Staying at home parenting~such an easy life!

The last couple of weeks I had a few people coming up to me saying “ohhh, but you are a stay at home mum. You have an easy life, as you don’t do much. Definitely no stress”. Those kind of statements make my hair rise to no end. It makes me realise how little society knows what it takes to take care of kids, without them going to daycare.

One of the reasons I have started this blog, is not only to highlight the problems a single parent encounters, but also what a stay at home parent does in a day. So here you can find the schedule of a normal day for me. Taking into account one child is in school. So the days of no school are infinitely more hectic.

6.30 alarm, wake up, have a cuddle with kids, take kids into livingroom, put Henry in playpen and take Elizabeth to the toilet.
6.45 Make bottles of milk for the kids, give one to Elizabeth and feed Henry myself (he doesnt want to drink his bottle by himself.
7.00 Make breakfast for the kids, chase Elizabeth to eat, feed Henry.
7.15 Dress Elizabeth, comb and tidy her hair. Feed the cat!
7.25 Dress Henry, nappy, taking great care of his eczema. (creams etc…)
7.40 Make beds and take a shower. Kids watch cbeebies in the meantime.
8.00 Get the children’s coats and shoes and start dressing them
8.15 Taking two flights of stairs with two kids and a schoolbag. Put Henry in the pram
8.25 Schoolrun
8.30 School for Elizabeth
8.45 Coming back home, two flights of stairs, undressing Henry and put him in bed for his morning snooze.
9.00 Make cup of coffee and some cereal and have breakfast.
9.30 Start chores (dishes, litter tray, bin bags, hoovering, tidying up playpen and toys, wiping the floors, folding up laundry and ironing, dusting, etc…whatever needs to be done)
11.30 Wake up Henry, new nappy, dress Henry, coat, shoes. Two flights downstairs, put Henry in pram and go to school.
12.05 Elizabeth has her lunchbreak. We all go to a social restaurant to eat. Cheap and different meal on a daily basis.
12.15 arriving at the social restaurant. Chase Elizabeth to eat, feed Henry, trying to have some food as well.
12.55 Dress kids again, coat, shoes, take Elizabeth back to school.
13.00 School for Elizabeth. What I am doing now depends on weather and day (as i dont have a car, I do everything on foot). Some days I need to do grocery shopping. Some days I need to run errands (administrative or otherwise), some days I go back home to play with Henry. I try to teach him something new on a daily basis. He is now 16 months and knowd over ten commands, like clap in your hands or show me your dancing?
15.30 back to school, Elizabeth’s schoolday is over and we go home.
15.45 Snacktime for both kids. Mostly custard for Henry and a biscuit for Elizabeth. Tea for mummy.
16.15 mummy and kids’ quality time: mummy does what the kids want to do. Playing with the farmyard, or puzzling, or barbies or even rolling around on the floor.
17.00 Dinner making time. As we eat a cooked meal at lunch, I make sandwiches for the kids. But, sandwiches with a twist. Sandwich with chocolate spread, grapes, chicken white, cheddar cheese in little pieces and cheesesticks. Bottle of milk to accompany.
17.15 Feed Henry, Elizabeth eats her food by herself.
17.45 Undress Elizabeth and put her pj’s on. Undress Henry and care for his eczema
(on Wednesdays and Saturdays it is bathday, so we do that then around this time. Add another half an hour to the day for washing kids, washing hair and tidying the bathroom again).
18.15 Another 15 minutes of tv time before bed, so mummy can make schoolbag, put clothes put for the next day for the kids and me.
18.30 Storytime
18.45 Bedtime and chores for mummy, like tidying up whatever toys are out and mess the kids have made
19.00 Switch the news on while making dinner for myself. While I do try to eat at lunch, mostly I have no time/no food left to eat. So I make something for myself in the evenings, when the kids are in bed.
19.15-19.30 aaannnnnnd relax
21.00-22.00 go to bed when I feel tired.

A regular day 🙂 obviously not a weekend. They can also be hectic, as I cook for the kids, I also try to wash and hang up the laundy in the weekend (cheaper electricity), we try to go out and do something active and we meet friends/family!

I hope, when people think again about stay at home parents, they realise we do have a busy day. To me it sometimes feels like the Neverending Story. And to you?