Early in the morning when the alarm goes off my feet hit the floor and sometimes don’t stop moving until they are back in bed later that night. Single parents often have the arduous task of working outside the home to meet their family’s needs in addition to being the primary housekeeper, chef and many other roles when they return home. All of the tasks and responsibilities can be overwhelming at times, but there is hope with the right attitude and a few helpful hints to make things run a bit smoother.
Planning is the key to keeping life a little more sane. Use a daytimer, chore chart, online organizational system or whatever works for you. Plan for as much as possible in advance as you can. Coordinate stealth tasking, or doing as many tasks as possible in the shortest amount of time. This might be something as simple as combining tasks such as filling the car up for gas at the station which is next door to your dry cleaners, where you then drop off your laundry.
Decide what you and your children will wear the night before and set out your clothes while checking to make sure they don’t need to be pressed or have any stains that did not come out in the wash. This really cuts down on the frantic morning rush when your son can’t find his shoe and your daughter just remembered the two dozen cookies she volunteered you to make for the class party. At least you have one less thing to be concerned about.
Hire someone else to perform some of your tasks whenever possible to help save time. Can one of the neighborhood children cut your grass once a month during the summer? You still cut the grass the three other weeks, but you get a little lawn cutting vacation one week out of the month.
My dream is to have enough flexible income that I can hire someone to clean my house every week. Forget saving for that Disney vacation-I want a maid! Neither the maid or Disney vacation may ever happen, but I did check into a cleaning service in the past and their rates were not outrageous and I found out that I could hire them for a special one-time cleaning, special event cleaning (such as a holiday) or once a month deep cleaning. So I still dream…
Don’t try to keep up with the Jones’s. The more stuff you have the more responsibilities you have.
Avoid the urge to try to make sure everything perfect. Life is imperfect, but even with all of its flaws, can still be enjoyed.