Being the perfect mom is close to impossible, but you absolutely have the power to be the perfect mom for your kids and your lifestyle. Whether you’re a boss babe working mom busting your back to provide for your family or a stay at home queen of your domain, managing the details of parenthood is tough work, and anything that could help you out along the way is probably a step in the right direction.
A household has so many moving parts, and remembering them all can take a serious toll. But there are a few universal tips — and a few brand new ideas — that can help you be at the top of you mom game all day everyday.
1. Get the Household on a Sleep Schedule
Sometimes, the kids aren’t the only people who need a bedtime. Even though adults can stay up much later than kids and don’t need quite as much sleep, you won’t be functioning at your best if you stay up until two in the morning each night to get more done and still rise every morning to drive the kids to school. Being well rested is a part of taking care of your health. Adults need an average of seven to nine hours of sleep each night, and making sure you get it can make a huge difference.
2. Keep a Comprehensive Planner
Sometimes, a day planner or haphazard to-do list just doesn’t cut it. Keeping a comprehensive calendar and planner for your household may seem tedious, but it can save you so much hassle in the long run. A planner doesn’t just need to be responsible for the happenings of your day — it can be responsible for your household happenings and act as a sort of manager. Write down when you need to get your roof inspected or the next time you need to get your oil changed in your car. You can’t remember everything, after all.
3. Meal Prep
Cooking dinner and prepping breakfast and lunch every single day can really steal your time if you let it. That’s why batch cooking and meal prepping can be such useful tools, especially if you plan your weeks accordingly. Cooking large batches of some of your favorite recipes to freeze or even pop in the fridge for the week can ensure healthy, home cooked meals without the time spent on cooking. That way, you can get more done — especially on those evenings where you’d usually spend your time cooking dinner.
4. Delegate Household Tasks
This one might be tough, but it’s not just important for you. It’s important for the household. All too often, women are the bearers of household labor and emotional labor for the whole family. Management is a task in itself, and recognizing that may help you feel more comfortable passing on more of the workload. Give a few weekly chores to the kids or to your partner if you can and relieve your mental space of those jobs — it can truly free up a lot of time and effort on your end and teach some responsibility in the process.
5. Designate Your Storage
Any house flows much better when it’s clean and organized. Having storage that functions well with an obvious system that your whole family can understand will make the house stick to a cleaner regimen. Label your storage for specific purposes — toys go here, blankets go there and toilet paper goes in that cabinet over there. It really can be that simple. When everyone knows where things go, they’re more likely to clean up after themselves.
6. Have a Morning and Evening Routine
When it comes to the sleep schedule, the meal times, the activities and all the household chores, a routine to start and end your day can help to get all those tasks moving. Humans crave routines — that includes both your kids and you. Keeping a morning and evening routine for both you and your kids can help you get in the groove and keep all your tasks of the day in order. Plus, they help you wind down for bed and rise every morning much easier.
7. Set Aside “Nothing Days”
A nothing day can be a lot of things — and really, it should be whatever you need most. Everyone needs a self care day, especially busy moms, and you can take a day every once in a while to stretch, meditate, lounge or even take a nap. But nothing days don’t always need to be for self care.
Often, nothing days can serve as a catch-all bargain bin for all the tasks that haven’t gotten the attention they deserve during your family’s regular schedule. All the tasks that don’t get done during the week can defer to the nothing day, so planning one every few weeks can free you from loads of stress.
Rock Your House
You have the power to be the queen of your domain, no matter what tasks you have on your plate. Maintaining a household is hard work, but it’s totally possible, especially if you get your routine down pat.