First Time Stay-At-Home Mom
I have worked since I was eighteen. I worked my way through school and worked after graduation. When I found out I was pregnant, I did not know if I wanted to keep working or stay at home. The decision became easier when we found out that my husband was up for promotion. We knew that if he got it, we would have the income we needed in order for me to stay at home. We would still have to make some major monetary changes, but we could do it.
We decided in my last month just to take the plunge. I gave notice at work and I was going to stay at home. I had all these ideas for things I could do while I was at home. I was a bit naïve about how this would work. The first few weeks that I was home, I was so wiped out from delivery that I couldn’t do much of anything. Then it really began to hit me that I was not going to be getting up for work anymore. It was a very strange feeling. I actually became somewhat depressed for a while.
I felt lost. I felt bored. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to be at home with my daughter, but a baby is not really much for company. The days became a little too routine, change the diaper, feed the baby, wash the baby clothes, watch the baby sleep, and start all over again every few hours. I knew I had to make a change to help me with these feelings, so I could get back to enjoying my baby more.
My first step was to reach out to someone. I had one friend who was also a stay-at-home mom and we talked pretty much every day. We would get together several times during the week and these outings helped. I also found some mom communities online and in my local area. These groups had sponsored outings and were mom and child friendly. It helped a lot. Once I got out and started to make new friends, my spirits started to lift. It was nice to find new people that knew exactly what I was going through. It was also nice to find a place to get advice or just support when I needed it.
Another important lesson I learned in being a stay at home mom, is to take some time for myself. Moms night out programs were a god send. You don’t do your job 24 hours a day 7 days a week, there is a reason you have down time from work. Being a stay at home mom is just as much work and can be very taxing on your body and mind. Taking time to recharge my batteries helped to raise my spirits.
Being a stay-at-home mom can feel a bit isolating to me at first but it has turned into one of the best decisions that I have made. I can be home for all those wonderful little firsts of my daughter.
Jane Gingrich’s experiences as a first time mom have been brought to you by our partner, My Baby Clothes Boutique. Take some time to look through their catalog, even if it is just to see the adorable babies in their flowered headbands and sweet newborn hats.
Keeping Your Kids Busy in the Vacation
One of the biggest hurdles that any working mother has to face is what to do with the kids during vacation time. Whether you work from home or at an office, your schedule is going to be affected, especially during the very long summer break. If you work at an office, you will need to find somewhere for your children to go, take some leave, or try to work from home during this time. And if you work from home, you are not totally free either, as it is very hard to concentrate on your work when little people are constantly interrupting you and telling you that they are bored. The main advantage here, however, is that at least you are at home.
The other problem with vacation is that there will also be a lot more housework to do, as when your children are at home during the day there is more mess to clear up, whether in the form of toys and games left around, more laundry to do, and general cleaning.
So how do you cope with vacation?
First of all, you can find general tasks for your children that can actually help you with taking care of the house. For example, they could be given the task of decorating and tidying their own bedrooms. Find them some fun stickers to put on the walls, and let them choose nice accessories, such as an area rug. A tropical rug or any other kind of kids’ rug is not too expensive and may fire their imagination. Let them play around with the design of their rooms – they could move the bed to a different place or change the color scheme of the bedding and curtains. You don’t need to repaint the walls, but you could give them a lot of latitude in what they decide to do.
Similarly, how about letting the children set up their own playroom or den? Choose a new toy box and let them sort out their own toys. You would be surprised by the efficiency that even young children may show. This is a task you could either help them with, or they could be trusted to do it themselves. They can choose their own decorations. If you want to be really radical, you could even let them draw their own pictures on the walls. Kids can be really creative, and if you consider your children’s drawings to be a form of art, you may enjoy the results very much.
You can also use the vacation as a time to instill positive organizational habits within your children. When they have finished playing a game, tell them that they can only go on to the next thing once they have picked up of all the pieces and put everything away. If they are doing messy arts and crafts, show them how to clean up as they go. This will give them positive habits that will last them for the rest of their lives.
By doing a few simple activities, vacation does not need to be a drag.
How to Keep Your Bathroom Beautiful When You’re a Working Mom
Many working mothers have a dream. This dream is to be able to wake up in the morning, go downstairs to a beautiful kitchen wearing a comfortable robe, feed the kids a hearty breakfast, wave them off happily to school, and go leisurely off to work. When you return in the afternoon, the house is spotless and clean, and you can simply sit down and spend time with your happy, docile, perfectly behaved children. Sounds like the perfect advertisement for a breakfast cereal, doesn’t it? Yet for most working women, the reality is, shall we say, rather different.
Most of us come home to breakfast dishes piled in the sink (if we’re lucky) and a disgusting, foul-smelling bathroom, with towels still left on the floor after the morning’s hasty showers. No one bothered to pick them up because everyone was in a hurry to leave, and you also had no time to clean up before you rushed off to work.
So what is the secret of a clean bathroom when you are living on a tight schedule, leaving early, coming home late, helping your kids with their homework, making supper, doing the bedtime rush, and then hardly any time left for anything?
Here are some tips that might help:
- As soon as you get up in the morning, clean the toilet. It only takes a few minutes. Similarly, make it a personal household rule to clean the toilet just before you go to bed at night.
- Teach good bathroom habits to your children. Whoever takes a bath or shower should always be responsible for taking their dirty laundry to the hamper and hanging up towels afterwards.
- Once a week, check the bath for any hairs that might clog the drain. It is also useful to put a little drainer on top of the plughole to catch any stray dirt that could accumulate in the pipes.
- Wash your shower curtains regularly – and if they start to stink of mold, replace them immediately. A new shower curtain can change the mood of a bathroom very easily.
- Paint the walls and ceiling of your bathroom with a good waterproof paint. This prevents mold and peeling paint, and you hopefully won’t have to repaint for a very long time.
- Get a good area rug for your bathroom. A little oval rug or a rug made from polypropylene or acrylic is especially useful. You may also put down a bamboo rug if you want a more natural look.
- Keep the bathroom well ventilated to keep out damp or moldy smells. If you can’t keep a window open or a fan on for most of the day, leave the door open while everyone is out just to let some air in.
- Use toilet fresheners inside the toilet bowl. They really are worth the slightly extra expense and keep away bad toilet smells.
Following these rules does not mean that you will have a perfect bathroom. But it will certainly make it a more pleasant place to come home to.
