Anonymous wrote:OP here -
My question is more how to handle the evenings and get stuff done, including time with DH, when I am tired from waking up at 5.

NP, I wake at 4, gym at 5, work at 7. Home after daycare pickup by 430-500. DD is 3.

Evenings - I think the biggest thing for me is that I get home early enough to take some of the stress off. I have time to cook something, eat, and actually clean the kitchen, so that's done before DD's in bed (if DH is home, which is 50/50, he does clean up).

Also, low standards. I make sure the kitchen is clean, and the floors are reasonably clean, each night, but my biggest priority is getting stuff ready for the next day... so scrubbing the toilet will never win out over prepping the coffee pot

No errands after work. None. We (rarely) need anything THAT badly.

Once DD is in bed, I MIGHT be productive and fold laundry. Or, I might curl up on the couch with DH and a glass of wine. He knows that any adult activities will need to occur fairly early in the evening

For WAH folks, being able to exercise at lunch is key.

Anonymous wrote:OP here -
My question is more how to handle the evenings and get stuff done, including time with DH, when I am tired from waking up at 5.

Have your DH do more? Outsource? Lower your standards?

I'm constantly amazed by the people who are home by 4 and 5 o'clock. I am home by 7 if lucky.

Anyone with a longer workday who gets in a workout everyday? Would love to know how!

Anonymous wrote:I too wake up at 515 to get my morning exercise in. This means I am in bed no later than 9 pm. My husband does more than his share of the housework at night, while I do more than him in the morning to let him sleep in until 630 (We are all out the door by 7 am). My son (17 months) and I are home every day by 430. We veg for 15 minutes when we get home, then I make dinner/balance him. Husband is home by 530, we eat at 6. Baby is down by 7. From 7-9 we watch some recorded show and get ready for tomorrow. After I go to bed husband cleans up from dinner/house, makes lunches for tomorrow, and does whatever dinner prep is needed for tomorrows meal. Repeat every night!

You get it all done because you have one toddler. Enjoy it!

Anonymous wrote:how does the rest of your schedule work? When do you sleep? When do you have time for sex? Laundry? errands?

Currently, I wake up around 5:15 to nurse the baby and then exercise from 6-7am. I come back, get the older kids ready for school (with DH) and then start work (at home) by 8. Kids get home around 4 and are in bed by 8 pm. Then, I still have all the regular stuff to do: laundry, straightening up, veg-out time/tv, errands and I am so tired.

Tell me your schedule

Work out from 5:45 to 6:30. Get one kid off to work at 7, then head to work. DH gets younger kids out the door later. I sleep from about 10:30 until 5:45. We have sex once or twice a week, most often on weekends. Laundry is a five or six day a week chore - throw a load in when I get home from work, move it to the dryer, fold it throughout the evening. I really don't run errands - I shop mostly online. I don't straighten up every night. I don't have veg out time.

Get up at 6
Go to gym 6:15-7:15
7:15-8:40 Get kids (2, ages 6 and 9) dressed and breakfasted while also getting myself dressed and breakfasted and make kids lunch and myself lunch
8:40 out the door to bus
8:45 bus pick up and I head to work
4:15 arrive home
4:20 kids arrive home on bus
4:30 onwards: shuttle kids to afterschool activitites. Maybe have time to cook a nutritious family dinner, usually not
8:00 6 year old to bed
9:30: 9 year old to bed
10:00 me to bed

I don't do any chores during the week, not even laundry. Would rather just do it all on the weekend than constantly everyday.

I too wake up at 515 to get my morning exercise in. This means I am in bed no later than 9 pm. My husband does more than his share of the housework at night, while I do more than him in the morning to let him sleep in until 630 (We are all out the door by 7 am). My son (17 months) and I are home every day by 430. We veg for 15 minutes when we get home, then I make dinner/balance him. Husband is home by 530, we eat at 6. Baby is down by 7. From 7-9 we watch some recorded show and get ready for tomorrow. After I go to bed husband cleans up from dinner/house, makes lunches for tomorrow, and does whatever dinner prep is needed for tomorrows meal. Repeat every night!

OP - you may not get that much done at night - you may have to prioritize a couple of the most important things and then let the rest go until the next day. or figure out when you do have bursts of energy and do stuff then. I typically have more energy in the morning, so I often get a lot done in the hour between waking up on a Saturday and hitting the gym at 9.

I prefer to work out at lunch, but on the mornings I have to work out before work, I leave the house around 7, drop off the kiddo at 7:15, walk over to the gym, work out and shower, get to work around 9.

I try to go to sleep by 11 so I can wake up at 6. I'm a single mom so I don't really have sex. I either do laundry by tossing in a load in the morning and putting it in the dryer at night, then folding outside the bathroom door while my 5-year-old bathes, or I do all the laundry on a telework day. I will do short errands on the way home from work, but usually save them for weekends.

OP here -
My question is more how to handle the evenings and get stuff done, including time with DH, when I am tired from waking up at 5.

I work out from 6:30-7:30, shower, nurse, finish dressing, toss a loaf of laundry in, and am on my daily 8:50 morning call on time. Kids are babies. Nanny feeds and dresses them.

Anonymous wrote:how does the rest of your schedule work? When do you sleep? When do you have time for sex? Laundry? errands?

Currently, I wake up around 5:15 to nurse the baby and then exercise from 6-7am. I come back, get the older kids ready for school (with DH) and then start work (at home) by 8. Kids get home around 4 and are in bed by 8 pm. Then, I still have all the regular stuff to do: laundry, straightening up, veg-out time/tv, errands and I am so tired.

Tell me your schedule

I just posted, I did not realize that you WFH. You have the added benefit that you don't have to get ready or even shower. If I was exclusively WFH, I probably would add in one extra gym day at my lunch, just so I could sleep in one morning. However, I do enjoy the morning work outs. Harder to motivate at lunch.

Complicated:

-At Gym T/Th by 5:45, done exercising by 7AM. Shower, head straight to work...DH does all of the kids routine stuff by himself those mornings
-M/W: Run on Home Treadmill from 5:30-6:15. Shower, get ready, get kids up for school and out the door by 7:30 (which is when school starts) DH is at the gym himself M/W
-Friday WFH, I either go to the gym on my lunch hour or run outside. I normally do the kids routine alone if DH goes to the gym.
-Saturday-Whole family goes to the gym, I do an 8:30 class, sports normally don't start in until 11AM.
-Sunday-Off

I'm always home by 4:45 at the latest.

I have a housekeeper from noon-5PM, I go to bed at 9PM most nights.

I DID NOT DO THIS WHEN THE KIDS WERE INFANTS!!!! My children are 6 & 8. I also nursed bot of my kids for a year each while working full time, so that was my focus. I was fat and unhappy, but I feel good about the fact that I nursed both of them. That, at the time, was my priority. I started a focused exercise routine when my youngest was just over a year old.

how does the rest of your schedule work? When do you sleep? When do you have time for sex? Laundry? errands?

Currently, I wake up around 5:15 to nurse the baby and then exercise from 6-7am. I come back, get the older kids ready for school (with DH) and then start work (at home) by 8. Kids get home around 4 and are in bed by 8 pm. Then, I still have all the regular stuff to do: laundry, straightening up, veg-out time/tv, errands and I am so tired.

Tell me your schedule