Reply to Working Parents Who Aren’t Tired — Tell us your schedule or secret sauce

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "Working Parents Who Aren’t Tired — Tell us your schedule or secret sauce"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We're a not tired couple with a clean and organized house...

-my job is 100% WFH and very solitary and flexible.  I can complete a household or parenting chore or errand or two during the day and take DD to after school activities; I just need to deliver my deliverables, no one cares which hours in the day I work or how long it takes me; I'm so expert at this point that I can usually complete my work during ES hours...

-DH's job is more intense and inflexible, but he has a very short commute and no travel; he's able to be home for morning quality time and dinner and bedtime, but he does need to log back on a lot of evenings

- older DD (entering 4th grade) is in public ES; takes bus every morning and some afternoons (bus stop is two houses away)
-younger DD is in preschool; we drop off and pick up, but we picked a school that is only a 5 min drive away

- biweekly cleaning lady
- housekeeper who comes 8 hours a week (two afternoons) and does laundry, meal prep, house tidying or organization
-weekly grocery delivery (instacart)

-I have a tried-and-true rotation of simple weeknight dinners that usually everyone eats; if not, the backup option is very basic...cereal, PB&J sandwich, etc...

-older DD does a lot of activities, that's what makes her happy.  I'm able to handle that because of the flexibility of my job, carpools, and the fact that my younger DD is 4 and doesn't do any weekday activities yet bc she gets all the enrichment she needs at her full-day preschool (FWIW, we didn't plan the big age gap, but I actually think it's helped to lighten my burden, at least at this particular stage)

-once my kids go to bed, I do a quick kitchen clean up, but my evening time is "me time".. exercising, reading, watching TV with DH

Really the key to it all is my job!
[/quote]

So key points:

1) essentially part time flex job 100% WFH
2) cleaning lady and house keeper, about 15 hrs of hired labor a week seems like
3) only one kid in activities
4) public school bus (how are the upper schools in your neighborhood?)
5) two kids

How did you get such a great flex job? How does it pay? Sounds like DH works about 40 hrs with commute — his pay?

Having that much household labor, must be $300/week?

If you are zoned for good high schools you are golden. [/quote]

DH works substantially more than 40 hours a week; he makes $300k plus 75k - 100k in bonus.
I make $150k and my job also provides our excellent health insurance.  So, I'm not making the big bucks, but my salary makes a big difference in terms of the house we could buy, travel, and college savings.  My job is very niche, I made choices to specialize; I also turned down opportunities to make more in favor of the flexibility.

We pay cleaning lady $225 a visit (so twice a month) and we pay housekeeper $250 a week.  Money so well spent!

My younger DD is also in a few activities, but only on the weekend, when DH is available to help out.

Our public schools are excellent through HS.  We have ZERO interest in sending our kids to private school, and we would never have purchased a home in a district without public schools we were happy with.  My DH's company is in a neighboring suburb, not downtown (we are outside a major city, but not DC).

I should clarify...we are tired at the end of the day, but in a good way...the way parents and fully functioning adults should be.  It's not like I have down time during the day...I go from working, to dealing with older DD's activities, to picking up younger DD, to getting dinner on the table, to bedtime.  But we're not run down, exhausted, just trying to slog and get through the day.  Those things are not overwhelming given our overall set up, I have time when my kids go to sleep for me time, I don't need to log back on, I can spend quality time with them in the afternoon.

[/quote]

But you will eventually have two kids in after school activities and it’s not realistic for the OP to only have one of their three children in after school activities…so not applicable and your four year old sounds like she’s in FT daycare if you do not have a nanny. You can call it preschool, but it sounds like she’s in school all day (8-5) and that’s daycare.[/quote]

I was answering OP's question and sharing my set up.  OP didn't ask to hear from only people with 3 kids, or only people with kids in private school, etc.  This is how my life works these days.  Adding after school activities for my younger  DD in a year or two will be an added layer, and we will adjust accordingly.  Maybe we will need more help, I don't know!

And I did not mean to imply that my younger DD is not in full time care -- she is!  I typically pick her up between 4 to 4:30 (one or two days actually earlier to get my other DD to a particular activity).  I really don't care what anyone wants to call it, daycare or whatever...it's a pre-k program with an extended day option.  Half the kids in the class leave after lunch.  It's not at a center that takes infants or toddlers.  But really, who cares?  What does that have to do with this thread?

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics