I am going to give you here an example of my schedule. But before hand I just want to point out a few critical points before you plan your schedule. If you want to to be able to juggle both a job for mom at home and also take care of your kids and manage the household it is crucial for you to have a good scedule. And to stick to it it faithfully, otherwise it is impossible.
Lets say you want to be able to work on a business from home or you have found that perfect job for mom, now you want to dedicate 3 hours a day to work. If you have a baby you should get the baby accustomed to a nap eveyday at an exact hour. I place my one year old , little David in his crib exactly at 8:30 everyday. He has gotten use to sleeping for 3 hours straight.. That gives me 3 hours of uninterrupted quiet time to work. I can be my most productive during these hours.
You see according to tis I have already on my schedule
8:30-11:30 David Naps, I work.
It is important during this quiet time where I can focus and concentrate, not to do other household tasks, Household chores and responsibilities can be done while the baby is awake. I will explain how. Do not waste your precious work time on other things either like phone calls to friends or supermarket shopping.
About household chores you must designate one day a week to really clean and take care of the house. By doing this the house will stay clean with just some simple tasks that have to be perfrmed on a daily basis. In fact 30 minutes to 1 hour a day for upkeep, not including kitchen and cooking.
I also designate on my cleaning the house day cooking more than usual to help me have some food frozen for other days of the week where I find I hvae less time for cooking, My Fridays are my day, for straightening up the house. I strongly recommend a house cleaner if you can afford one. I have someone that helps me on Fridays which makes my work so much easier. But if you cannot afford one at this point, don't worry after you start working you will, and in the meantime you can accomplish everything if you scedule your life correctly.
When cooking, cleaning, or folding the laundry, I make these tasks fun with my baby. I sing, talk, and play with little David while I accomplish these household responsibilities. So what if it takes me longer, he loves the attention. And my baby is learning that Mommy also works, and just can't sit and play with him all day.
I have created a corner for David to play in the kitchen which is removed from the dangerous part of the kitchen, such as stove, oven, ect. In this corner he has 3 draws to play with that have plastic bowls, , 2 pots, plastic fun stuff and large plastic spoons. Yes, he copies Mommy when I cook. He is also cooking with his pretend plastic stuff. This way I can accomplish my cooking and also he has fun.
Baby can crawl around if you make your house and office fully baby proof. if you have to tidy up the living room , again make sure he is interacting with you, play with hime, and always make sure there are toys in every room in the house for your baby to play with. This will make your job easier wherever you have to clean ect.
Okay here is the schedule:
7:00 wake up, get kids ready for school.
7:30 Give breakfast, prepare sandwiches. During this time I have the baby stay with my husband. This is his quality time with David, so I can attend to my other kids' needs. He also gives him his bottle.
7:45 Kids off to school. feed David breakfast
straighten up a bit
8:00 I play with Little David. Nothing else but quality time. I usually read to him and teach him how some toy works ect.
8:30-11:30 Baby goes to sleep
11:30 feed baby
12:00-12:30 walk baby, I have a park right across from my house, very convenient.
12:30-1:00 prepare dinner, lunch for kids.
1:00-2:oo clean, phone calls, check email.
2:00 My kids return from school.
2:00-3:00 feed lunch, and talk to kids.
3:00-4:00 help with homework, bring kids to Judo lessons, go out with them ect.
I will continue this later.
