedule?

[Anonymous]

Find ways to work out with your kids around! It is totally possible. I do momma strong.com . It's 15 min workouts and I do them twice a day with my kids around. It's just part of their life now.

[Anonymous]

I have two kids, 6 and 4. We haven’t had childcare at all during Covid but both parents are working from home. This is actually the first year since I got pregnant 7 years ago that I have worked out nearly every day. We got a peloton, which helped us figure out how to maximize our time. (My husband resisted initially, given the pandemic trend, but he is glad we got it!).

I wake up at 5:30 am, drink coffee, then exercise from 6-7. My husband wakes up with the kids and gets stuff started for the day. When I am done, he showers and I keep the morning routine going before showering. We are done with morning stuff by 8:30 at the absolute latest, so work and virtual school can get started. We switch off who is with the kids half way through the day - the half of the day without kids is crammed pack with meetings and calls (I try not to do calls with the kids around — learned the hard way how difficult that is!) but I do try to take at least one call on a walk. (I am sometimes the one person not on video but I don’t care - I need fresh air!). I shoot for 6000-8000 steps per day in addition to my workout, which tends to be about 45 min of walking.

When the kids are around, it’s a frantic mix of virtual kindergarten, trying to do work, making dinner, etc. it’s not pretty, having exercised helps me manage! We wrap work by 5:30, eat, read, get ready for bed, etc. My husband exercises at night after the kids go to sleep. We both wind up doing work at night, too. Sometimes the nights are late but I am usually in bed by 9 and asleep by 9:30-10.

I think we will mostly be able to keep this routine up once the kids are back in school full time (summer camp is coming and I am so excited!). I may have to get up a little earlier. But I might also be able to fit in working out during the work day, at least at first, now that people are used to me having limits on my availability (pre Covid I was in meetings pretty much 9-5). I say all this but please know it took us 7 years to find this routine — having older and slightly more self sufficient kids helps. I feel so much better having finally lost the 20 lbs I was holding onto from pregnancy and breastfeeding, but I know I would have never been able to stick to this routine (and healthier eating) when my kids were not sleeping and needed more assistance throughout the mornings... I was always someone who needed a lot of sleep (I went to bed early and still had trouble waking up by 7:30 in my pre kid days!) but that has definitely gotten easier as I have gotten older (and made it a habit).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a reason your husband can’t take morning a couple times a week? I work out 30-40 min 2x a week in the AM abs those are the days my husband takes. The kids are sometimes dressed funny and the kitchen can be a bit of a disaster but it is what it is.

Both kids have an incredibly strong preference and will just stand at the gate screaming for me. They’re totally fine with the nanny, dh is just kind of agitated and grouchy in the morning and they all feed off of each other and I feel guilty that the kids are starting the day on such a negative tone. I could get up at like 615 and do a 30min workout right away in my room so he wouldn’t be on his own with them for long (yes it’s a bigger problem and dh just needs to suck it up and slap on a pleasant attitude but I unfortunately can’t solve that)

Yea I mean my kids are the same way. I get up first 5x a week and on the days I don’t they cry for mama. Too bad, I have to get 40 min to myself here abs there. We have a pretty big house and I go to the basement so they physically cannot see me. The weather is about to get nicer so if I were you I’d start working out outdoors. I’m sure you let DH sleep in / do his own thing basically every morning now, so sit down and tell him it is only fair for you to get a couple mornings per wk. it’ll be a tough adjustment at first but they’ll get used to it

[Anonymous]

Mom to a 1 year old with a nanny.

6:30 AM - Wake, get dressed, breakfast

8:00 AM - Nanny arrives, catch up on work email

9:00 AM - Tues and Thurs Peloton 20 or 30 min ride while nanny takes dd on a walk; MWF - work

10:00 AM - Meetings, work

4:00 PM - Nanny leaves, monitor email while cooking dinner and entertaining dd (no calls or meetings during this time)

5:00 PM - Dinner, bath, bedtime

7:00 PM - Work if need to, relax if don't

I also do a 30 to 45 minute Peloton ride during naptime either Sat or Sun. Total of 3 workouts. Want to try to add 2 strength sessions too, but pretty pleased with this. Oh and the Tues and Thurs rides are non-negotiable. I schedule them on my work calendar as meetings. If I have a lot of work, I just catch up at night.

Obviously this is only possible with no commute. I dread going back to an office.

[Anonymous]

7:45- wake up. 4.5 and 2.5 are already awake but playing quietly. The 4 year old dresses herself. We dress the 2 year old.
8- I log onto work. I get dressed and put in makeup at 10 she I take a break. Dh takes the kids to daycare
4pm- I have a meeting from 4-5 that I listen to and prep dinner and vegetables.
5:30- dinner is finished and I pick up at daycare. It’s 5 min away.
7:30- we read books for 30 min and then they go to bed. I log into work and/or clean until 11pm.

I too get what you’re saying about no downtime. I think having no commute makes it really hard. There’s no time to decompress or separate work and home. I also have to keep my house clean or else it stresses me while I work. I adore my kids but my life is lacking in joy now. There’s no zoos or museums or fun things to do with kids. Just up to me to entertain.

[Anonymous]

Kids are 6 and 4.
Wake up 6:15 am. Start the kettle for pour over coffee, set out kids breakfast, out the door at 6:30am to run. In the summer I swim laps, pool is 10 min walk.
7-7:15 - kids wake up, they start eating while my husband showers.
7:30 - come home, husband has my coffee and breakfast ready for me. Kids play or watch a show. We tell the kids the schedule for the day.
8:00 - clean up breakfast, gather kids stuff for daycare / 1st grade pod
8:20 - husband leaves to take kids, I jump in the shower
9am - husband is home, we each start work
3:45 -I leave to pick up kids
4:15 - home with kids if no sports or activities, get the kids settled with a snack and an activity
4:30-5:15 - wrap up work emails
5:15 - start dinner, do laundry, unpack backpacks
5:45 - husband is done, takes kids outside to play
6:15 - eat dinner
7:00 - after dinner walk as a family
7:30 - bath
8:00 - stories and bedtime
8:30 - husband washes dishes, wipes counters, sweeps up. I do a bit of work or just relax.
9:30pm - we do a 20-30 min yoga video together
10:30pm - bed for me
11:30 - bed for husband

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be kind to yourself, OP. Us parents have been asked to do something most would balk at. This situation was unprecedented and many of us are caught in between unforgiving employers and unforgiving school districts. Both expect us to keep them in business at the expense of our own health and sanity.

+1
There's only so much you can do. Personally I'd drop the night time work. I actually did this pre Covid. I just couldn't do it. Nothing happened. Life went on.

[Anonymous]

Have nanny come 45 mins earlier 2-3 times a week.

[Anonymous]

Can you work out during lunchtime? I used to do that when I worked from home because it was one time Id have an excuse to be away from the computer.

Also if you have workout equipment at home, you might be able to walk on treadmill or use elliptical during calls. I have some meetings that I have to listen in on but not really participate, so I’ll prop my laptop on the elliptical and squeeze in an easy workout that way.

Otherwise you’re going to have to do 530 am. My goal is twice during the week and twice on the weekend.

[Anonymous]

Op here - thanks for all the ideas. For some reason I’d gotten into very black and white thinking that I had to solve for something every day vs just finding time 2 mornings a week is a good improvement! It’s hard to break the mindset of “if you’re not sweaty and exhausted after an intense hour class, it’s not a workout” which is kind of funny considering I don’t think I could even get through those workouts currently so it’s a dumb bar

[Anonymous]

I get up at 5 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays and work out for an hour. Kids have stoplight clocks so they aren't allowed out of bed until 6:15 at the earliest, so by that time my workout is done and I'm showering.

I work out for an hour on Sat and Sun.

4 days a week is a good target. I use M/W/F to work a little extra or sleep a little extra - depending on what I need to allow the workouts and sanity.

Kids are 6 and 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is NOT a sah/woh debate. I’m purely curious about the logistics of working parent schedules when the kids are too young to not be intensively supervised because I’m trying to find 45min a day to workout and can’t seem to before I’m too exhausted. Mine is below but more looking for other examples than to trouble shoot mine

- 6am up which whichever toddler is up first (sometimes 530 sometimes 630). Play with kids and get them started on breakfast by 730
- 745 nanny comes - go shower, dress, catch up on overnight work email
- 825-9 - drop preschooler off at school (only 10min away but full process with getting out door, parking at school etc takes this long)
- 9-530 - frantically work (from home - will be home post Covid) tons and tons of video calls, maybe get in a 30min walk outside while on an audio only call. Get a couple 30min blocks between calls to do actual work
- 530 -8 - dinner/ bath / play / bedtime with kids. In theory both are down by 730 but older one is often up a couple times. Clean kitchen up. If all goes well, kids and kitchen are done by 8
- 8-930 - work - get documents etc ready for meetings the next day. Get emails out. Also do any online shopping needed (grocery orders, Amazon orders etc)
- 930-1030 - great ready for bed, fiddle on phone, watch a show, can’t make myself go to bed before 1030 bc this 30min or so is the only time I really get to just do nothing

I love my job and can’t do it in a part time way. The hours aren’t actually that crazy for work given I have no commute, it’s just that between work and caring for kids every minute feels taken up. I just want to figure out a time for a good 30min workout, probably needing 45min total to change clothes / cool off

I have two young kids and we both work-full time and have a nanny. A couple of thoughts for you:
- Can your nanny drop the preschooler off at school? It seems like she probably picks them up, right?
- Can you pick one day, maybe a weekend day, to do your online shopping? I find that if I spread it out and do it as needed it feels like I'm doing it all the time, but when I decide to do it, say Sundays at 11 am, I find that it really isn't that much time. Just keep a list during the week so you're not having to remember what you ran out of and then order everything at once. (I mean this for both food and other stuff like dog food, new socks, shampoo, etc.).
- My husband is content fiddling on his phone or flipping through the TV channels to find something to watch but I am not. We do some evenings together, and some apart, but I find that I enjoy my nights more if I do a concrete thing, like watch a specific show or read part of a book. Fiddling on the phone ends up as wasted time and then I don't feel satisfied. (For what it's worth, my fix for that, since I do enjoy fiddling on my phone a bit, is to take it to the bathroom with me. I can sit down for a few minutes and engage in some silly social media scrolling or whatever it is and then be done and move on from that.)
- Could your nanny come at 7:30? It's only 15 minutes earlier (although I realize from your hours you are probably paying her 10 hours a day, which equates to 10 hours of overtime every week and I am acutely aware of how quickly those overtime minutes add up since they're so expensive). But my thinking was, rather than you starting breakfast for 15 minutes, which probably ends up being longer or causing you to do more, if you could focus on getting yourself dressed in workout clothes and be ready to work out at 7:30 when she walks in, and then if she took the preschooler to school, you could buy yourself your workout time there.
- Where is your husband/spouse/partner in all of this? My husband and I alternate who does what in the morning so that today he did breakfast and tomorrow I'll do it. That gives the other person time to work out (or get started early on work if needed). Some mornings when we can push our start time back a bit we will work out together at 7:30.
- If you'd prefer to work out in the evenings, then be done at 7:30 and get your workout in then. Put the kids down and if the older one gets up, then your husband/spouse/partner deals with it. He/she/they can also clean the kitchen at night. Not sure if you're looking to work out all five days of the week, but if not, then you can alternate who does that.
Good luck. It's hard but if you have a nanny and are working from home now (we both are as well and are therefore saving on the commute but I sympathize in that it feels like the time just disappears) I think you can make some small adjustments and be able to get the time that you need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you do OP? You work a lot

9-5:30 is basically 8 hours a day when you consider half an hour for lunch. OP does some later emails and such to prepare for the next day (I can sympathize - being on calls all day sucks because you have no down time to get anything done or catch up on things). That sounds like a pretty typical Fed employee to me. At least at my agency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you do OP? You work a lot

9-5:30 is basically 8 hours a day when you consider half an hour for lunch. OP does some later emails and such to prepare for the next day (I can sympathize - being on calls all day sucks because you have no down time to get anything done or catch up on things). That sounds like a pretty typical Fed employee to me. At least at my agency.

But then why can’t she workout during lunch and eat her lunch at her desk? That’s what a lot of people do. It’s logistically easier than trying to squeeze a workout in the morning or evening when you have small kids. I sympathize with the chaos of the AM/PM schedule because those are really difficult times in our house even with my DH pitching in a lot. But I just do midday workouts during lunch and it’s fine. It’s why lots of people like HIIT and other workouts that are quick and intense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you do OP? You work a lot

9-5:30 is basically 8 hours a day when you consider half an hour for lunch. OP does some later emails and such to prepare for the next day (I can sympathize - being on calls all day sucks because you have no down time to get anything done or catch up on things). That sounds like a pretty typical Fed employee to me. At least at my agency.

But then why can’t she workout during lunch and eat her lunch at her desk? That’s what a lot of people do. It’s logistically easier than trying to squeeze a workout in the morning or evening when you have small kids. I sympathize with the chaos of the AM/PM schedule because those are really difficult times in our house even with my DH pitching in a lot. But I just do midday workouts during lunch and it’s fine. It’s why lots of people like HIIT and other workouts that are quick and intense.

OP here - I don't really take a lunch break, just grab lunch in 5 minutes between calls and eat off video. I really am on back to back calls all day - my role is both very senior in the organization (so I have a lot of direct reports that need to check in on things and and also need to coordinate my team's activities and priorities with other senior teams so lots of leadership meetings) and external facing (so lots of customer meetings). I'm trying to hire in a layer of middle management so I don't have so many direct reports but don't have them today. I might have one or two 30min blocks between 9-5 where I'm not on a call but I usually use that to catch up on emails / slacks / get a snack. It would be a tough time to get sweaty and hop back on a video call after all red faced.