A mom often wears many hats, taxi driver, cook, housekeeper, bread-winner, shoulder to cry on, and more. So, how does mom juggle it all? The following are six secrets of organized moms to help make things easier:
1. Routines. Organized moms serve dinner at the same time each night, have strict bed times, have after school routines with homework and socializing. If you want to be an organized mom, you have to have a routine you stick to. This might mean that you get your child up at the same time each day, and expect them to get dressed and make their bed before they come in to breakfast. You may have a few different routines, such as your morning routine, your after school and evening routine, and your weekend routine. A routine helps you, the mom, keep things on track, and helps your children to know what to expect, and what is expected of them.
2. Meal plans. Organized moms do not spend extra time in the grocery store, or standing in front of the refrigerator trying to determine what to prepare that night. Organized moms take a few minutes once a week to create a meal plan for the week. Monday: Soup, Tuesday: Chicken, Wednesday: Pizza, Thursday: Hamburgers, and the list goes on. The idea is that if you know what you are going to make you can be prepared throughout the day. For example, if you are going to roast a chicken for dinner, you will need to get it out of the freezer in the morning in order for it to be defrosted by dinner time.
3. Rules. Organized moms have rules or guidelines for their families. They may be simple like dinner is at 5:30. Or they may be more complex like, no friends, television, or snacking until your homework is completed. A mom can’t keep the whole family organized without some participation, so rules, and guidelines are helpful. Make them clear, and enforce them.
4. Time off. An organized mom does not let herself get overly stressed, or overwhelmed because she knows when to say no, when to de-stress, and when to take a break. She knows that when she is starting to lose her cool, that letting dad take the kids to McDonald’s rather than fixing a nice meal, is sometimes better, even if it is not the healthiest option. The organized mom knows when she needs a break, and figures out how to take one.
5. Organized home. The organized mom has an organized home. She creates a place for everything so that school mornings are not spent hastily trying to find shoes, backpacks, pens that work, etc. Instead, everything has a place, and the kids know where things go, and contribute by being sure to put their backpack on the hook, in the cubby, or whatever the case may be, the night before.
6. Back-up plans. Organized moms always plan ahead, and prepare for the worst. They carry a spare outfit, some cash, and phone numbers of friends and family, just in case. They take things in stride. So, for example, if your tire goes flat while driving, and it is your day to do carpool, the organized mom has the numbers of the other carpool moms on hand, and knows which ones can typically swap days. So, have a back up plan.
The most under-appreciated role in the modern family is the mom. I’m constantly amazed by the mothers who run a successful household, handle the kids, and manage to get enough rest to do it all over again.
No days off and usually no vacations.
Love the site!
Thank you! All great suggestions. This week I actually had a meal plan and it felt good knowing we had a handful of dinners shopped for and that everyone can have leftovers for lunch as it works out.
I never considered myself an organized mom until reading this! Prior to marriage and children, I was super-organized, but it came easily because I lived minimally and didn’t have a cluttered life full of stuff. So now that I’m a mom, and I really have to work at it hard, it is a nice reminder that I am really doing pretty well. There are 2 things on the list I need to work on, but otherwise, I’m on a roll. Thanks for the cheer!
Do such moms really exist? I have yet to meet any?!
i love my mom.
I think another important thing to be able to do is to delegate. Mothers don’t have to do it all themselves if there is a partner in the picture, or children old enough to help out.
Thank you! All of these tips were helpful. Not because I didn’t know these things but for the confirmation of things I’ve been trying to enforce in my home and not getting the back up I need to do them. I feel like when I get two steps ahead my husband comes in and changes a game plan and we go 10 steps back to start all over. I’ve stressed how important a set time for dinner is and how important it is that we all sit down and eat together. I think dinner together is important because that’s the only time when the whole family can sit down together and not feel stressed over doing something else and the only time you get that family “talk time” into the days’ busy schedules. It’s important for the kids to see that we can do that at least once a day. But we never get through a whole week doing that without “something coming up” to disrupt it. My son has day care only 2 days a week. Tues. and Thurs. every week. No matter how much I rush around and reschedule my day’s work to stick to that it never fails that when I rely on my husband to get him to daycare on a day I have to work too early in the AM to get him up and out of the house, my son ends up not going to daycare at all those days. Or when I need my husband to pick him up because I’m working or in the middle of something and he is available to do it, he will keep telling me what time it is starting an hour and half before it’s time to pick my son up until I leave instead of him going to pick him up for me so I can finish whatever I’m working on at the time. So then that sets me back to have to find time later to finish something that could’ve been done if I’d just have the help that is obviously needed sometimes. And I do know when I need to take a break and get some “me” time, if only for 5 or ten minutes, the problem is when I tell my husband I need a break and please just bathe our son or maybe put him to bed for that night so I can get away for a few, he asks me “why?” like I need any more of an explanation!? I think the obvious problem here is not organization so much as reevaluating my help or my help prioritizing what is important to him.? With that said this might be better for another subject. But thank you again your article was helpful and inspiring.