Working Parent Survival Tips - Part 1

This is part one of a two part series on time management efficiencies for working parents with young children.

Interview with Working Parent Efficiency Expert

My sister is a working mom and she amazes me all the time with how efficient she is. I interviewed her recently to learn how she gets so many things done while remaining so calm, cool and collected most of the time. She’s never read Getting Things Done, but she is one of those people who is gifted at being organized. It’s second nature to her. So I asked her to share some of her efficiency tips for working parents of young children. Her tips here can be modified if your children are older by involving them more with the tasks that need to be completed.

If you currently face challenges with managing work, time with your family, and daycare, or if you will be in that situation soon, this article will introduce some routines that will help you rise above the chaos and strike a balance that is manageable.

Best Practices for Balancing Family and Work

These are practices that work for my sister’s family. I’m not advocating that you should follow all of them or that following them to the letter is easy or necessary, but rather this guide is presented here so that you can pick and choose the tips that will work best for you.

Morning Routine

This routine minimizes the amount of time it takes to get ready and out the door in the morning.

1. Parent gets ready before children wake. Shower, dressed, etc.
2. Pack your bag for work including lunch that was packed last night and breakfast that you can eat at work.
3. Pack child’s daycare bag that includes lunch packed from last night and their breakfast that they will eat at daycare.
4. Line up bags at the door, ready to go when you leave.
5. Grab outfit(s) (and diaper) socks, shoes and coat.
6. Start getting baby/child dressed as you gently wake them up, perhaps with a little song.
7. You, child, and bags get into the car and head to daycare and work.
8. Enjoy your time together in the car, talking about the upcoming day, singing songs, or even story telling if it’s not too distracting while you drive.

Daytime Tips for Weekdays

These are some tips for minimizing your child’s time at daycare, your time at work, while also remaining a productive member of your work team.

1. Bring your lunch to work and so you can shorten your lunch. The amount of time you shave off your lunch, for example 30 minutes can be used to either leave work 30 minutes early or to put in the overtime that is expected from so many of us at work.
2. If it’s possible, stagger both parents’ workdays to cut down on daycare time for your child. The parent who goes into work later will drop off the child and the parent who get out of work earlier picks up the child from daycare. By doing this you can save 5 or more hours of daycare time.

Night Routine

This routine makes the most of your evening time.

1. When child and parent arrive home, the shoes, jacket, hat, etc always go in the same place (out of reach of child) so they can be found easily in the morning.
2. Dinner:

• 2 times per week: Cook simple dinners.
• 2 times per week: frozen dinners plus veg or salad.
• 2 times per week: get take out.
• 1 time per week: eat out at a restaurant.

3. Make parent and child’s lunch after dinner. Depending on what you are packing you can make lunches for a couple days to save time the following night. Keep it simple.
4. Time together with child. Playing, talking, singing, or a little game.
5. Bedtime Routine:

• Put toys away together both child and parent.
• Brush teeth, clean up, bed clothes, potty or diaper change.
• Read couple books.
• Sleepy time for baby/child.

6. After kids go to sleep take 5-15 minutes to do a quick tidying session to put things away. This will make you feel like you are on top of things instead of being lost in the chaos of the week.
7. Parent time. You can use this time to spend time together, relax, read, or when needed pay the monthly bills, order groceries online.

Subscribe to stay tuned for Part 2 of Working Parent Efficiency tips which will include tips for Weekends, Non-Routine Events, and General Time Saving Tips.

What are your efficiency tips? Please share!

K. Stone is author of Life Learning Today, a blog about daily life improvements. A few of her most popular articles are How to Write a Book in 60 Days or Less, How Much Do I Need to Save for Retirement?, 78 Parent Child Activities - FREE DOWNLOAD, Involve Your Kids in Housework for Major Benefits, and Maximum Energy in 10 Simple Steps.