The Balancing Act and What Works for Me

Life is busy no matter what but when your a parent it's a constant balancing act. Some couples do what I call the 50/50 split with the parenting and the every day household chores. For some of us that just isn't feasible, for instance when your other half leaves for work before 7am and doesn't get home until after midnight because his employer works him to death. That leaves the other party with more than a plate full! I myself have the kids, the household chores, the shopping, the school functions/meetings, the doctor, dentist and orthodontic appointments and I run my own business. So for me it is a constant balancing act and if you throw in a sick kid or a snow day then it's a full three ring circus.

 A run down of my day...

~5am my alarm goes off, I actually drag myself out of bed somewhere between 5am-6am. 

~COFFEE ~ I have to have coffee before anyone talks to me otherwise it's just not pretty. 

~Get the middle school kid out the door at 7:05am 

~Get the other 3 kids fed and dressed, take a shower, pack pre-school kids lunch, make sure everyone has everything they need for the day, load up the car and get the elementary kids on the bus at 8:35. 

~Drop 4 year old off at pre-school and get myself to work. 

~ I have to be off work by 2pm so that I can pick my 2 high school kids up at 2:30pm because they go to private school and don't have transportation. 

~ Get home at about 3:05pm, read mail and emails and breath for a few minutes before the elementary school kids come home at 4pm. 

~Cook dinner. 

~5-5:30pm Pick up pre-school kid from daycare. 

~5:30/5:45 Serve dinner. 

~Homework time & playtime for the kids otherwise as Crazy Hour which lasts until bedtime. 

~8:30 is bedtime for the younger kids and yes I do make my Middle school kid go to bed at this time because he gets up at 5am to make sure he has enough time to aggravate everyone in the house before he house to school. 

~9pm comes around and I'm ready to fall on my face. 

 So that's a quick run down of my day, but I still have chores to do... So what works for me is to get things done anywhere in my day that I have a few minutes. I always try to throw a load of laundry in to wash in the morning and if I remember, I throw it in the dryer before I leave the house. That time I have from 3:05-5pm...I sort the mail so that it doesn't become a mound on my desk. After I start dinner, I do a quick vacuuming (enough to get some of the dirt up off the floor). After the kids have all finished their homework, I try to do a quick pick up of all the things they have scattered around the house and I make everyone put their own belongings away. If they don't put their stuff away then I throw it in a basket and who knows when they will ever see it again. 

The high school kids are old enough to help so... The have dish night 3 night a week and I have dishes on Sundays. I have them watch the younger kids while I pick up my youngest from daycare. They generally wash their own laundry, however if I'm feeling especially nice and I have time then I'll do it for them but they have to fold it an put it away themselves. 

 The younger kids can do things to help out as well like setting the dinner table, feeding the dogs, cat & guinea pigs. They also put their own clean laundry away with the exception of my 4 year old. They can take out the trash and the recycling as well. No, the kids do not like to do any of these things but I make them do it because the less I have to do then the more time I have to spend with them watching movies, playing games and taking them out to do something fun. 

That's just daily maintenance, I do major cleaning on either Saturday or Sunday morning. Laundry is always a work in progress and whatever I wash that doesn't get folded and put away during the week will also get done on the weekend. These things usually take 3-4 hours but I get an early start so that I'm usually done by lunch time. Whatever morning I'm not doing the major clean is the morning that I do the grocery shopping. The kids will gladly help put the food away as they like to take inventory. 

Now things don't always go as planned and some days the floor is dirty and the laundry looks like Mount Everest but for the most part I'm keeping things together. The main thing is that the kids are healthy, clean, fed and no one has killed anyone. I figure as long as I've accomplished that much than I have few worries. 

So this is my Balancing Act and What Work for Me...How about you? How do you balance kids, work and all that goes along with it? 

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