Tips for Juggling Work and Children in the Holidays

It's only Week One of the summer holidays and my vision of a straightforward work-children balance at home has been somewhat distorted.  Or perhaps, was just completely impractical...!

I tend to plan and think in 'number of hours' (that's a previous office life for you) which has failure written all over it.   The truth is, if you're at home with the kids and trying to work, you will only ever get little chunks of time to chip away at your mountain of looming work.

So having realised and accepted this - I've put together some ideas to work it.  The goal being that I can still achieve what I need to in the day, whilst making the most of the time with the children.  Here goes:

1. Get up a little earlier.  OK, this may not seem at all tempting having managed to ditch the school run for the next 6 weeks...but.... you can stay in your PJ's grab yourself a cuppa and squeeze an hour or so in before the kids are up. It's a great head start.
2. Plan Plan Plan.  If you know what you need to achieve the next day or over the next week, you can prioritise your workload.  
3. Be realistic.  If you're like me, you probably set your sights too high by giving yourself unrealistic targets.  For some reason I think I can do everything plus a little bit more... which sadly... I can't. By setting realistic goals, you are much more likely to achieve and feel good at the end of the day rather than frustrated.
4. Plan tasks not hours. Having worked out what needs to be done you have effectively broken your work down into tasks.  Tasks are much easier to squeeze in around the kids, one might take an hour, another might take 20 minutes. Some you can do with the kids, some you have to do when they are occupied. It makes planning much easier.
5. Activities to occupy the kids.  Think of things to occupy the children whilst you are working.  Mine love colouring, which could  give me an hour to answer emails, process orders or even package orders.  If I need to paint letters or plaques, I give them something to paint so we can do it together.
6. Use TV to your advantage.  Yes I know, the "T" word in the summer, but by letting the kids watch a movie at some point in the day, you are again giving yourself time to work.  When they watch TV just be sure to plan it around when you want / need to work.
7. Go out. Make sure you have something lined up to do with the children during the day - you will spend quality time together, the children will have something to look forward to and you won't end up feeling guilty about having to work. Summer holidays are the best opportunity for us to make the most of the time we do have with our children - especially while they are young.
8. Work in the evening.  Most of us already do this, but we may need to do a little bit more. And perhaps more at the weekend too, whilst daddy is around to look after them for a while.  If you follow to tip 6, you probably won't mind this as you've already been out and done something fun in the day.

I'm sure I'll think of more as these next few weeks progress and trial these in practice.  Will keep you posted.  In the meantime let us know if you have any tips you can add to this, comment below and help other busy mums in the same situation.

Good luck and enjoy!!

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Easter Gifts for My Kids - Mean Mum or Just Plain Sensible?!

Easter is only a couple of days away now and I thought I'd do something different for my girls this year. 

Aged 4 and 5, they certainly don't need ridiculous amounts of chocolate and sweets and I'm definately not in favour of that for several reasons:

-          Chocolate makes my children go hyper, with immediate effect. Fact.

-          I therefore limit the amount they can have. Fact.

-          Despite this everyone else still buys them lots. Fact.

-          Which means I spend the next few days and weeks (not months) munching my way through it all, piling on the pounds and then feeling pressured to exercise. Fact.

This Easter is going to be different and I can’t wait to give them their gifts.So what I have I bought?

 
On the chocolate front I’ve given in to a small Smarties’ Easter egg as well as one of these Minnie Mouse Easter Eggs - that is really more Minnie Mouse Mug than it is Egg (Strategic!). The girls will love their mugs and will definitely get use out of them. 

I’ve also got them a large colouring book each with lots of Easter themed colouring pages and activity sheets; crayons; stencils for painting their hard boiled eggs (ready for egg rolling) and as a special treat each I’ve bought them both a gorgeous little hand bag that I stumbled upon in Accessorize. 

My girls love personalised things and so I’m also in the process of making them each a personalised bag charm, to go with said bag and and a door sign.  I’m hoping the bag charms will be finished tonight but it’s more than unlikely that the door signs will take a little longer as they are going to be new designs for the website.  I’ll add pictures of both to this post, when they are complete.

I’m really excited about the Easter weekend and love the fact that it’s not ALL going to be about chocolate!  Admittedly this has cost more than buying a few chocolate eggs from a supermarket, but this way they still get to enjoy some chocolates and goodies, but also have presents that they can enjoy and use.  

What are you doing for Easter?  Have you gone down the Chocolate route or have you gone for something different? 

I’d love to hear your comments :o)

In the meantime, have a great Easter.