I mentioned a few weeks back that I was off work for a bit. I was
in between jobs and absolutely LOVED being home with baby girl....fast forward
a few weeks and I'm slap bang at the start of my new job.
I have been on the receiving end of:
'you have child, I didn’t know that... and you commute! But, you’re
so on top of things and so well put together!’
It was a back-handed compliment - I think. I just don't believe that because I’m a Mum and I do a parental ‘shift’ every day before and after
work, I have a license to resemble a disheveled wreck! Not so - it doesn’t have to be
that way, surely?!
I’m no expert on yummy mummy-ness (by a loooong stretch) but I do
have a few pearls that I can pass on that help me keep the balls in the air!
Lord knows I have struggled with this before - so this time around, I was
determined to have a very organised approach..
First set of tips are to do with what I affectionately call ‘The
Mummy Shift’..here’s what I did:
The Mummy Shift
- found great daycare for baby girl and started
phasing her back into full-time nursery 4 weeks prior to me starting work. This
means that we don't have any 'clingyness' when I have to run and jump in the
car and she is excited to go there everyday. This makes leaving her for the day
much much easier on me. Little Miss O is not phased at all by being a
full-timer again and tells me herself ' I like 'girls time', but I prefer nursery' - can you spell
s.o.c.i.a.l.i.t.e - and which 3 year old do you know that says 'prefer'. This
my child cracks me up! Love her.
- also organised fantastic and reliable back-up daycare and
after-daycare emergency relief for those inevitable times when I'm either
stuck in the office or there's a problem on the road etc... you can just never
have enough back-up! The day I am stuck is not the day I want to start
stressing about my child's care! I have a childminder who lives 300m from the
nursery and is on all call 5 days a week. I also have a standby no2 who lives
400m from the nursery. You just can’t buy peace of mind.
- cook for the week on
Sunday. My Mum used to do this on Saturdays and this is something that I
did during my last job and have continued so far. It's important to me that we
eat healthy, balanced meals (well at least more often than not!), and I like
cooking. So, I pop a dish or two in the freezer and one in the fridge and that
lasts fine for Monday - Thursday. Literally, a couple of minutes to warm up the
food, perhaps boil potatoes/pasta and within 15 minutes of getting home, dinner
is served on the table. Et Voila! Friday is free for all in our house -
take-away, dinner out when £££ permits, left-overs whatever - at that point,
the weekend is in sight and I become a different, far less organised version of
myself! Eat whatever, stay up late - whatever. In fact, I actively encourage
Little Miss O to stay up and play on Friday and Saturday nights; this means lie
ins for us in the morning!
- night duty: Pack all bags at night and
leave EVERYTHING by the door - but not blocking a escape route in case of fire
etc!! No more running around like a nutter looking for my file/baby girls scarf
etc in the morning.. I just collect everything that is by the door and we’re
off.
So far so good... things are falling into line...it’s happy days.
Baby girl and I are up and ready and we usually get snuggle/TV/story/play time
before we head out for nursery and the same again in the evening after dinner...
Next up ‘The London Commute!’
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