How We Do It – Planning Ahead

As a working mom and mother of two (8 and 5), I totally agree that planning ahead is essential. I first realized how much smoother this would make my week when my youngest was going to daycare. We used drop-ins (another must for the working mom) so I invested in enough bottles/nipples for the entire week. I prepared the bottles, nipples, liners and labels with appropriate dates all on Sunday. This avoided the prep work each night. Now that they’re school age we do the same for their lunches by preparing containers (no more zip-lock bags) of pretzels, goldfish, salsa, etc. The dry goods we leave on the counter and the cold items in the fridge all ready to just throw in their lunch boxes. I also keep a big plastic bowl filled with a week’s worth of individual wrapped snacks like granola bars. Just not having to dig in the pantry helps. It’s amazing how much time this saves! We also invested in enough water bottles so those are always ready to go as well. This Sunday routine has also expanded to include getting both kids’ outfits for the week ready (hanging shoe organizers work great!). As they’ve gotten older we’ve included them in the process in regards to picking out the week’s outfits. This avoids scrambling in the morning to find socks, underwear, and hair-bows and arguments about what they can and can’t wear to school. To keep our sanity for extra-activities during the week, we plan ahead by having designated bags/totes for each activity and in them go all the essentials…faith-formation book, soccer cleats, socks, shin-guards, swim-suit, goggles. Again…time, energy and emotions (frustrations) are all saved for better, more enjoyable things! With the addition of homework into our schedules we found that by hiring a tutor for one hour on Monday has really kept everybody happy and ahead of the game. While I fix dinner my son works with his tutor happily (unlike the resistance moms tend to experience) and they complete the week’s spelling assignments. The past three years it’s been the same sequence each week. She patiently helps him write his spelling words three times using a different color for each letter, writing sentences, drawing a picture with the words wrapping around it, doing stair steps (this can be painful for a mom), etc. The rest of the week we only have to read, some math and review the words which is all so much more fun. With sports practices throughout the week, this also saves us from having to fight over doing such tasks on the field etc. My latest planning ahead strategy has involved making early Saturday morning bi-weekly trips to Super Walmart for groceries with one of my best girlfriends. We take turns driving, leave out early (no showers required) and stroll the aisles chatting and saving a significant chunk of change. (My extra-fridge in the garage really helps in planning ahead for meals and shopping too.)

As a working mom and mother of 4 young kiddos, I realized early on that planning was essential. Anything I can do at night instead of saving for the mornings is always great- you never know what you’re going to wake up to in the morning! Getting outfits ready helps- my kids are involved in that decision, but I don’t allow them to change their minds in the morning. I buy big bags of pretzels, grapes, etc. for lunch and then divide up so that making 4 lunches is easy. When I changed over to doing this the night before it made a world of difference in my mornings. Also, my husband and I try to have “Sunday night meetings” where we sit down both with notepads (and sometimes a glass of wine) and go thru the week’s plans. This helps with deciding who needs to get home early on certain days for ballgames/practices, violin lessons, etc. We also plan out what errands we are each responsible for seeing about during the week. We’ve recently included my oldest, who just turned 8, in some of these “meetings”. I think she’s amazed to hear all of the logistics we have to work out for our large family to run smoothly!