I Just Don’t Have Enough Time
I work a lot with female clients. Some work from the home, some work in offices while others are stay-at-home moms. One consistent message I continually hear is, “I just don’t have enough time.” What seems to be happening is that the females carry on the responsibility of a job as well as taking on the role of CEO of their family. Within the role of CEO, there are ‘jobs’ that are required to occur every day to keep the house and home running smoothly. How does one find the time to fit everything in? Here are my top three tips to ensure that there is time:
- Learn to delegate. This one, for whatever reason, is so hard for moms to do. The saying, “I’ll just do it because I know it will get done properly,” is very common. What we need to do is take a step back and let go of some of those ‘jobs’ that others in the house can help with. Yes, the dishes may not be stacked the way you would stack them in the dishwasher, but are they getting cleaned? Probably.
- Enlist the help of you family. Often, stay-at-home moms feel the need to do everything because they do stay home. What is forgotten is that staying at home is a full time job! There are no ‘office hours’ when you are a stay-at-home parent. Parenting is a twenty-four hour job that requires you to be ‘on’ all of the time. A simple rule that you can start is: Everyone eats so therefore everyone helps out. That may come in the form of everyone clearing the table. Or perhaps someone sets the table and another person clears off. When your children get older, they can even start by helping with the food preparation.
- Teach the necessary skills. If you do everything in your home, how will your children learn to be self-sufficient when the time comes for them to move out? When the time is right, teach your children some of the things you do. For example, my son is learning how to do his laundry (especially when he wears 3 outfits in one day!). I didn’t teach him when he was two years old, I taught him when he was fifteen. Teaching him washing instructions, reading the label, temperature settings, etc. is allowing him the ability to pitch in when necessary. I also know he will not be expecting me to do his laundry when he’s twenty-one.
This Mother’s Day, I urge you to take some time for yourself and evaluate how busy you are. Are there things that you currently do that you wish you could get help with? If so, who can help you with those? How can your entire family help out? Do you need to ‘outsource’ some jobs? For me, having someone help me with the ‘jobs’ I feel are weighing me down is the best Mother’s Day gift I could possibly get!
