8 Rules For Working Mom Sanity

I saw my college roommate over the holiday. She’s a Ph.D., knocking on the door of tenure as a professor at our alma matter. This fact alone makes her one of the smartest, most hard working people I know. But, though her eyes were indeed wisdom-filled, they were also practically closed after we finished up lunch.

 

This stems from the fact that she doesn’t cut corners now, just as she didn’t cut class back in the day, which is why she’s rocking it out as a professor, wife and mother of a 3 year old now, but it’s also why she’s exhausted. Clearly, my friend is in need of my personal area of expertise…

How To Cut Corners On The Homefront So You Don’t Lose Your Mind, Your Job Or The Goodwill Of Your Family

 

1.     Do not let preschool teachers guilt you when they tell you it’s imperative that you get your 4 year old to the center by 8 a.m. so that he can indulge in free play time and make more friends. If this schedule change would make you run screaming for the hills, don’t do it.

 

Or maybe do it 2 mornings a week. Do not make yourself a raving lunatic every day because you don’t want to have a friendless 4 year old. The road is long. Junior will have friends. It’s also important he have a mother with her sanity intact.

 

2.    Pre-prepared foods are good. Crudite totally counts as a vegetable serving. Items from a fruit platter count as a fruit serving. I let the Dynamic Duo pick any 3 items from these platters. They like the choice. I like the fact that I’m watching them eat two servings of healthy per day, and I don’t have to dirty a dish to do it.

 

3.    During the work week pick one day to have sandwich night from Subway. Subway is fairly healthy, cheap and ubiquitous. No prep work, no dishes, no trans fats. What’s not to love about Subway night? Except for the odiferous scent of the bread baking in the restaurant, which is why you get your sandwiches to go and actually eat them at home.

 

4.    Clean is better than tidy. Aim for clean. Tidy you can do on the weekends. Or when the kids are in college.

 

5.    Delegate. Hire a cleaning gal. Pay her extra to do a load of laundry.   This stage of the game is not about saving money. It’s about saving sanity. You don’t have to do this forever, just until your workload lets up or Junior enters 4^th grade, which is when my friend Lisa taught her son how to do the family laundry. Lisa’s reasoning is fantastic. If a kid can figure out how to do the Wii, the t.v. remote and his Nook, he can figure out how to punch the buttons on the washing machine. Genius!

 

6.    Figure out what your thing is. Move heaven and earth to make it happen. Ease up your standards on, oh, everything else. My friend Ashley absolutely requires that her kiddo’s clothing be clean, but she doesn’t worry so much about the wrinkled part. My thing is nightly book reading with the Dynamic Duo. I don’t worry so much if bath night isn’t as regular an occurrence.

 

7.     Life gets overwhelming for everybody sometimes. When it gets really bad, go to bed early. It will look better in the morning.

 

8.    Don’t tie your peace of mind to the orderliness of your house. Tie it to the size of your kiddo’s smile, the number of tail wags from your dog, the overflowing basket of holiday card well wishes. My Ph.D. friend has all these signs of a life well lived and so much more. She is also rich beyond compare if you count number of Lego guys residing in one purse and number of guru girl blackmail stories from foolish, college days.