Gelie Beans and Sparkly Things: The Stay-at-Home Working Mom Balance

It's been 2-ish months since I started working part time from home and I think i've finally found a great balance between working and being a stay-at-home Mom.

I'm so happy that I was able to stay home with Beckett, and now am able to work (and make $$!) from home. He will be starting Mother's Day Out in September, which will allow me to have a few hours of free time 2 days a week! This is definitely the way to go if your life allows it. I can't imagine heading to work 3 months after giving birth, then staying home when your child is older. The US needs to get with longer maternity leaves. Seriously. Anyways...

Some days are easy peasy and some days i'm up past 11pm trying to get my work done.

Most days look like this:

And some days, when I'm lucky, they look like this.

But no work would EVER get done if I wasn't super organized. You have to find the balance between Mom life, work life, cleaning & laundry, playdates, Gymboree classes.. the list goes on and on. Some days I feel like I get nothing accomplished, and some days I get to take a shower and blow dry my hair, go out to lunch AND get my work done.

Here are a few tips on how I stay balanced.

Write It Down.

You are more likely to remember things when you physically write something down, so I write it alllll down. I swear by this planner and keep it with me at all times. Yes. I'm old school, whatever. I get a new one in a new color every year for Christmas (Thanks Mom!) and I keep them in our library. It's fun to pull them out every now and then and see what I was up to in years past. It's like Time Hop, but better! ;)

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Keep to a Schedule

With a baby/toddler/kid schedule is key. Up between 7 and 8ish. Breakfast. Coloring/playing/Bubble Guppies. Nap time around 11:30. Shower get dressed. Lunch. FREE TIME. Nap again around 4, snack time, play with Daddy til Dinner, bath time, brush hair/brush teeth, lights out. We try to keep him on this schedule every day the best we can. Obviously we aren't super sticklers and we are flexible, but you know. Now, some days there are play dates, movies, and Gym, but we strive on keeping him scheduled. He knows it, we know it, and it works. This allows me time to get most of my work done by noon, then the rest during his afternoon nap and after CL gets home.

Stay Accountable

I'm lucky to have a wonderful partner who keeps me accountable and helps me when I fall behind. CL helps me out when he gets home if I've had a bad day. He makes sure that Beckett is taken care of so I can catch up, clean up, and make it to bed before midnight. He knows that I have two jobs, one of which is 24/7 and the other takes up 5 hours of my day. He knows that I can veer off course (I totally get sucked into Disney daytime programming-- no shame!) and some days Beckett just doesn't want me to get anything done. And that's ok. He's learning, and I am too!

Make Room for Fun!

Yes, fun. All work and no fun makes Jack (or Angelica, or you, or anyone really) a dull boy. I try to schedule a play date, movie, fun day along with a day of Gymboree to keep us active, and well, out of the house! Some times even taking a trip to the mall for lunch is all it takes. Alamo Drafthouse has baby days (Check your local Alamo for what day!) where you can go and your kids can be loud, obnoxious whatever they want, while you watch movies! Obviously it's better to see kid movies, but they have adult ones too (which is great if you have an infant or baby!) You'd be surprised how well the kids do in the movie! Every time i've taken Beckett, he's been great!

Beckett + Popcorn + Movies = Pure Baby Bliss!

Make Time for You and your Partner
This is probably the one thing we are the worst at. We are terrible at balancing being new parents and a couple... although we have been getting better at dating again since Beckett is older and we can trust him with a babysitter! I'm the worst at carving out time for myself. I can't help it if i'd rather spend my time with my family, but sometimes you need to take a yoga class, go for a run, or get a mani/pedi! (it helps if there's wine at the nail salon...) Make it a priority to spoil yourself every now and then- you deserve it!

Obviously, this is what works for us, but I hope it's helpful to someone else! How do you keep balanced?