Mommies, please share your routines on a day to day basis. What do you do with the kid(s) all day if you are SAHM and how do WOH moms manage it?
I am a stay at home mommy to a 1 year old. Since the DST change, my daughter’s bed time has been pushed back by quite a bit and i am fine with that. She now wakes up around 9ish, we play for a bit, change diaper/clothes etc, eat breakfast. Then i do stuff around the house. I used to take her to the library for story time but that ended so i need to find out more activities for her.
She takes a nap in the afternoon during which i eat lunch, shower, study etc. She wakes up and sometimes we go out for grocery shopping, the mall or just hanging out with my friends. She takes another nap in the afternoon, then her dad gets home, We spend time together as af amily. If i havent cooked yet, i do that once he is home and playing with her. She plays some more till bed time which is between 10 and 11 these days. Really late as compared to her earlier bed time of 8 but its working out better in terms of sleep for me since she is a frequent waker. This way i get a longer stretch of sleep when she goes to bed with us.
OMG! Don't mention DST to me... I'm a working mom and I'm having such a tough time with my 4 yrs. old... she doesn't want to go to bed and keeps tossing and turning, then wakes up late... I've had been putting her in the car in her pajamas :( then breakfast at the school/daycare.... ... I'm going crazy here, asked her teacher to stop her naps so she can sleep early.... last night she finally fell asleep at 10 :( Hopefully her routine will improve by next week.
All of us get home by 6:00 p.m., we wash & change and have an early dinner, then husband watches TV or is on his laptop fro work (he's a workaholic) while I do some educational activity or play with her, then we watch 30 mins of some cartoon or kids' dvd together (me and my daughter), in summer we sometimes go out to a park, in winter we go out grocery shopping..... around 9 its time to get ready for bed, so I give her a light snack (like cookies and milk or a cheese sandwich and milk), then I take her upstairs to the bedroom and give her a bath and read a book, then we go to bed. Thats mostly our routine, with some variations now and then :)
I'm up at 6:30, get kids up at 7. Give them breakfast, make their lunches while getting them to eat their bfasts. Get them to brush teeth and get dressed, load dishwasher and pick up kitchen then we're out the door to skool at 8:30.
Pick up youngest at 11:30 on Mon and Tuesdays, usually with a friend who eats and plays till 2:30 when I pick up older 2 at skool. Have a snack and then do homework till dinnertime at 5:30.
Monday and weds eves the older 2 have swim team for an hour. Afterwards, off to bed.
Wednesdays the boys go to "after school clubs" - one goes to percussion and the other 2 go to an art class so they get home a bit late and then scramble to do homework, have dinner and then get to swimming.
Tuesdays are playdates. I usually have at least one other kid here and at least one son at someone else's house. Getting homework done on Tuesdays is acctually painful.
Thursdays are heavy-duty homework days and also evening cub scout meetings.
Fridays are homework-free days hooray!! So we have my best friend over who also has 3 kids and the moms get to have a playdate and so do the kids.
I usually have at least 2 PTA or SEPTA meetings during the time that my boys are in school. I keep the membership records for them and have this work to do although it isnt much except for september thru november. I do the laundry, marketing and house cleaning as much as possible during the week so that we can have our weekends free. CAMPING SEASON IS ALMOST HERE!!!
My day starts at 5:20 everyday. I wake up my boys at 5:30 we pray Fajar/recitation/shower then wake up my daughter at 6:15...give her a shower..help them all getting ready for school. Prepare breakfast, wake up youngest n we all leave at 7:10.
Drop three of 'em at school n come back with youngest.It's 8:15 by that time. Do dishes..tidying up/cooking cleaning after giving breakfast to youngest. Then start office work (i work from home) or study., depending on the workload ...with attending to the youngest in between
Around 1 pm i take shower...prepare snack for kids and leave.
Pick up daughter at 2...sons at 4 twice a week
take them for karate twice a week
take them for urdu coaching twice a week
From 4-9 pm is homework plus dinner time
then we have some storytime and time for our daily dua together...
i try my best that they are in beds before 9:30 n mostly they are..
After that I do preparation for next day...get uniforms ready, do dishes/tidy up kitchen n living room etc. etc. Then again some work as I'm in a different time zone than my company so need to catch up on the day's business
I hit the sack around midnight....(i just noticed its 1 am already)
Weekend starts in the same manner, except i don't drop them at school and just go out for weekly shopping/ running errands etc. etc.I shop for the whole week and then spend most of the day preparing n storing vegies/ meat etc. Or sometimes kids have social events to attend and i need to give pick n drop
Wake up at 7:30am wake up daughter, give her lunch, make lunch for both of children.When Zafi and her dad leaves wake up Huz get him dressed, feed him breakfast and drop him to school at 9am.Come home at 9:30 am start cleaning,laundry and cooking.Get some time to read some book or run some errands.At 2 Ihave to go pick up the youngest one and then the elder ons.Once a week they go to swiming other they come home eat snacks and fro 4 to 8 home work and dinner time. After that again clean the kitchen and prepare everything for morning.
Its hard adjusting to anything new in life. For example when you have 1 child, or expecting another while taking care of the baby, or two little toddlers full of energy. It seems like the stages change really quickly, and then you have to adjust to something new.
Recently I have been having a hard time, with both kids in pre-school. I would have thought it would give me more down-time, but I guess not.
Reading about other mommies and their mornings- I guess I’m not alone.
Waking up much earlier than the kids, waking them up, making breakfast, begging, threatening and shoving food down their throats. Getting them ready and out the door.
Run errands, do groceries etc for the 2.5 hours that they are in school,and then pick them up.
Get home, lunch.
Go to the library 2x a week (part of a story group one day)
Swimming lesson on Thursdays.
Older guy is starting soccer next month too.
I volunteer at their pre-school , and am a member of their board, so usually have to do stuff for that.They have meetings twice a month, and have to keep track of their paper-work with other members on the board.
At home , its usually laundry, dishes, rooms that CONSTANTLY need to be cleaned and tantrums and fights attended to, before you make sure they get their baths, and into bed on time, and then start preparing for tomorrow.
I miss the days when I only had one baby and I though THAT was hard lol.
I feel like its always run run run, but I’m not complaining. I guess thats how it is for all moms.
I guess it will get easier when both start going to school full-time inshallah.
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hehe....I'm right now on the 'full time school' stage....To tell you the truth, you will get more n more busier with kids growing up n advancing stages
The only time when I do see some relaxed routine is at the stage, where my mum is right now. She has wedded off all daughters n the only son is studying in another city. Me n my sisters sometimes get 'envious' thinking how can ammi go to bed so easily even during the day. But the fact is, she has worked much more harder than us, all her life. She is not fit healthwise and will run a temperature every now n then if she is not well rested.
MIAinVA I really don't get to sleep for 8 hours from since when I had my second baby ...But its ok, I guess. I am constantly trying to improve it but only if I had a day longer than 24 hrs. Khair its not THAT bad. I find it hard to leave the bed in morning, but once I'm up I don't have time to count how many hours of sleep did i get.
Oh goodness, i have one baby and i think I am busy bayhosh hoing
MIA, i dont know how you do it along with a full time job.
Afia baji, MA, 4 kids and you work from home! You are my hero! I shouldnt let hubs read all these entries because he is going to be like, what are you complaining about?
s_mk, its nice taht you are keeping busy with the kids’ preschool as well. I would imagine that would come in handy both now and later when and if you go back into the work force.
sweetu, i had a feeling i had posted my routine before somewhere but couldn’t remember Thanks for reminding me
Niksik, Mama and others, school, homework and activities? Thats alot for kids in a day, isnt it? Or does it only seem alot but isnt because they are only a few days a week?
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hehe....I'm right now on the 'full time school' stage....To tell you the truth, you will get more n more busier with kids growing up n advancing stages
I agree with you Afia. I thought I would have ample time to myself once the kids were in school but that isn't the case.
The homework, quran classes, other social activites around the weekend for the kids has me running around constantly.
I think it also helps when one has family close by as well. My sister works full time and either drops her 1 year old to my mom's house or her inlaws home during the day. And mom, being the mom that she is, would sometimes make her dinner for her to take home.
Alhumdulillah, im glad my family is near - I know who I'm going to call if I get burnt out. Watch out ammi! lol.
This is why I get so very annoyed when people think that stay-home moms sit around eating bon-bons and watching soaps all day. IF ONLY!!!
Aww Mama. I think that comment is extreme that SAHM eat bon bons all day, but I think it was geared more towards Housewifes without kids...id like to hear average day of housewife without kids. Honestly just out of curiosity, that's all. Either way I wish we had a magic genie to assist in our daily activities.
Wake up older daughter around 7ish.
Have her change and get ready for school.
Shove breakfast down her throat with a million threats.
Haha I thought I was the only evil mommy who did that....hehe it is such a hassle trying to get kids to EAT their breakfast!!!! Esp if food is their worst enemy :(
Its not that tough since my husband is the non-fussy type, he helps me out just by not being demanding … he doesn’t demand fresh rotis, mairay haath ka khaana and a sparkly-clean house. We get our food cooked by a desi aunty and I just focus more on my daughter after work… I do all the cleaning, laundry, etc on weekends… so far its been going great but after my second baby, I’m probably going to quit or maybe work part-time, I can’t be a super-mom like Afia (MashaAllah, you manage so much)… I need my 8 hours of sleep, otherwise I’m a cranky zombie the whole day
Thanks for reminding me 
… he doesn’t demand fresh rotis, mairay haath ka khaana and a sparkly-clean house. We get our food cooked by a desi aunty and I just focus more on my daughter after work… I do all the cleaning, laundry, etc on weekends… so far its been going great but after my second baby, I’m probably going to quit or maybe work part-time, I can’t be a super-mom like Afia (MashaAllah, you manage so much)… I need my 8 hours of sleep, otherwise I’m a cranky zombie the whole day 