A Day In The Life Of A Working Mum

I really am knocking out all of the new mum cliche blog posts these days aren’t I? I didn’t actually think I would create ~this much~ blog content about babies and motherhood and all that jazz, (if you’re new around here, I normally write about travel lol) but it’s the thing that’s on my mind a lot these days. And my mum blog posts seem to be going down well with you lot, so here we go, another installment of my motherhood diaries. This time all about my life as a working mum.

I went back to work full-time this summer after having my daughter in January. “Full time?!” other new mums exclaim in horror. Yes, full time. It wasn’t a discussion. I mean firstly, I have a mortgage to pay. But also, work is part of my identity and I like feeling like I’m contributing to something. I like having time off-duty from being a mum too, because, I’m just going to say it, I find it easier being at work than being at home. I know that’s not the case for everyone, but it’s nice to just be able to have a cup of tea or go to the loo without company.

I should also mention that I’m one of the lucky ones that has parents that help with childcare. Both my mum and Josh’s mum look after Indi whilst we’re at work and I honestly can’t imagine what we’d do without that help. (Childcare is around £60 a day in the UK, you do the maths.) So I’m aware that I’m lucky to be a working mum, and get those baby-free toilet breaks, no matter how difficult it is.

So yes, let’s talk about what it’s like to be a working mum.

I find that being a working mum is a weird world where you need to be on top of a lot of things at once. You need to be very organised. You need to make the most of every pocket of time you see available, without completely burning out. It’s a delicate balance of a lot of different areas.

I’ve done a little run through of the average 24 hours of my life on a working day. And I should say that I’ve written this about a week where my workload is manageable in my day job. If something comes up, and I have to work a lunch break, it throws everything out of whack. Similarly if my personal life gets hectic, things are different.

But yes, here we go, a day in the life of a working mum. Enjoy!

5am

On a good day, the first time I will be woken up will be 5am. Indi starts stirring and let’s out a few moans. She just needs a little face stroke and for us to put her dummy in and she’ll snooze a bit longer.

As we’re both working, Josh and I take turns going to her in the night. On a bad night she might wake up at 1am and 3am as well (those are very difficult days to get through). But luckily they’re getting less frequent these days. A 5am wake-up seems to be a constant though unfortunately.

After this she’ll wake up again at 5.30am and then 6am. You know it’s time to get up when instead of going back to sleep she starts laughing and kicking her legs, the little pickle.

6am

We’re up. Sometimes we both get up with Indi or if one of us is really tired we’ll let the other have an extra half an hour in bed. If I get up with her I’ll usually put CBeebies on the telly or play with her on her playmat for a little while. I’ll have a cup of tea and maybe scroll Instagram if I get a minute, but normally Indi is quite needy in the mornings.

Despite being up early there’s a lot to do in the morning so I don’t spend much time getting ready. I shower in the evenings to give me more time and I’ll usually only spend 10-15 minutes getting myself ready for work. Me and Josh have to tag team it so that one of us is always with the girl. I’ll normally give Indi her bottle whilst Josh gets ready and Josh will make lunch with Indi in the room whilst I get ready. I also need to make sure I pack her bag for the day. Oh and I put some washing in the washer dryer on a timer so it’s ready for later this evening.

It’s a bit hectic but normally we manage to leave the house around 7.15am.

7.40am

We drop Indiana off at my mum’s (or Josh’s mum’s on a Monday) around 7.40am. My mum normally has Indi’s breakfast ready for her and we take in her stuff, transferring the car seat and isofix base from our car to their hallway so that my mum can take her out in her car. It’s a bit rushed sometimes but we’re in a good routine now we’ve done it for a few months.

8am

We arrive in work for an 8am start. I’m really lucky that my work has flexi hours so I choose to start a bit earlier so that I can finish earlier and spend more time with my baby girl before she goes to sleep.

This is normally the part where I take a big sigh of relief. We survived the early start and mad rush and I’ve made it to work. That in itself can feel like quite an achievement sometimes.

I eat my breakfast and drink some coffee at work, again to save time at home. So I’ll read emails and eat at my desk before cracking on with work.

10.30am

My job is in big chunks, I work mainly on projects that I get stuck into. So normally mid-morning and mid-afternoon I’ll take a break to get my eyes off of spreadsheets. I probably shouldn’t say this as I know full well that my boss reads my blog, but in between projects is an opportunity for life admin. You know stuff like booking a dentist appointment or ordering a Moonpig card for someone? This is when I fit it in.

Once you have a baby, stuff like this just feels impossible to do at home. It just slips down the list of priorities. So I use every opportunity to do this kind of stuff on breaks.

I feel like this is key to being a working mum, just taking every opportunity to do something productive and lessen the stress you’re under. For example, this week I’ve managed to schedule a Christmas meet-up with friends, book Indi’s next Health Visitor review and renew my travel insurance. They’re things that only take 5 minutes but make a big difference in making me feel like I’m on top of things.

Sidenote: having a diary, whether physical or on an app, is essential to juggling everything IMHO.

12.30pm

LUNCHTIME. A time to eat lunch and chat to colleagues in the canteen, right? No sir. This is valuable time that I need to get shit done in. Don’t get me wrong, not every lunch time is go, go, go. But I have things that I need to do that I slot into my lunch.

Every Monday, I do my food shop on the Tesco app during my lunch break and get it delivered in the evening. I don’t like to do a food shop at the weekend, when it’s valuable time that I could be spending with my family. So I dedicate Monday’s lunch break to ordering our food for the week. Don’t worry it doesn’t take the whole lunch break so I still have time to eat!

I work right next to a big shopping centre so I also use lunch breaks to buy birthday presents, or get things I need for Indiana. This week I’ve used a lunch break or two to find an outfit for a wedding I’m going to. Another thing ticked off of my to do list.

Other lunchtime jobs include: doing my fantasy football team on the app, posting to Instagram, talking to my friends on Whatsapp and making weekend plans. Fairly normal lunchtime activity I guess, but this is pretty much my only opportunity to do these things so thought I’d point them out.

I mentioned before that I try to get as much done as possible without burning out. So I always make sure I have a couple of lunch breaks to relax. I struggle to find time to read these days so I use this time to read a bit of my book and have a bit of me-time. (Currently reading Invisible Women and it’s awesome.)

2.30pm

My mum will send me a photo of Indi looking cute, either at a baby class she’s taken her to or playing at the house. I used to think things like this would make me upset or make me wish that I didn’t have to work. But in reality, it actually makes me feel better. I know she’s ok, she’s safe with my mum, she’s having a good time. And I know I’ll get to see her in a few hours.

4pm

At the end of every day I have a little routine to keep myself organised at work. I use Asana to schedule my workload so I’ll go through it, tick what I’ve done and look at what I have to do the next day. I’ll file emails and tidy my desk away and it makes me feel like I’m leaving work in a good place. It means that the moment I leave the office, I don’t think about work again until I’m back the next morning.

I finish work at 4.30pm and head over to my mum’s to pick my daughter up just before 5pm.

5.30pm

There’s more traffic in the evenings so it takes a little longer to get home, arriving around 5.30pm-ish. Normally Indi will sleep on the way home, which always stresses me out because I worry she won’t sleep at night! But she seems to do ok.

As soon as we get home I give Indiana her dinner. We’re limited on time before she goes to bed so I tend to feed her something quick in the evenings. Maybe something we cooked and froze in batches for her. Or maybe an Ella’s Kitchen pouch. I prefer to give her home-cooked meals but by this point she’s a bit ratty and so quicker is always better!

6pm

Josh and I split the jobs again in the evenings and take turns doing each role. But I’d say most of time Josh will empty the dishwasher and cook dinner, whilst I get Indi ready for bed and give her the last milk of the day. We play with her a bit and normally she will go to bed around 7pm.

I’d love to say we just read her a book, put her to bed and close the door and she goes to sleep on her own. This seems to be what you’re ~meant~ to do. But no, we’ve made a rod for our own backs. I discovered in the newborn days that Indi would go to sleep if I held her whilst bouncing on the birth ball. Nothing has changed since then. I’ll put on her white noise machine, put her in her sleeping bag and bounce on the ball until she goes to sleep. Carefully placing her in her cot when she’s off.

I know you’re meant to teach your baby to self-settle, blah blah blah, but this is just how it is.

7pm

If we’ve timed it right, dinner will be ready just as Indiana goes to sleep. But we’ve often had to keep dinner warm until she drifts off.

I’d like to say this is where I relax but there’s still lots to do. We’ll load the dishwasher and I’ll get the clothes out of the washer dryer and fold them. This is also when I should put them away but they will probably stay folded up in the laundry basket for a couple days. Pretty much until I next need to use the laundry basket.

8pm

I have about an hour of time I spend with Josh on the sofa with a cup of tea. We’re watching The Wire at the moment so will watch one episode a night. Or we watch the Bake Off on Tuesdays.

But I’m not really relaxing if I’m honest. I’m usually on my phone answering messages from the day or catching up with blog emails. But I’m trying to be better. Promise.

9pm

Time to start thinking about the next day.

I need to shower and wash my hair in the evenings, like I said. But I’m aware I need to make time for me and all that “self-care” jazz, so when I can, I like to have a bath before bed. I think that makes it less about getting a chore done, and more about relaxing. I’ll put a podcast on and have a soak in the bubbles. Heaven.

The problem is I’m a little ~too~ relaxed by now so I tend to either just rough-dry my hair and tie it up, or sleep on it wet… Combine this with my 10 minute get ready time in the morning and I’m sure you can imagine I’m looking GLAM at work lol.

9.30pm

By now I’m shattered but I’m trying to do more things that make me happy in this time.

If I’m tired I’ll watch something that’s 20 mins long on Netflix, like The Good Place or Working Moms (on-brand I know). But I like to do some of my blog stuff (like writing this post) if I can manage it.

I’m also getting into a routine where I write a gratitude list. It’s a bit woo-woo I know, but I have a little notebook next to my bed where I write three things that happened that day that I’m grateful for. I actually went to a sleep workshop recently where the woman running it said that physically writing before bed can help you get to sleep at night. I also feel like focusing on the positive puts me in a good mindset for bed.

10pm

I plug in my phone, get the video monitor set up next to me and go to sleep, hoping that Indi has a good night.

And then it’s time to do it all over again the next day!

So yes, there’s a little insight into my average day as a working mum! I have a lot to do, but that’s because I want to do it all. I want to work, I want to spend time with my daughter and I want to have me-time where I can. I want to arrange to see friends because I don’t want to be the person that disappears as soon as they have a baby. I want to find time to write because writing is what I love to do. I want to have a bath because I need to make sure I’m relaxing.

The one thing I think I need more of is exercise so I’m going to try to add a lunchtime swim sesh if I can! Or maybe yoga one night a week. But it is VERY difficult to add something else. I’m aware that my life is pretty hectic and I don’t want to burn out.

But I think so far I’m managing life as a working mum. I’m naturally a very organised person so I like having lots to manage. The only thing is the morning rush that I’m trying to make less stressful and more routine, but we’ll get there I’m sure.

Hashtag working mum life.

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