Being a single parent can get hectic at times. You have work, daycare, your school, their school, your homework, their homework, bills, appointments, activities, school programs, shared custody or visitation, birthdays, alone time and a lot more. Some days you wonder how you are going to do it all. There are a lot of things and ideas out there that can help you get through days like this. I won’t be able to fit all of them into one blog, because it would just get way too long, so I am going to break this up into several different blogs. Each one will cover a different thing, idea, or aspect to help you. The first one I’m going to cover is getting a calendar that works for you. Having a good calendar or two is essential.
Get at least one good wall calendar. There are a lot of good calendars out there, you just have to find them. My friend has one that has the dates down the side of the calendar, and places across the top to write in the names of household members. It looks like a graph, and the squares are large enough to write different appointments each day for each individual. I have one that goes from August one year to December of the next. So it goes from the beginning of the school year to the end of the next year, instead of the beginning of the year to the end of the year. I like this because it gives me time to get my new calendar, without having to worry about not still having one to use. It looks similar to regular calendars, but the squares go from the top half of the calendar, to the bottom half of the calendar. The squares are huge to write in, and you can easily see the numbers from across the room.
It’s also a good idea, though not essential, to get a good portable calendar. I love having an organizer. You know, the little three ring binder covered in material with some type of closure. I personally prefer the zippers so things won’t go falling or flying out. You can have daily, weekly, monthly or yearly calendars in these. The two that I highly recommend are the daily and monthly. The rest are nice to have, but not essential. You don’t have to have a planner though. Just finding a good portable size calendar will work. Make sure it has enough room to write what you need.
Do you have a favorite calendar that you couldn’t live without? Look for the next installment where I will cover using your calendar.