Double Duty. One Paycheck.
Too bad I can’t do laundry at the office. It would save time.
Anytime we get invited to hang out with friends we have to inform them that we’ll be bringing Babboo with us. The first few times this happened our friends offered to share their babysitter with us. We would politely thank them for the offer and then decline. At this point they usually give us the rundown on how awesome their babysitter is and how we have nothing to worry about leaving Babboo in their care. It’s not that we’re against our son being babysat, it’s just that he’s at daycare all day.
He’s seen enough of the babysitter.
Plus, since he’s been with a caregiver that isn’t me all day at his daycare, those few precious hours after work are my hours with him and they’re magical. I want to get on the floor and play trucks with him or read to him. I want to make him forget that we were apart all day. The last thing I want to do is shell out even more money so I can be away from my kid even longer.
What makes these few evening hours less magical is that I need to squeeze everything into this small amount of time. While my heart wants to snuggle and play and read to Babboo, my gut wants to prepare dinner and my nose wants to clean the bathroom.
I think that stay at home mom’s usually get their time for these tasks during nap time. I’ve heard many a SAHM gush about her love of nap time. It’s the time she has all to herself to play catch up. I only get to take advantage of nap time one day a week. Come eleven thirty every Saturday morning you can find me frantically throwing dirty clothes into the washer and scrubbing down the bathroom walls. And I try to take a shower and shave my legs and get ready for the day during nap time too.
I got online today and looked around google trying to find some suggestions on how to balance my life a little better. While reading through some of the suggestions I found one that sounded like something I could do. The commenter suggested getting your work outfits for the week ironed and laid out on Sunday night. This included your shoes and accessories. I like this. I do this every night. It’s part of my routine after Babboo’s gone to sleep and before I slide in front of the TV with my husband. But dude, I’m only doing this on a day to day basis. I could be doing it on a weekly basis. And saving precious time.
Except I wonder if it really would.
So tell me, what little secrets do you have to help balance your life? Maybe, like me, you prepare your work outfits the night before. Or maybe you’re even more proactive and you sleep and cook dinner at the same time!
Isabel is a pseudonym for this Seattle-based blogger. She’s been working since the day she realized soda and lip gloss weren’t free. Isabel became a mom in 2006 and continues to work full time, outside the home, since diapers and mortgages aren’t free either. You can read far too much about her personal life at hola,isabel.
If you have questions, anecdotes, or topics for “Double duty. One paycheck.”, email Isabel at holaisabel [at] gmail.com.
Yes, identical lives…I have working mom’s guilt when it comes to doing anything for/by myself in the evenings or on weekends. I totally get you. And E also goes down at 11:30 on weekends. Lately, with J being gone as much as The King is, I struggle with that balance of needing some play time with my son and also needing to clean up the kitchen so it’s not waiting for me tomorrow when I get home. Hm…I guess my only tactic is trying to finish everything up (make dinner, clean up, do laundry, make lunch for the next day, wash dishes) so I don’t have double the housework the next day.
hahahaha… the thought of me picking out my outfit more than 30 seconds before I put it on is sort of hysterical. I wish I were that on top of things!
I stay up all night to do laundry and watch TV and organize random things. Insomnia comes in handy sometimes.
I have good intentions of doing as much as I can the night before. I do actually pick out my clothes, or who knows what I’d end up wearing the next day… I try to pack lunches, load backpacks and pick out the kids’ clothes too - sometimes those get done and sometimes not. I do find that when I’m better about getting all of that done the night before the mornings do tend to go a lot smoother, so I really need to talk myself into it more often! I don’t think I could do a week of outfits at a time though. I don’t always have that many clothes clean at once and besides, who knows where they’d end up if I set them out days in advance…
I’m the same way with evenings - that’s my time to spend with my kids and don’t ask me to do anything that will cut into or take away from those few precious hours!
When I worked full-time we had NO social life. Because CJ had a fairly early bedtime, and I couldn’t stand to get a babysitter when I already hadn’t seen him all day. As for time-saving solutions? I’m not sure I ever found much that worked… unless it was buying a fridge full of frozen Weight Watcher meals to bring as lunches so I could work through lunch in order to come home earlier, and didn’t have to spend time packing something.
OMG, I WISH I had naptime to get things done when my kids were little - they ALL gave up naps (in lieu of sleeping fairly long and hard all night, for 10 hours) before age 2!!!!!
Nighttime is my time to get things prepared for the next day. The days are just too busy!
One word…. ROOMBA. I’m serious here… you can get the programmable one and it’ll automatically vacuum your floors at a set time, daily, weekly, or whatever. That way you can sleep and have your floors cleaned. And I run the dishwasher every night so that there isn’t a pile of dirty dishes waiting for me in the morning.
you DO get your house cleaned, right? TELL ME you get your house cleaned. Because no full-time working woman should be cleaning her own house.
And, to add to Banana’s last comment, most relationships (even if one parent is fulltime parenting) benefit from paying someone else to clean the house if they can afford it.
I also think reasonable division of labor is important. Why is working mom running around cooking, cleaning, doing dishes and laundry when working dad is watching TV? (I’m not trying to be critical; this happens in my house too!) I think we women often feel like we can/should do it all. I’m not sure men suffer the same delusion.
I am incapable of picking out my outfits any earlier than 15 minutes before I’m headed out the door.
Now, cleaning help I could use (who couldn’t) but there is a part of me that feels guilty about hiring help to clean up my messes.
I am working at trying to be better with meal planning. You know, doing all the grocery shopping on Sunday, and maybe even making “freezable” meals so all you have to do when you get home is throw it in the oven!
I couldn’t help reading this and thinking, “YOU CLEAN YOUR BATHROOM WALLS EVERY WEEK?” Yikes. When my kids nap, I usually nap or write. I rarely wash the bathroom walls.
As long as I’m in this apartment, I will never wash down the bathroom walls. Except I’m entering full nesting mode, and now I’m thinking maybe I’ll (ask Luke to) wash the bathroom walls.
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