Hellobee

It seems like there is a lot of interest in seeing what goes on in the life of a school-aged kid, so I thought I’d share a snapshot of our week. This is a week in the life as a working mom of two, as a full-time telecommuter, with dual drop-offs and pick-ups. Mister Chucks is in his last year of preschool (I’m counting down the days!), and Lil’ Miss Louboutin is in 1st grade. We also have a few rules – no TV on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and no iPads until the weekend.

There were definitely some freedoms we took for granted as parents to pre-school-aged kids, such as not having to worry about spring, summer, and winter breaks because daycare covered them all. I still  remember the time a seasoned mom of teenage kids telling me, “life will only get busier the older they get.” My mantra “it doesn’t get easier, it just gets different” holds true today. The busyness of parenthood doesn’t ever go away – there always seems to be something – it just transforms as the children enter different seasons in their life.

A moment of peace

Daily – Wake the kids up by 7 am, get breakfast ready (usually oatmeal, cereal, or pancakes), pack lunches and snacks, and one of us will do drop off. We have a carpool situation set up with a neighbor where they’ll do pickup and dropoff one week, and we’ll do the other for our 1st graders, but that still leaves us with Mister Chucks. When it’s our week, depending on who has the more flexible/open morning, either Mr. Heels or I will put the kids in the car, pick up our neighbor’s daughter, drop Lil’ Miss Louboutin and her friend off at school (starts at 8:15 am, but we drop them off by 8:05 am), then drive an extra 15 minutes to drop Mister Chucks at his preschool.  By the time we get back home to work, it is 8:30 am.

Our week at a glance (as you can see, it’s a mad dash til bedtime)

Mondays – Lil’ Miss Louboutin’s school gets out at 2:10 pm. I usually leave home at 2:05 pm, swing by the school, and pick her up from the curb. It is a quick process unless she is dragging her feet and chatting with friends. We get home by 2:20 pm, and I get back to work while she grabs herself an after school snack and turns on the TV. We have to leave again at 2:45 pm to pick up Mister Chucks. I get there by 3 pm, and he is just waking up from his nap. I drive them both directly from preschool to Chinese school, and I barely make it by 3:15 (and a lot of times, I am late). They are there until 5:30 pm. Once dropped off, I rush back home and continue work for the remainder of the day. Mr. Heels will leave home at 5:10 pm to pick them up by 5:30 pm, during which I get dinner ready.  They get home by 5:45 pm, eat dinner, and will watch one 30 minute show on TV (lately, its been Ninja Turtles). Then it’s bath, homework, brush teeth, book reading, and bed. They’re usually in bed anywhere from 8:30 – 9 pm. It doesn’t mean they’re asleep by then though…

Tuesdays – Pickup Lil’ Miss Louboutin at 2:10 pm. She gets home by 2:20 pm, plays on her own for a bit, then she has piano lessons.  Her lesson runs from 2:45 – 3:30 pm, but it is convenient for us because the teacher comes to our house, so we just continue to work during that time. After piano, we have Lil’ Miss Louboutin do her homework because she Tuesdays are playdate days. At 3:30 pm, one of us will pick up Mister Chucks from preschool. Then one of us will take Lil’ Miss Louboutin to gymnastics, which runs from 4:30 – 5:30 pm. She loves it because she goes with her childhood friend, and we’ll usually bring them home together and they get a playdate every Tuesday. Once Lil’ Miss Louboutin is home from gymnastics around 5:40 pm, all the kids eat dinner and have their playdate.  Her friend gets picked up by 7:30 pm, then we’ll bathe the kids, read, and put them to bed.

Wednesdays – Identical to Mondays, except Lil’ Miss Louboutin has minimum day every Wednesday, so her school ends at 1:20 pm.

Thursdays – One of us will pickup Lil’ Miss Louboutin and get her home by 2:20 pm. Later, the other will pickup Mister Chucks by 3:30 pm. This is a “free” day for all of us – no activities or plans.  They come home, grab an after school snack, and play on their own until we finish up our work.  Sometimes the friend that Lil’ Miss Louboutin carpools with will have playdates and she will either go over to her house or vice versa. Now that daylight savings is over and the sun is out longer, we can go biking and scootering around our cul-de-sac before dinner.  After we get our outside time, we’ll eat dinner.  Sometimes we’ll have Lil’ Miss Louboutin practice piano.  Then it’s bath and homework. After homework, we’ll brush their teeth, read some books together, and put them to bed.

Fridays – One of us will pickup Lil’ Miss Louboutin and get her home by 2:20 pm.  Later, the other will pickup Mister Chucks by 3:30 pm.  They are excited because Friday means it is the weekend and they go straight for their iPads.  They don’t get to play for too long though because by 4:30 pm we have to head out to Mister Chucks’ T-Ball practice.  T-Ball practice runs from 5 – 6:15 pm, and we all go.  There is a playground right next to practice, so Lil’ Miss Louboutin will play there while Mister Chucks practices.  Once practice ends at 6:15 pm, we go out to eat.  One week we get to pick the place, and the alternating week, the children get to pick (somehow we always end up at In-N-Out when it’s their turn – I don’t blame them!).

Right now, there is usually a T-Ball game every Saturday that takes up about 2 hours of our time, but other than that we keep it pretty open.  Of course things come up like hanging out with friends, birthday parties, etc. but overall it’s pretty relaxed. Sundays are our family days, so we intentionally don’t plan things on Sundays, and we decline most invites.  I’ll also wash and fold laundry on Sundays, meal plan, and do our grocery shopping for the week.

* * * * * *

There is a lot going on, but we are very fortunate that we both have similar, flexible, full-time telecommute schedules, and that this allows us to replace after school care with activities.  I never intended for us to have so many activities, with Lil’ Miss Louboutin in three activities and Mister Chucks in two. Chinese is a big commitment, but I knew I would regret it if I never introduced them to Mandarin, and after a certain age, it becomes harder to learn a language.  We plan to scale this down to once a week next semester, so that will make a big difference, however, it is nice that they both have Chinese on the same days and times.  Piano is our easiest activity in the sense that we don’t have to shuttle anyone anywhere, but like Chinese, it does require practice and consistency outside of lessons.  Gymnastics is something Lil’ Miss Louboutin really enjoys, and wants to continue (especially since she gets to do it with a friend).  Mister Chucks is really enjoying T-Ball, but the Spring season ends in May, so we’ll have some more days freed up after that.

Although we have a lot going on during the week, our weekends are mostly open and unstructured.  Having a flexible job makes a world of a difference because otherwise I don’t know how two full-time working parents do it. In order to juggle the pick-ups and drop-offs with work I usually log on before 8, and I block off time in my Outlook during those windows where I have to be picking up or dropping off a kid, so that I don’t get scheduled for meetings during those times.  Luckily, my work environment is all about autonomy, so there is no micromanaging, and there is a high sense of trust amongst colleagues, so as long as you do your job and you do it well, it’s fine.

I think having the flexibility is even more crucial now than when they were babies!  It’s clear to me that the public school system was designed with the assumption that one parent will always be home, and the other will be the breadwinner.  It still hasn’t caught up to all the changes that have occurred in the workforce in the last 50 years. That is another post for another day I suppose.

Where/how do you find the time to squeeze in activities in-between all the other life stuff you have on your plate?