Over the past few weeks several freelancers have posted what their normal work from home day looks like. (Read Cat’s from Budget Blonde, Michelle’s from Making Sense of Cents, and watch the video from Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff.)
There are some (kid free) days when my days look similar to theirs. Recently, however, I’ve been working with my kids home quite a bit. On the really busy days I normally take my kids to the babysitter but due to nonstop snow and ice storms this year I’ve been reluctant to get out on the roads.
And because of that my day goes something like this……..
6:00 – 8:00 am Wake Up & Fix Breakfast
Somewhere between 6 and 7 am (and sometimes much earlier) my youngest daughter, Ava, wakes up. I am still cuddled up under the covers sleeping in my bed. “Mommy get me some chocolate [milk]” she hollers. Hopeful that she’ll go back to sleep I holler back “It’s still sleep time, Ava.”
It doesn’t work. Never does 😉
The yelling wakes up Kailyn and before I know it I have two little girls on both sides of my bed. (See below a picture Ava took of me trying to sleep.)
I get my butt out of bed, fill their cups with chocolate milk, and make them breakfast. Once they’re sitting at the table eating I hop in the shower.
8:00 – 9:00 am Try to Work
After eating Kailyn grabs my phone to play a game and Ava grabs the Kindle to watch Bubble Guppies or Dora. They usually entertain themselves on these devices for about an hour.
This is the only (mostly) interrupted time during the day where I can sneak in a little work. I write a blog post for a client, check and respond to emails.
If I get a full blog post complete I’m feeling pretty darn good!
9:00 am – 1pm – Clean, Read, Eat, Play
At around 9:00 am the girls lose interest in the electronic devices. Kailyn is ready to know what we’re going to do today.
I tell her we’ll clean up the house, read a few books, and practice writing. Ava is more of a minute by minute girl – she could care less what the plans are. Nevertheless she becomes attached to my hip.
We clean up the messes created from the previous evening. Pick up toys, wipe down tables, and if I’m feeling really energetic – sweep and mop the floors. Kailyn likes for rooms (especially hers) to be clean so she pitches in.
My little three year old mess maker dumps out all of the blocks that I just picked up and starts building jumbo Lego castles on the floor. I’m happy that she’s temporarily entertained so I take a quick minute to check my email.
We make lunch. The girls play for a little bit. (We’ve had a couple cardboard boxes lately that keep them rather entertained. Who needs toys?!)
1 – 3pm – Movie Time
By now the girls are getting pretty grumpy. I haven’t been able to get either of them to take naps since they turned two!
Instead of naps we cuddle on the couch and watch a movie. We usually end up watching the same movie a hundred times before moving to the next. The current movie of choice is Peter Pan.
3 – 7pm – Dinner & Whatever Else
We don’t have a set routine during this time of the day anymore. Sometimes my mom will stop over and visit. Sometimes we’ll sit around and read books. Sometimes (if the weather permits) I’ll go to my aunts and we’ll work out or eat dinner.
Kailyn is determined to turn our rat terrier pup into some sort of circus-trick dog so each day she places him on furniture and encourages him to jump off. I get nervous that he’s going to get badly hurt and make her quit.
The two girls argue for an hour over whose turn it is to hold the dog (Martin.) I get frustrated and put him in his crate.
If we’re not going in anywhere we’ll make dinner and sit at the table and eat at round 5:30-6 . Here lately most of my meals have come from the crockpot.
At some point during this time I try to check and declutter my email inbox once again.
7:30 -8 pm Bath and Bed
At 7:30 on the dot every evening I give the girls a bath. They usually play in the bath tub for around a half an hour and then go lay in bed and watch a movie. Ava usually falls asleep around 8:30 but Kailyn tries to stay up as late as possible. She usually falls asleep by 10:00.
8:00pm – 1am – Work
Now I sit down at my computer and get started on my work. I’ve had a lot of extra writing work to do lately so I make a list of all my posts that are due.
I normally have around 4-5 blog posts to write, emails to answer, and a few other virtual assisting type tasks to do during this time so I get busy coming up with ideas and writing posts.
My intentions were to write a post for my blog too, but by the time I finish with the others I’m a bit drained.
It always takes me a long time to fall asleep at night so I take a Midnight PM and go hop in bed!
So that’s a day of working from home with kids! Do your days look anything like mine?
I love that first Pat Flynn style image at the beginning. Which program did you use to create that?
Wow, that’s a pretty busy day. It’s funny – my morning also starts out with an “Can you get me a chocolate milk please” as well. That’s pretty efficient that you can crank out 4-5 posts at night. I think if I can one I’m doing awesome.
Gotta have chocolate milk!! lol
I used PicMonkey for the image. I’ve been playing around with it for a couple months. Feel like I’m finally getting the hang of it.
Have you tried having the choc. milk all ready in the fridge so they can just grab it and shake it and drink it while you are still sleeping? Wasn’t sure if that would buy you some more time in bed, LOL
I haven’t done that. I might try it!! lol The problem is though, that my youngest does not want me in bed – or to ever sit down for that matter. If she’s up then she wants me up.
Well I have a regular 9-5 and no kids so I have to say our days look quite different haha. I’m jealous that you get to 1) work from home 2) work from 8pm-midnight! Seriously such ideal hours. I can only assume you are a night owl, as am I, but I am forced to work somewhat early mornings.
I am a night owl. I start getting the urge to work at around 7pm. It feels like if I try to do a lot during the day that I have to really push myself but I get in the zone at night.
Love the schedule. I used to be a night owl until I had my boys. I work best early in the morning. Once the afternoon hits, I’m doing house work.
I’ve tried to get up earlier in the morning but I just can’t make it work. I feel more productive at night but it’s usually the only time I have to work when the kids are home.
It can be so hard to get anything done with the kids home! My kids usually nap from 2-4 and I try to get as much done as I can during that time. They go to daycare most of the time, but there are times when daycare is closed or the roads are bad. I don’t have daycare this Thursday or Friday because my daycare lady is going on vacation! =/
I wish my kids would nap. They definitely need one during the day but I can’t get them to take one. I have tried everything!! And yes, it is hard to get anything done with kids home!
My son goes to school during the day, but with the snow we have had here, I have had a number of days like this and it makes me lose my mind. I always have lists of things I want to accomplish during my days, and when I have to break and entertain my son, I always fall behind and it stresses me out. Or it stresses me out when I am working and not spending time with him. The joys of being a working mom, you never feel as though you are doing anything well at any given time. 🙂
That’s a busy day, I think if you can sneak in a long walk before lunch they will nap for a good two hours. Also another trick you can use is instead of watching a movie with them after lunch, put on a boring HGTV show that will knock them out for sure.
I wish that would work!! I used to turn baseball at night so my oldest would go to bed. It seems like no matter what they just won’t go to sleep. A car ride is pretty much the only thing I can find to get them to take a nap but if I try to carry them in they wake up.
Wow, sleep at 1am and up by 6am…man I wouldn’t be able to function! And I don’t know how you get all that work done with two kids around. Pretty amazing. My son is only 8 months old and takes some decent naps so I can get stuff done…but he also craves a lot of attention…
This is not every night. Just when they stay home all day with me. I am tired for sure on these days but you gotta do what you gotta do!
I love that work is fit in first thing, but mostly at the end of the day. It sounds like you have a lot of quality time for your children, which is kind of the whole point, right?
That’s quite the schedule! When my daughter was a baby it was necessary to have a schedule that would exact both her and my daily activities. I knew that having a predictable schedule was essential to her development, but I had no idea that it was equally essential to my development on the web. I envision a not so distant future where my work can work for me, and I can devote a larger % of attention to her when she’s with me as our routine now consists of me; picking her up from school, feeding her, getting homework done, and getting ready for bed. I of course throw in a back ride, hip hip hooray, and bedtime story, but my mind quite honestly is looking to hurry up and get plugged back in. She seems to love our routine, but I feel guilty for sure.
Oh yes, I know the guilt feeling. Like Shannon said above sometimes you feel guilty regardless of what you’re doing!
Do you stay up this late on the days that the kids go to the babysitter ? Enjoy them as much as you can while they are little! ~ C
No, I normally try to go to bed around 11ish on the days they go to the babysitter or are at their Dad’s house.
That’s a really tough day. It’s amazing you can get the work done you need to. My days are pretty hectic working full-time, taking care of the house and fitting in blog writing/reading. It’s extremely tough to work when kids are around, I agree. And the toughest part is you feel yourself being pulled in both directions…working vs. spending time with the kids…that’s a difficult balancing act.
I am a night owl too and wish I could work those hours. I start feeling productive around 7pm-9pm, but I have to work every morning, so I usually am really tired during the day. I just start to feel awake at night! I’m trying to find more balance. Great post and I love learning about everyone’s life/work.
I don’t know how you do it because I have to have a lot more sleep than you are getting. I do not think very clearly after 9:00 at night.
It looks like you keep busy! This is my first read of your blog. I have been periodically posting “A day in the life..” which details my landlord adventures.
Ha – my days are kind of the other way around. I do the majority of my work from about 5-8 or 9 am, then we do schoolwork and I try and get the house picked up, etc. By 8, I’m toast and ready for bed. 🙂
Wow, what a schedule! Are you able to keep that steady of a schedule, or does your average day fluctuate in terms of timing.
Well, it is hard to put this into a sentence, but you are super at this!
WOW. I’m impressed that you do all of that in a day, and only on a few hours of sleep. I go to bed at around 10 and get up at 5 and am exhausted by the end of the day. I would fall asleep at my computer if I were working until 1:00 AM! You are putting me to shame, haha.
My hats off to you! I’m tired just reading this. 😉
Hopefully you can get outside now that spring should be here!
Not sure where you’re from but we had another major blizzard here today.
Harumph….