Stress
What is the best way to cope with a very stressful life??? As some of you may know, I work a full 40-50 hour work week as an Executive Housekeeper and I also have my own independent reseidential cleaning service that I do on my 2 days. I normally wake up at 5:00 a.m. and get the coffee going any my husband's lunch prepared and then I get laundry started and any late night dishes washed that they kids may have dirtied up after dinner, then I get our dog out and get him fed and watered. By then, its time for me to get ready for work and get the kids up for school. I get bfst started and start cleaning the house while they are getting dressed and brushing their teeth/hair. I try really hard to get the house cleaned before I leave for work each day so I don't have the burden of coming home tired and having to clean a dirty house. They kids help out with their chores but the major cleaning is on me. I normally get home around no later than 4:30-5:00 and then it is time to go immediately into the kitchen and get some dinner started. We do homework afterwords, have a little play time, bath time, and by that time I am exhausted. I know a womans job is to keep up with the kids, the house, and stay "sexy" for her husband, but I really feel like I am pulled in a million ways. Sometimes I really get over stressed and feel like I can not go on another day. Does anyone else feel this way? Oh, and by the way, I didn't mention the other job duties. After a long day of cleaning other people's homes, I really don't want to see another bathroom or kitchen and like I mentioned before, I get started on dinner right away. Usually by the time I get home and set down for a few minutes, the only thing I want to see is a cold Corona in the frig to help me tone it down. Anyone else experiencing this fast paced life style out there? It would really help to know that I am not the only one out there....
play!
I finally realized the house stuff had to wait until we were all ready as a family to do it. I entered the deal 50/50 and my husband agreed. He picks up I sanitize. the rest of the stuff is cluttered chaos. When you open some spontaneity in the schedule it helps eliminate some of the stress. Sometimes we don't even do the dishes after dinner because we're rolling around on the floor wrestling and laughing. This helps keep the coors light at bay:)
kids
What about everyone in the family having just 15 minutes of "chores" to do each day. Turn on some music, crank up the volume, and try to have a little fun while doing it. If everyone does 15 minutes at the same time, it's like an hour's worth of cleaning getting done every day! And if you and your husband each team up with one of your kids and do work in the same area of the house, you could also spend this time chatting about the day or talking about other stuff.
I've been trying to get my house in good order so it's easy for us to maintain, without feeling like we have to spend alot of time on the house. We would rather be spending time together as a family, but in reality, sometimes stuff needs done, and living amongst clutter makes us feel irritable!! So, 20 minutes at a time, I'm trying to organize my house from top to bottom. At this rate, I should be done in a couple of years :)
Jessica
~ Mommy to Luke and Shawn
My life is the same way
My life is the same way. I am a nanny and I work 45hours in 4days but my schedule isn't alwasy the same though I can be called the night before and be told that I have to come in early or stay late. Then by the time I get home I have to cook dinner feed my daughter. Then some of the nieghbors get together and going walking. We walk about three miles aday. My boyrfriend doesn't understand that this is MY TIME I mean even though she is with me its still my time to stress down. Then we get home get her in the bath ready for bed make sure things are ready for her for school tomorrow and then I have to get ready for bed because I have to get up early. We got into a fight about this last weekend and he is like the house is a mess. Well you are here 7hours that I am at work you could be helping too. Then he realsized that yeah I do make messes. Well he came to learn that he is going to have to live with some mess because you can't have a clean house with kids and also working.
Stress
How do you find time to relax and enjoy life? Are you able to enjoy the time you spend with your children or do mostly worry about what you need to do next. Is it possible to let go of some things and take a walk, watch a movie, read a book, etc. We all can get caught up in this jam-packed lifestyle and it's hard to take a step back and say whoa- this is not what life is about. I find myself cramming as many things into my schedule as possible so I can get things done but I also try to balance it off with days where we just stay home. Days where we can go outside and watch the trains without having to worry about dinner being late or read one more story even though it's past bedtime and most importantly days where the words "we have to hurry, we're late" don't ever cross my lips.