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Work at home mums: 50 tasks in one manic day

Work at home mums: My 50 tasks in one day

*Health warning* You may collapse in a heap just reading this, I did, doing it….*

Sometimes people wonder what work at home mums do all day, or indeed mums do all day when they don’t work, and when they have their kids at school…well let me talk you through last Friday…

  1. 6.00am (ish) Woken by Brad’s alarm clock which was set so he could cycle into work from Saffron Walden – 43 miles – rather him than me
  2. 7.00am Still awake wondering why I didn’t get out of bed and do some work, because that would be the sensible thing to do, but I am a terrible morning person, and have learn that if I try and write before 7am, it turns out badly
  3. 7.05am Shower – can’t go to work smelling now can I
  4. 7.15am Realise that youngest isn’t actually up yet, and so I had better get him out of bed before school. Met with a grumpy, moaning teenager in the body of a six year old as I have to drag him out
  5. 7.30am Check on progress of eldest as she has been up for a while. She seems to be ahead of me as she had had breakfast, fed the cats and got her school clothes on already. A good start, but there is still plenty of time for it all to go horribly wrong
  6. 7.35am Start to try and persuade Stuntboy to get himself dressed, while simultaneously trying to get the eldest to clean her teeth and apply suncream. She seems intent on telling me what is going to happen in Sports Day, don’t want to rain on her parade, so let her jabber for a bit…
  7. 7.40am Realise that youngest is actually jumping on our bed and not getting dressed, explain to him we need to get a move on as he hasn’t eaten breakfast yet
  8. 7.45am After listening to eldest version of the mini Olympics, I try and gently persuade her that doing her teeth would be a good plan. She decides that she needs to get a snack for school first, and reminds me (she’s good you see) that she doesn’t have her book for school
  9. 7.50am Youngest has his pants on and is now trying to put on bright red socks with his shorts. School like grey socks, youngest does not…
  10. 7.55am Finish explaining that he either wears the red socks and trousers, or shorts and school socks otherwise his teachers are likely to notice his misdemenour. After 5 minutes of complaining that “so and so wears them”, he finally admits defeat
  11. 8.00am Eldest bounds in after getting her snack. She is wearing bright yellow sock instead of white ones. The same argument occurs, with the result that I have to hunt through ALL the lines of clothes to find a PAIR OF WHITE socks…
  12. 8.05am Youngest still has his pants on, this time they are on his head
  13. 8.05am “Get your clothes on now” I promise I am trying not to shout…. 
  14. 8.07am Rush downstairs and get breakfast for youngest, who thankfully no longer has his pants on his head, but can’t find a jumper. Sod that, we get the toast
  15. 8.10am Eldest puts on sun cream but still hasn’t done her teeth
  16. 8.15am Both finish sun cream and breakfast simultaneously, and need to clean their teeth together…in….the….same…bathroom
  17. 8.16am Crying from the bathroom, youngest has bounced too close to eldest, and knocked eldest into the radiator
  18. 8.17am “Go and use the other bathroom then”
  19. 8.18am “Mum, there is a SPIDER in the bath!”
  20. 8.19am “Use another bathroom then…..” “But its walking scarily all over the bath, mummy…I can’t” I explain I really have to do this first, and we will have to wait. I pack my handbag for a trip to London for work; map, phone, and iPad. Dam, I forgot to get breakfast… Sadly, this delay has caused some spider-induced crying and a refusal for the eldest to do her teeth
  21. 8.20am Youngest finishes his teeth, eldest is still crying – spider is dispatched down the plughole. Apparently it was “HUGE”…it was probably about the size of a large ant
  22. 8.21am Gather all manner of bags together, realise that its sports day, and we can’t find either of the children’s trainers. Dam, we have left them at the playground at school…
  23. 8.22am Get in the car and drive to school in rubbish traffic because there are roadworks everywhere in this town at the moment
  24. 8.35am Get to school, check playground for trainers, they aren’t there, no-one has handed them in to the office. God I hope they are in your PE bags
  25. 8.38am Hand children to lovely friend to wait with them while I catch a train
  26. 8.45am Reach station, park, get ticket, and then realise that I have missed the train I needed to catch. Panic for 5 minutes that I am not going to make it, then rejig where I get off, and I actually have 45 minutes for my event. Not much, but enough…just. Answer work emails, and make a personal call, but no-one answers. That was that for personal stuff for the rest of the day!
  27. 9.10am Get train into London, work all the way in on the train, answering emails, re-writing a blog post for a promotion next week
  28. 10.00am Get to London, get on the tube, sweat
  29. 10.15am Get off the tube, and sweat some more walking to a lovely Christmas in July event for work
  30. 10.20am Realise I started walking the wrong way down Oxford Street and not Regent Street – sweat some more and turn around
  31. 10.30am Arrive at the event, I am greeted by some rather nice PR people, even lovelier fellow bloggers, and chat, take photos and generally tear around there. Oops, I have forgotten my business cards. *Epic work fail* Get video-ed, interviewed, and chat about cheeses and blogging
  32. 11.25am Leave for the train, sweat some more and finally get to the tube and get on the train to get back to my mainline station
  33. 12.00pm Arrive mainline station, realise I have no lunch. Can’t miss this too, grab some at the cafe and eat it before the train arrives
  34. 12.10pm More trains, more sweating, more emails and more work and writing for the site all the way home
  35. 1.08pm Get home and get in the car to drive to school to watch Sports Day
  36. 1.20pm Get to school, realise I haven’t had a pee since 7.30am – ask the school office if I can be so bold as to use the kids loo *no shame*
  37. 1.30pm Watch the kids Sports Day; both kids are sooooooo pleased to see me, and do brilliantly. Though if my memories of Sports Day are right, not falling over in the races was a major achievement for me…
  38. 2.30pm Sports day finishes, and thankfully I realise that they DID have their trainers in their PE kits
  39. 2.45pm Leg it to town to buy four birthday presents for various parties and birthdays over the week. But I forgot to get the cards….
  40. 3.45pm Drive to Audley End house for more work. This time a lovely review on this wonderful location, where we spend 2 hours exploring, taking photos, having fun, an finding some fodder for the blog post I am going to publish tomorrow. Phone battery runs out.
  41. 4.30pm Camera battery runs out, I resort to the iPad
  42. 4.45pm Mummy’s battery runs out and we go for tea, which consists of Cheese Scones; no sandwiches left, so we adlibed
  43. 5.30pm We leave for home, and mummy makes fruit, and we all have cake
  44. 5.45pm Kids watch television while I finish off the last bit of work for the day uploading the photos to the PC, publishing the videos on YouTube and guess what, answer more emails…
  45. 6.30pm Time for bath, stories and bed
  46. 8.00pm Kids are finally in bed….or so I think…so I start writing this blog post
  47. 8.30pm Eldest is up because “someone is shaking her bed and she can’t get to sleep”
  48. 8.32pm We check there are no cats in the room, there are no monsters under the bed, and we even change our night clothes as its a bit hot. we get back into bed
  49. 8.34pm Back to finish off this blog post, and to carry on working until a late tea; a meal made last night and in the fridge so its easy to do
  50. 11.00pm Bed – erm, probably….

You tired yet? I am going to have to get this school morning routine sorted in particular…get those reward charts out now kids; for mummy too….

Additional – I actually forgot to have tea as well, Brad noticed it in the fridge when he came home…*oops* Must make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

Does this all sound eerily familiar to you? Are you one of the other many work at home mums out there? Is your day similar, but perhaps without the pants and spiders? I sometimes wonder why I am actually doing all of this – do you? Would working in an office be easier, at least the kids wouldn’t be there as well! What do you find the hardest about being a WAHM? What are your days like? Are they as manic as this?

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine! Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time. KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10. It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania. Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on. Get in touch TODAY!

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steph

Wednesday 18th of June 2014

I think i need something stronger than a cuppa!! Thats ridiculous haha

Helen

Wednesday 18th of June 2014

My days are still as bad *passes gin*! ;-)

Luci - mother.wife.me

Wednesday 7th of August 2013

Ha, and I thought I'd been and done something original with my diary of a WAHM day! And I thought my day was busy http://www.motherwifeme.com/day-in-the-life-of-a-wahm/ until I read your list!!!

Luci - mother.wife.me

Wednesday 7th of August 2013

It's the focus thing that floors me - I crave being able to focus for solid 7.5h shifts of work!!!

Helen

Wednesday 7th of August 2013

It is original - its your day and not mine! I think we all have manic-ly busy ones once in a while, but everyon is still busy though - always on another level it feels, nevermind have to chop and change which hat u wear at a moments notice ;-)

Andrea

Wednesday 10th of July 2013

Definitely sounds like a typical day at my house! Glad I'm not alone! :)

Alice

Wednesday 10th of July 2013

Great post - rings so true. Do pop over to Empty Your Archive - we are linking up work & motherhood posts this week http://mumsmakelists.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/empty-your-archive-14.html

Alice x

chantelle hazelden

Wednesday 10th of July 2013

all sounds very familiar. I did a blog post recently about being prganised in the morning. most times it works well but there always days like you've written about where everything seems to pile up as such. i have had plenty of days where have forgotten to eat and don't realise until the end of the day!!!

Helen

Wednesday 10th of July 2013

Glad its not just me that forgets to do this - I find its 3pm an I still haven't eaten anything, and need to collect the kids in 5mins - oops!

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