It’s not easy to maintain a balance between family and work for working parents. It seems that you’re always being pulled from one side to the other and that you just can’t focus on family when you’re home and you just can’t focus only on work when you’re at the office. This is why you need to find things that can make your life easier. Your day just has 24 hours and you need to male sure that you take full advantage of it.
Here are five working parent hacks that you can use on a daily basis:
#1: Menu Plan
Menu planning is the way to go as it helps to save you time and helps you be more efficient. Every Sunday, plan all the meals for the following week. This includes deciding on what you’ll need to cook for every meal. In case you have older children, they can participate as well.
#2: Buy Ahead Of Time
If you never did it before, you’re going to love the idea. You know how confusing it might be when you need to buy groceries for the entire week and you need to take your kids along with you. It’s just a time waster. And not to mention that, even when you’re careful writing a list of everything you need to buy, you keep forgetting something and you need to come back to the store again. Shopping online is a lot easier and faster.
#3: Nighttime Prep
You should consider having a routine before kids going to bed. Preparing for the next day is easier when you do it the night before. Each child should prepare their own backpack and leave it by the door. Make sure that you supervise everything they need to take. This will save a lot of time in the mornings. You can also make part of the routine choosing the kid’s clothes (and yours as well) for the next day. Just leave them on the bedroom chair. Speeding up your nighttime routine can help you maximize your time.
#4 After School Activities
When it’s time to choose after-school activities for your kids, you need to make sure they are fun and that they will like them. However, you also need to make sure they are convenient for you to drive them there and pick them later. Only if one of your kids really insists on an activity that is more than 15 miles away from home, you need to make sure that you don’t overcome this barrier. The risk is that you’ll lose a lot of time driving them there. Plus, try to limit the activities to just two per week.
#5. Family Routine
When you have more than one kid, it’s important that every member of the family helps with the tasks. So, you can create a routine for the entire family. This will make sure everyone will contribute and they always know what they need to do. Put it in a visible place like on the fridge’s door or the kitchen table.
You probably see a theme here—it’s all about preparation. By making mornings easier and planning, it lightens the load and stress level for everyone. Try these working parent hacks out for yourself, and see how they benefit your whole family.
On my ideal “night before” routine I prepare dinner and the next day’s lunch at the same time.
Our 7-year-old is just getting the hang of using the toaster with supervision, of course, and it’s a win-win.
That is a HUGE hack. Never thought of that. 🙂