Time management of a young mother: how to cope with business and not go crazy

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

There will be no tips on how to get things done. But you will learn how to correctly prioritize and find time for yourself if you are a young mother or plan to become one.

Flexible planning

With the advent of a child, everything turns upside down and it seems that in the stream of endless tasks it is absolutely impossible to plan anything. Only in smart books and some Instagram profiles do children live according to the regime, and babies sleep soundly all night long.

You can plan a day, but without a fixed time reference. Map out three things you want to do during the day. A trip to the clinic also counts for business. If you managed to quickly deal with everything and there is still time left, weigh what you want more: free tomorrow or take a break today. And do not beat yourself up if you do not have time to complete even these three points.

Always keep plan B in mind. If the child did not fall asleep at the "right" time you planned, then switch to something else. For example, you planned to write an article while your child is sleeping, but he has not fallen asleep. Take a vacuum cleaner and put it in order with it, water the flowers - do any other business, and do not get angry and do not be upset that everything did not go according to plan. Children grow up very quickly, and often parents do not have time to reorganize in order to act in a new way.

With a child, planning can only be flexible. Always have a backup!

The smaller the child, the more attention he needs. If it seems that during the whole day nothing has been done at all, sit down for a minute and write in a column how many times you fed the baby today, changed his clothes, did a massage, rode a ball, played, put him to bed - the list will be impressive.

Housework

Purchase of products

Shopping can be quite exhausting, especially if you are faced with a situation where all the food at home has run out and there is absolutely nothing to cook with.

Plan a rough menu for a week, and go to the store only with a list of products sorted by department.

To the store - only with a list!

The most correct option is to send your husband shopping, especially if you live in a house without an elevator. Write an extremely understandable list, no "buy giblets", since the husband, most likely, will look for just such a phrase on the price tag, and will not guess in this heart, lungs and kidneys.

Build your shopping list gradually. If a product runs out, add it to the list. Various applications will help you a lot here.

Cooking

Divide the cooking into several stages. The smaller the child, the more fractional the calls to the kitchen will turn out to be. You can peel vegetables in the morning, chop everything during the day, cook or fry in the evening. On quieter days, make preparations: peel and cut vegetables and freeze. You can also make blanks, for example, from boiled pearl barley and beans. Then it will be enough to get them out of the freezer and add them to any soup.

Cook several dishes at once and for several days in advance.

During the preparation of any dish, there are periods when you do not need to do anything - just stir and watch. These calm moments can be combined with cooking something else.

Cook the soup with a second water. This is done very simply: take two pots, pour the same amount of water into both, put the meat and boil. As soon as the water boils, transfer the meat to a second pan and cook until tender. Besides the fact that the second broth is considered more dietary and healthy, you save a lot of time on skimming. She is simply not there!

Prepare simple meals that don't require long standing at the stove and a lot of ingredients.

Buy or borrow a multicooker from friends to make the final decision whether it suits you or not. Multicooker porridge will cook by itself for the time set in the evening.

Many people complain that the milk in a slow cooker turns sour overnight. In this case, you can either ask a family member who goes to bed later than everyone else, refuel the multicooker, or cook in water, and add milk to the finished dish.

And finally, the most important thing.

Eating dumplings for a couple of days in a row is fine. And even three days, if it allows mom to rest and recuperate.

Washing and ironing

Ironing bed linen is a waste of time: it is still quickly remembered. It is enough to squeeze out the laundry at low speed and hang it neatly.

Iron only what is critically needed. Except if you like the process itself.

Make sure that your husband and older children have a sufficient number of T-shirts and other clothes that do not require ironing, and hide the shirts deeper in the closet: they will not find them themselves anyway.

When a child turns one year old, there is no need to wash his clothes separately: his clothes, when they start walking, actively interact with “adult” fabrics.

Cleaning

We will not dwell on the Fly Lady principle: a lot has already been said about it. Let's take a key one from this method: take 20 minutes a day to what annoys you. Someone does not like an unmade bed, someone is furious at the sight of a pile of dishes. Remove the annoying element and your home immediately becomes more pleasant.

Don't set aside a special day for general cleaning, but clean up as you go. We took a watering can from the kitchen to water the flowers in the room, on the way back we collected the cups that had accumulated at the computer.

Delegation

It's good if there are grandparents. Engage them as much as they are willing. If not, then contact your friends. When a child is just born, young parents often hear: "Be sure to call when you need help." And this is not an empty phrase. Your loved ones really want and are ready to help you, they just don't know how. Your task is to direct their energy in the right direction.

Dad is a full-fledged participant in raising a baby from the very first days.

The division of duties into purely male and purely female has lost its meaning with the cessation of subsistence farming.

As soon as you returned from the hospital, immediately hand the child over to dad. Here, two tasks are solved at once: from the first days, dad learns to take care of the child with you and his attachment is formed. The more a man puts his energy and time into something, the stronger the connection will be. Give dad clear instructions and feel free to leave them alone with your child. Dads are many times better able to bathe and pack babies.

If you leave the child, then completely trust the person with whom you left. It doesn't matter if dad feeds the baby with the wrong food, too hot or too cold, forgets to feed at all, or your child spends the whole day in torn socks and some idiotic hat.

Time for yourself

There is a risk of completely dissolving in motherhood and forgetting that there was some kind of life of its own before the birth of children. This approach inevitably leads to burnout over time. Make time for your hobby or be sure to find it if you haven't found it yet.

Do not waste time hanging on the "mom" forums: nothing but negative, you will not learn from there, and precious rest time will go away.

While the child is still very young, he can hang on his chest for a long time, which means that there is almost a whole day to read or listen to interesting lectures and audio books. Call your girlfriends on walks and meet other moms.

If you were active before the birth of the child, then sign up for a fitness club or do yoga. This will be a great opportunity to run away from everyone for at least 1, 5 hours and keep fit. At home, you can do it yourself.

The most important rule that will allow you to carve out time is not to waste the child's sweet dream on cooking, cleaning and other uninspiring things, but to spend this time with the maximum benefit for yourself.

The baby's sleep is only time for mom, and not for household chores.

If you paint, then have paper and paints on your desk all day. So you can immediately turn to your favorite hobby as soon as the baby falls asleep.

Save the titles of books and movies you are interested in as notes. So you will not waste time looking for "the very review", but immediately start reading or watching what you are interested in.

Do all household chores with the child awake. Sling, chaise longue, ergonomic backpack, business board to help. A child develops not only and not so much through development, but through these daily activities, in which he participates from a very early age.

Motherhood is a marathon, not a sprint, and our task is to maintain this distance. By properly resting, we restore our maternal resource. This means that we can take better care of the child and communicate with our loved ones.

Share in the comments what techniques you use!