23 Game-Changing tips to help you thrive as a working mum

Juggling motherhood and work is a balancing act that leaves many of us feeling less than balanced.

If this strikes a chord with you, keep reading for 23 simple, practical tips that will help you:

Standards also bestowed on us by society, the media and social media. 

But there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to ‘do it all’ every day of the week, unless of course you kiss goodbye to sleep. 

As a result you can end up feeling guilty and a failure when you don’t succeed at all three at once. 

Not to mention feeling overwhelmed, drained and trapped on a neverending hamster wheel of stuff that needs doing.

One of the biggest keys to looking after your wellbeing as a working mum is to be honest with yourself about your limits.

You simply can’t do it all.

Well, not without a lot of money and a lot of help. (And that is one thing to get straight. There is absolutely nothing wrong with paying for help if you can afford it). 

However, all is not lost!

I’ve put together a list of some of the most effective tips that can help make life flow more easily for working mums.

7. Divide And Conquer Household Chores

Divide and conquer when it comes to chores. And I’m talking about involving kids as soon as they are old enough too. 

Once you’ve found a system that works for you and your family, you can brief everyone else in on it, so that you share the responsibility as a family. 

The alternative is to choose to divert cash towards paying for a cleaner.

You may not have the money to do this. 

However, it is worth considering if there are other things you/everyone in your household is willing to cut back spending on in order to fund a cleaner. 

You don’t have to have a cleaner in weekly, even having someone come for some hours once every two weeks is a help. 

8. Kill The Laundry Fairy

Oh the joys of laundry and the mistaken assumption by others in a household that there is a laundry fairy. 

Even if you are the one managing the laundry, it doesn’t mean you have to do it all.

As soon as kids are old enough make it a rule that if it isn’t in the laundry basket it doesn’t get washed.

Quickly divide clean washing and leave it in each person’s bedroom. They can put it away themselves.

This means they have to acknowledge it’s been done and it saves you precious minutes.

9. Start your morning the evening before

Mornings can be one of the most stressful times of day.

So do as many things the night before as possible:

• Packed lunches – this is a great chore for older kids
• School bag and homework check – make sure everyone’s homework is checked and school bag is packed before they go to bed 
• Check the diary for after-school plans/activities and make sure they are all organised

10. Introduce A Morning Chart For Kids

Use a morning chart for the kids. For example: 

• Brush teeth
• Wash face/shower
• Get dressed
• Eat breakfast
• Get coat and shoes on for school

I found this lovely personalised morning routine chart for kids on Etsy.

11. The Dishwasher Isn’t Magic

The dishwasher is apparently a cousin of the laundry fairy. She comes along and takes all the dirty dishes that have been left near the dishwasher and puts them in it. 

Ok, so we all know that last statement isn’t true.

So here are some simple but effective tips for minimising the time spent doing the dishes. 

Make sure everyone in the household understands that leaving stuff near the dishwasher is NOT helping and does not get stuff clean.

Load dirties straight into the dishwasher, this goes for everyone in the home who is old enough.

Start a rota for loading and unloading the dishwasher.

Any child over the age of ten is perfectly capable of taking on this chore, either at breakfast time or after the evening meal. 

Put the dishwasher on straight after the evening meal.

12. Meal Plan Your Way To Evening Freedom

It may send a shudder, but meal planning works. It saves brain bandwidth, time and money.

If you are really pushed for time you could try using a recipe box delivery service.

I am signed up with a couple of recipe box delivery services.

My favourite is Mindful Chef, which provides paleo-inspired, low G.I meals.

13. Cook Double

When you cook a meal, cook double and freeze half of it. 

There is nothing more delightful on a tired weekday evening than knowing getting dinner on the table is as simple as defrosting something you made earlier. 

14. Keep A Well stocked freezer

Cooking double brings me neatly on to the wonders of keeping a well stocked freezer.

So much stress can be alleviated with the brilliant combination of a meal plan and well stocked freezer. 

15. your slow cooker is your best kitchen friend

Let me evangelise about the wonders of slow cooking.

It makes life so easy. Particularly in the winter months. 

Simply stick the ingredients in the slow cooker, set it and know it will be ready to serve that evening.

I have an Instant Pot, which serves as a slow cooker as well as doing a whole bunch of other brilliant things – it cooks the best rice ever.  

16. Supermarket shop online

Forget traipsing around a supermarket trying to ignore your low blood sugar pushing you to the confectionery aisle.

Start doing your grocery shopping online.

I’ve got the Ocado app on my phone and I could not manage without it. I have tried other online supermarket offerings but Ocado is the most reliable. 

It’s not the cheapest, but at the same time, if you are smart with the way you shop, it can be really cost-effective.

Plus Ocado price compares against Tesco and gives you a voucher for the difference.

17. Parenting routine

Routine, routine, routine!

Have a set time for homework for school-age children.

Bedtime is sacred, especially on school nights.

Kids need sleep.

Well-rested children are happy children.

Happy children mean balance and harmony in your family household.

Of course, kids aren’t automatons, there will always be things that come up, but if there’s a good rhythm in your household, it’s easier to cope when your kids need you more than normal.

An official bedtime is also the official time for you to switch off for the evening. 

18. Set Your bedtime

It’s not just kids who benefit from good sleep patterns.

Try and stick to a regular bedtime and no tech after 9pm works a treat for quality of sleep and waking up feeling rested.

In fact,  a few months ago I decided to get more mindful about my daytime habits to help me get better sleep each night.

The resulting change in the quality of my sleep and my ability to get to sleep came around pretty quickly after making some simple changes.

19. Set Boundaries Between Work And Family 

It is hard to switch off from work in the hyper-connected world we live in. 

Train yourself to compartmentalise work and allow yourself to totally switch off when you are with your kids. 

You will find that yourself more refreshed when you switch the focus back to work and you will be more present with your kids, which is so much more enjoyable for you and nurturing for them. 

20. Schedule fun and family time

I know!

Yes, this sounds sucky!

But it’s so easy to get caught up in the ‘doing’ and forget about simply enjoying being with your kids.

We have a weekly family film night and Friday evenings are earmarked for simply hanging out together, usually with some kind of foodie treats involved.

21. Tech etiquette

Ban all tech during family mealtimes and family hangout time.

Define screen time limits based on kids’ ages and remember that modelling good use of tech is the best way to ensure you kids don’t turn into digital addicts.

It’s also a great way to ensure that you engage and connect well as a family and cuts down on arguments. 

22. Share your working day with your family  

It can feel very alien for working mums to talk about their working day with their kids.

But it’s a great way of involving them and helping them to understand that your work is important – not more important than them of course, but important. 

If kids feel involved then it doesn’t feel like there is such a big ‘them and us’ situation, work and family are all part of the same big melting pot of life. 

23. create more me-time for yourself

It may be a cliché but even just a couple of hours of time to yourself per week, to do whatever you want with, will lift your spirits.

Happy mum equals happy children!

So pop over to my post on how to create more me time for yourself each week and see if you can start to make some positive changes.

I really hope you’ve found this list useful.

Have a go incorporating some or all of the tips into your life and see how you get on.

I have also put together a post on School holiday survival tips for working mums that you may want to read if the school holidays are looming!

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