When it comes to running a business full time, being a mom, and being a partner in a relationship, there are a lot of hats, a lot of stress, and never enough time in the day. Being a working mom isn’t the easiest thing in the world.
I have done some things in my business and in my home life to optimize things as best as I can. Does that mean it’s perfect? Oh, fuck no. Does it mean that I am never stressed? Oh, no, no. But, I am less stressed by these things and I’m hoping you will be too.
So this is the working moms Guide to Life in business.
Number one, meal subscriptions.
This working mom absolutely love meal subscriptions. If I go to the grocery store, I’m always, always hungry. My kid always wants Oreos. It’s just like we’re feeding bad, unhealthy decisions the whole time. It’s not great.
Plus, I never end up making the food because I don’t actually buy food as meals. When I go to the grocery store, I just buy random things off the shelf that potentially could go together, but never do. So the nice thing about meal subscriptions for us, is that all the ingredients pop in because they’ve already pre planned menus. For the most part, I don’t have to do much.
What ones have I tried?
We’ve done numerous ones. Blue Apron is who we have now. I have a couple free meals if you want one totally message me, I can send you a free box!
We’ve done Sun Basket, Hunger Routes, and all sorts of different options. Whatever one works best for you and your family is great. Dinnerly is a really cost effective one. It just wasn’t robust enough of a palette for my husband and I liked a little bit more variety. So far, we like Blue Apron, just due to the fact that my husband’s a meat & potatoes kind of guy.
The great thing is I can specify how quickly I want things done. Which is perfect for a working mom on a schedule. Some of them even have pre made foods that ship straight to your door. I’m pretty sure it was Sun Basket, where it would come pre-made. And we can just pop it in the oven and be done. It is super quick. But, I’ve learned that we only get like three or four meals a week, and we’ll leave the other days up in the air because we’re busy.
Number two, food is better than no food.
My husband works full time. I work full time when the kiddo is in daycare. He also still does activities. That means we need a couple of nights where we grab food. And that means McDonald’s. I used to be the parent that was like I’m never doing McDonald’s. Well, life happens and food is better than no food.
Heating up a pizza, quick meals from Sam’s Club like corn dogs, pizzas, anything that’s quick and easy that we can heat up fast.
Sometimes there’s just no time to cook. We get home at 6:30 because we’ve had to run errands after pickup from daycare and our boy’s bedtime is 7:00. Something that is super quick is a must!
Number three, daycare or school.
Any type of childcare so you will actually be able to get things done. As much as we like to tell ourselves that we can run a business and have the kids home and do all the things, it is inefficient to be constantly stopping to pick up Legos, to find Cheerios and goldfish, and refill water cups.
If your kids are self-sufficient and a little older, go for it. But once Blaine turned about 14 months old, he was a handful and a full time job on his own. There were zero naps for the most part, so I couldn’t get anything done. It was super inefficient because I never could remember what I was working on so things took two to three times longer because I kept getting stopped.
Even if it’s two or three days a week, some sort of childcare is great to get you some hours of work. Maybe it’s working out a plan with your partner so that they take the kids on the weekend so that you can work, whatever it is, it’s important.
Number four, you don’t have to work a nine to five.
I have found that I’m constantly adjusting my work hours. Sometimes, I’m working on the weekends. Sometimes it’s only mornings. Sometimes, I get entire days. It always works around the schedule that we’re able to create at the time.
So with this, I have automated a lot within my business between Dubsado and Zapier and Convertkit, so that I don’t have to be constantly present. I color code my Google Schedule. And I block it off based on my to do list in Asana, so that I know what I’m doing and when. I just adjust those blocks when needed.
I used to be more of a perfectionist, and I have found now that it just makes me frustrated and angry. Now I’m more of a go with the flow person.
We never know how things are going to turn out and just being able to go with the flow feels better. If a deadline doesn’t get met, try to not beat yourself up about it. You just have to move on and just embrace chaos.
