I’ve been a full-time work-at-home mom since I had my son in January 2017. Since then I’m often asked, “how do you do it all?!” I don’t really understand the question, honestly. I’m no different than any other mom trying to juggle multiple hats.
Even so, I thought I’d share a sneak peek into my work-at-home mom (WAHM) routine and life. Because routine?
I thrive on it! When we bought our house a little over a year ago and dove into renovations, our routine went out the window, and my anxiety flew sky high. These days we’re settled in (mostly), and I feel like we’re “back to normal.”
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But before I share a bit about our days, I will preface this post about the work-at-home routine and life with this:
1) My house is typically a mess in some way or another.
2) Even with how our renovations threw me for a loop, I’m sooo thankful that I set my own schedule so that I could juggle appointments with contractors and such.
3) I don’t work anywhere close to full-time hours, and I’m a-okay with that! Will things change once both the kids are in school full time?
Of course, but for now, with two little ones underfoot, this is what our daily life is often like, Monday through Friday…. whether little miss is at school, or not.
Morning Routine: Just Trying to Get Out the Door
6:30am: Even though it’s a good two hours between wakeup and getting Little Miss to school dropoff, the hours fly by in a mad rush of getting the kids fed and dressed. Now in summer, the morning is still busy because I like to get the kids out in the morning.
In the first few hours of the day, I always try to get some chores started, like laundry and dishes. I do as many chores as I can with my kids, in part because I work during their naptime/quiet time, but also because I noticed at any early age they want to help.
Work-at-Home Life During and After Preschool
9:00am: While Little Miss is at school, Buster and I go out on an adventure. When she’s not, we still go on an adventure. Sometimes we get groceries, or participate in a music or gym class. Other times, we’ll go to the library and I can do a bit of work while the kids play, like check email or edit videos. (Working from home doesn’t always mean working from “home”! More like, work wherever I feel like it).
Of course there are also mornings when we just hang out at home… the kids are really good at helping me wash dishes (and making more of a water mess), and jumping into piles of laundry.
11:00am to 12:30pm: During the school year, these work-from-home hours are the most frantic. We get little miss from school, go home, and then it’s lunch time. Then, they get one TV show of their choice (Stinky & Dirty on Amazon Prime is a current fav, as is Super Why on Netflix), and I get a few moments of quiet to eat and maybe even read for a few minutes. While they finish the show, I typically also try to clean up what I can in the kitchen.
Nap Time / Quiet Time is Work-At-Home Time
12:30 to 2:30pm: This is typically my most productive work-from-home hour(s) of the day. Buster naps, and Little Miss has some quiet time (and the occasional nap). She’ll typically start on her tablet while I put Buster down and then when the timer goes off, I’ll read her a book.
For quiet time, she rarely goes to her room to play, because she likes being on the couch with me. She’ll often do stickers, artwork, or a “video” of her with her LOL dolls.
Since I only work 1-3 hours, I try to fit in as much as I possibly can. This is 100% why I bullet journal and plan my days out in advance: so I know exactly what I’m going to do on a given day so I don’t waste time.
So what does my work-from-home routine look like? Depends on the day, but I’m often working on social media/marketing, and after that I’m writing, either for the blog, a freelance piece, or my future books (so much more to come on this soon, I hope!). And, of course, editing what I’ve written too.
If Buster is still sleeping when Little Miss’s quiet time is over, we’ll do something together, like play her favorite game (currently Don’t Wake Daddy). Sometime she’ll even do some drawing in one of my draft dummies for one of my books. Lately she’s loved working on my stories with me, so is this work time? Play time? Both I guess! And I love that about my work-at-home routine and life: that I can get my kids involved in what I do.
(Since I first wrote this post, Buster occasionally has a no-nap day… so what are we doing? Instituting quiet time for him too! He’s seeing me on my computer and asking for snacks but I’m still being productive. I think it helps that they’ll play together too).
The Witching Hour(s)
3:00 to 6:30pm: Not going to lie. These hours are a total crapshoot. If I can swing getting the kids out of the house I do, even if its just to play in the backyard. Sometimes we’ll play together… hide and seek, board games like Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, or trains. Other times they’ll play by themselves (and I’ll try to squeeze in trying to get something done… work or chores). In other words, these hours are all over the place.
Dinner usually falls about 5pm, and we spend this time at the table together — sometimes I even squeeze in a book! Afterwards, they usually zoom off while I start my nightly pick up of toys and sweeping.
Bedtime for the Kids
We start with bath time at 6:30, which thankfully my hubby is usually home for. With my back and leg issues – which are almost all taken care of! – I can’t sit on the floor for too long so he typically does bath… Then one of two things happens. I either stick around for bedtime and do the usual routine of final show with snack, books, and then bed, or (1-2 nights a week) I head out to the library or coffee shop to get caught up on work, especially if I have a freelance piece with a deadline. Once the kids are asleep, I usually head home (our youngest refuses to be put to bed by anyone but me if he knows I’m home!)
Night time is work-at-home time
If I stay home for bed time, I still typically have one to two things slotted work wise to do at night. It honestly used to be more but with two kids I’m tiiiired. I’ll usually follow up with customers at night, or do some social media scheduling. Sometimes I’ll do a video. Other times I’ll add to my list of lit agents to query. Often I do most of this while watching a show with my hubby.
After all that, I relax, color in one of my adult coloring books, or read.
Is this every night? Nope! But that’s what I love about my work-at-home life. I set my schedule. I decide when I work. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Do you work from home? Or do you want to? I’d love to hear from you!
To learn more about how you can work with me, click here.
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