Juggling between family and work, maintaining the relations inside and outside the house is challenging for every working mother. When you are a working mom, you feel like everything you are doing is not enough. Life becomes very challenging and demanding, rushing from home to work and everywhere.
Everything seems to be chaotic. There can be tons of things going on in your head and outside your head as well. You need something to do or know that can ease your life, such as a life hack that can make your day-to-day life more manageable and help you be more productive.
Also, after giving birth, the energy of doing something does not match with the energy level before pregnancy. Keeping the energy consistently high every time turns out to be challenging. You might feel drained, frustrated, or even become mentally weak.
As per the statistics,
- About two-thirds of 23.5 million employed women with children under 18 worked full-time in 2018 year-round.
- More than 18.5 million mothers live with their school-age children who were actively working by January 2021.
If you are also one of them trying to balance your work life and household simultaneously, here are the best ten life hacks we have come with that helps you to ease your life because, as a working mother, it is tough to spare some for yourself.
Imagine getting extra two minutes in a day, which is 14 minutes a week, 12 hours a day year. So now you can imagine that 2 minutes a day makes a big difference in the grand scheme of things.
Challenges faced by working mothers
At home
- Mothers are the ones who are supposed to get up early in the morning and start doing household chores such as mopping floors, preparing breakfast and lunch.
- The great challenge faced by most working women is that their priorities are questioned. They are always placed in the situation where they are asked to choose between grooming their kids or career.
- The women need to constantly multitask( from preparing breakfast to getting ready for kids to plan for the dinner) to fulfill all the demands of the family members.
- Working mothers are always a rift between obligation and passion. They are always left with only two options; what she wants and what she must do.
- From ensuring the kid reaches school on time to reaching office on time by ownself to giving medicine to an elder member on time, there is a chaos that working mothers face all day alone.
- There is the misconception that the mother needs to be perfect all the time. Every family member looks up to the mother/housewife when something happens or needs to be done. Working women are assumed to be the modern-day superheroes.
At work
- Society then and now always demands perfection in both work and household chores which is tough.
- The company or boss never cares or turns a blind eye towards the women’s responsibilities at home and expects her to work overtime to bring the best result for the company.
- While pressured by the company to meet the deadline of targeted work and take care of the child, they somewhat can’t give their 100% to both.
- The company sometimes does not understand the situation when you ask for leave; the leave is an emergency related to your kid.
- Most companies assign important jobs to only male employees thinking female employees are not serious about the job and have their responsibilities towards family.
Ten life-changing hacks for every working mother
1) Shop online: order groceries online
The most time-consuming task after cooking is buying groceries and other kitchen kinds of stuff. There are certain things that one has to buy every two days. Rushing to stores directly after work can be very hectic.
Thus, ordering groceries online can be very convenient for you. You can place an order for everything such as veggies, fruits, water, dog/cat food, toilet paper, fresh flowers for your vase, or anything from your workplace only. By doing so, you do not need to drive to the store after your office time.
2) Make a to-do list on Sunday
For every working parent, “Sunday” is a work-free day. As a working mother, you should take full advantage of this day. Make a plan of the things that you were unable to do because of your busy schedule. It can be either cleaning the house or laundry or going out with family.
Also, invite everyone to the living room, sit together and discuss, and divide your tasks into daily schedules for the upcoming week to be helpful for all of you. Planning together is fun and more productive, as well as quality family time.
3) Delegate tasks as much as you can
Everyone feels relaxed even though having a tiring and hectic day after reaching home. But the working moms do not feel the same because even having a hectic day, she needs to cook dinner for the family and do other pending household chores. It will be challenging and tiring for you to do things alone.
So it’s okay to ask for help from other family members and assign the tasks that each member can do by themselves.
- Divide the work among yourselves.
- Ask your kid to place the toys after they finish playing or help you to set the dinner table.
- You can also ask for help from other family members to pay household bills, order vegetables or grocery things, and do laundry.
4) Hire a nanny or helper
If you are working parents living in a nuclear family or away from your family because of your posting, then hiring a nanny or helper would be a great option. It will definitely ease your work. Looking after kids is no more than having a job.
Although handling households, looking after kids, and your work life at the same time is not impossible; however, it would be hectic and maybe affects your physical and mental health. So, hiring a reliable person either to look after your kid or household would be helpful for you.
5) Get a planner
The most straightforward yet practical and helpful life hack is to get a planner for yourself. It would be best to have a planner because when you have tons of things to do in a day, such as child-rearing, your kid’s school appointment, and office work, you have to write it all down since it is so easy to forget things.
So, fixing your planner or listing out your to-do things in a day or week helps you remember things and get the things done on a scheduled time, ultimately saving your little bit of time.
6) Put down your phones
After having a busy day, when reaching home, rest for a while but do not ever sit at the corner and start scrolling feeds. Place your phone at a spot. Because when you start using your phone as soon as you reach home, you may indulge in your phone so deeply that you may forget the time.
Instead, after taking some rest or freshening up, give your time to your kid. Moments that you share with your kids are always precious. Sit down with your little one and watch TV together, cuddle with them, laugh with them and have fun rather than using a phone sitting alone.
7) Get your kitchen ready the night before
If possible, try to prepare as much for lunch and breakfast as possible the night before to make things run smoothly in the morning, such as cutting vegetables, cleaning up your child’s water bottles, and setting up your coffee maker.
Many working moms can relate that a last-minute rush can stress out, even for several hours afterward. Little steps in the evening like
- packing lunches,
- preparing bottles,
- having backpacks ready,
- programming the coffeemaker, or
- setting out the next day’s clothes can help make mornings a lot smoother.
So if you keep yourself away from browsing social media for a while at night time and prepare the things for tomorrow morning, you can save a reasonable amount of time to do something you love to do, such as self-care.
8) Spend less energy on social media
One of the most helpful life hacks for every working mom is spending less time on social media. But it does not mean cutting off all your social life. It does not make any sense, and also, nobody has the right to make such a decision for you.
Being a mature working woman and mother, you are capable enough to determine and realize that social media is the source of unwanted tension that can seriously hamper your mental health. Also, it’s hard to stop yourself from not starting to compare your life to the filtered lives of others, even subconsciously
9) Make good utilization of technology
The most significant and valuable hack that every working mother should implement in their day-to-day life is utilizing technology, especially in kitchen work. Technology is getting smarter rapidly, making our lives easier, simpler, and comfortable in today’s world.
At present, different smart kitchen devices such as a smart cup coffee maker, temperature control bright mug, and the smart instant pot are available easily in the market that can help you do things earlier than you expected.
10) Meditate and exercise
Sparing some time for yourself. Breathing in and out for some minute every morning should be made mandatory in your life. Focusing on your breath, meditating, and doing some stretching will improve your mental health because, undoubtedly, working moms bear so much stress in their minds.
Thus, take some time every morning for yoga, or you can dance to your favorite song too as an exercise. By doing so, you can improve your health and keep yourself physically fit and healthy.
Impact of working mother on child’s development
Positive impact
- When both the parents are job holders, they can afford to invest a good amount of money in their children’s educational or extracurricular needs.
- A working mother with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction can serve as a good role model for their children.
- Looking at their mother working so hard inspires the children to work hard like their mom to pursue their dreams and ambitions.
- Seeing the mother who handles both housework and office work so smoothly and efficiently, the child develops an ethical value towards work.
- Working mothers set the benchmark and help their children, especially daughters, to break the stereotypes and work for whatever they like.
- Children of working parents become independent from their childhood. It prepares them for the real world and brings a sense of responsibility to them.
- Children of working parents have a more mature outlook towards their lives.
Negative impact
- Poor daycare service can hamper your child’s mental, emotional, and social development.
- If the mother is frustrated because of the workload or always moody, this can negatively affect the child.
- Sometimes there cannot be enough energy or enthusiasm to listen to your child’s issues, leaving your child lonely.
- There can be the case where you are angry about something related to your work, and your child ends up becoming the victim of your anger. This can ruin your mother-child relationship.
- When parents do not spend quality time in a day, it makes a child stubborn, aggressive, and undisciplined.
Final verdict
Working women play a crucial role in developing families and society. Everyone knows that being a working mom is tough, and balancing work-life and family is challenging. But, unfortunately, many working women out there are often judged for abandoning their kids, or that they cannot give a reasonable amount of time to their kids or family.
Trust your family, yourself and never listen to such nonsense things because everyone has their perspective of seeing life. Deciding to be a working mom is your choice that should be admired, not judged or shamed. Focus on the positive side of working life, be confident and learn to ask for help. It’s okay to ask for help as a mom.
