Seven Tips for Working Moms

These tips can be a great help with family dynamics!

Revised February 2008 Being a working mom either married or single, is a way of life today.  Moms are expected to handle a successful career outside the home as well as a functional organized private home life.  Not all women are “super women” and could use a few suggestions to make their home run smoother.  Here are seven tips we found helpful during the child-rearing years:  Be organized with household duties.  Plan and organize your home work so that your most important work gets done first.  Remember to prioritize and to make time your slave. If you are married, your husband, as well as your children can help with the household chores.  Prepare a “To Do” list for all the family members.  The family can work together and then they can play together as a reward for the work they have completed.  Plan duties and activities that will keep your children busy and responsible. This can aid you tremendously with the household chores.  Imagine yourself as a manager and that you are putting your crew to work.  It’s called “delegation.” Plan fun times with your children so they can anticipate special events.  Plan a party, special dinner, family games or a night out with them.  Put the event on the calendar for everyone to see. When our children were young as well as when they were in their teens, we enjoyed “family night” once a week. Don’t schedule frequent outside activities that take you away from your home and family in the evenings. Your family should be your top priority. Consider the costs of a working mom:  child-care costs, transportation costs, work-related clothing costs, additional eating-out costs, miscellaneous expenses like dry-cleaning, lunches, office gifts, or hiring a housekeeper.  Make sure that you are netting more money from your job than you are putting out in related job expenses.  It might actually save you money to be a stay-at-home mom and be able to enjoy your children.  Also you may consider earning money right in your own home, such as a “home-based” business.   There are many options. Get up 20 minutes earlier and go to bed 20 minutes earlier.  Rest is vital for a working mom.  Forget about watching television after the kids are in bed, but rather spend that valuable time with your husband.  When our children were little, bedtime for them was 8:00 p.m. The remaining couple of hours before our bedtime were spent talking and being together as husband and wife.  That special time together kept our marriage bonded through the child-rearing years. Delegate evening worship to each family member, remembering that it is God who is the glue that holds the family together.  Evening worship should be brief, practical and fun so that it draws the family members close together in love and respect. To the working moms, we honor you and pray for you.  Your work in the home is vitally important because you are raising children not only for their life here on this earth but for eternal life as well.  God will give you the strength and the wisdom to carry out your responsibility as a working mom.