Looking to make a daily stay-at-home-mom schedule that works for you? Here’s a sample schedule and tips for making your own!
In a Nutshell:
There is no one-size-fits-all formula for routines as a stay-at-home-mom. To create a schedule for yourself consider your family’s needs like mealtimes, nap times, and chores and errands that need to get done. Don’t forget to try and find time for yourself as well! Be open to changes in schedule as kids’ needs change as they grow!
Here’s the secret. There is no single daily stay-at-home-mom schedule that will work best for everyone. You need to make a schedule that minimizes overwhelm and works best for your family! Here are some tips for making a daily routine that keeps your household running smoothly.
5 Tips for Creating Your Daily SAHM Schedule
1. Work Around Mealtimes
Since everyone will need to eat every day, mealtimes are the most non-negotiable part of your day. Write out what times you’d like you and your kids to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. This will be a rough estimate since you will have days where lunch will be pushed later if you’re out and about or breakfast will be earlier if the kids wake up early (I’m looking at you, Daylight Savings)! In my family, we eat breakfast at 7 am, lunch at 11 am, and supper at 5 pm. Snacks are usually 9am and 3pm.
2. Map Out Sleep Times
Next, look at when the kids normally wake, nap, and hit the hay at the end of the day. Again, this might be just an estimate if your child is not a stable sleeper yet or can handle a flexible nap time. If your child is under 4 months, it’s not likely that you have a set routine yet for sleep and that’s okay! It will come with time. If your child is older than this, though, one of the best ways to limit meltdowns is to have structured sleep times to ensure they don’t get overtired. Sleep will be ever-changing so your daily SAHM schedule will have to be adjusted every few months.
One difficulty you may run into is having multiple children with multiple nap times. If you can make naps overlap for even a little, you’ll find you have more time to yourself and more time for doing activities throughout the day! Currently, I have a 6 month old and a freshly 2-year-old. The 6-month-old takes naps at about 9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm while the 2-year-old naps at 11:30. Their naps can overlap for about 45 minutes in the middle of the day to give me just enough time to write this guide for you!
3. Do Daily Chores Together
I highly recommend doing the majority of your daily chores like dishes, laundry, floors, etc while the kids are awake. Having kids help with chores will make the tasks take longer, but it’s a great way to teach them the importance of working together and showing them what chores are important to keep the house running. You’ll probably be surprised at how quickly your kids pick up on how to do the chores and you’ll be able to delegate pieces and parts of your chores to them eventually. As a side benefit, cleaning with the kids also means that your chores are done by the time they are napping or asleep at night so you don’t have to waste your precious time alone doing cleaning. Nap time becomes your time!
4. Pre-Plan Errands
If you’re like me, you’ll go stir-crazy if you have to stay stuck in the house cooped up every day! Going out to the library, for playdates, or even just for groceries is essential for keeping your sanity. Make sure if you’re planning on going out, you set a realistic time frame goal for yourself. Try to make these times fit between mealtimes and sleep times if possible to avoid unnecessary overtired, hangry tantrums.
If you have multiple stops, consider splitting these up between different days or see if there are ways to make them faster. When I need to shop multiple stores for groceries, I try to make the store with the most purchases a pickup order to save time! When you do go out, make sure to pack extra snacks, diapers, and anything else you may need in case your estimated timeframe doesn’t go as planned.
5. Schedule Daily Time for Yourself as a SAHM
Being a mom is a huge part of your identity now but it doesn’t have to be the only part of your identity. Make sure that your daily stay-at-home-mom schedule includes some time for yourself. This could be reading a book, working on a hobby, or watching your favorite show.
One of the (few) drawbacks to being a SAHM is that you’re always on call. You are the main caretaker 24/7 without a daycare provider to take turns with. Because of that, you’ll need to make sure you can find something to help you relax and or even just give your brain a change of pace! For me, my hobby is blogging. It’s not that relaxing but I enjoy it and it uses a different part of my brain than the part that anticipates the kid’s needs all day so it feels like a break.
Sample Daily SAHM Schedule
Here’s my (current) schedule for my 6-month-old and 2-year-old:
6:30 am: Everyone wakes up. My husband gets the toddler ready and I grab the baby
7 am: Breakfast
7:30 am-9: Laundry, dishes, play games
9-9:45 am: Baby goes down for nap #1 while my toddler and I get a snack, read books, and play or do meal prep
9:45-11 am: This is our best window for errands and leaving the house
11-11:30 am: Lunch
11:30 am: Toddler goes down for a nap
12 pm: Baby goes down for a nap
12:45-2 pm Playing with the baby and doing other chores
2-2:30 pm: snack time with toddler
2:30/3 pm: Baby goes down for final nap
4-5 pm: Another gap for errands while everyone is awake, but only if I have dinner already ready to go
5 pm: Dinner
5:30-7: Family time (reading books, playing, doing chores, etc. )
7 pm: Bedtime for both kids
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