what are your tips for balancing work and home life?

I have been doing these hours for a couple of months and I will NEVER do it again (once full timer has left in september). The pressure is way to much.

I look after one child full time, one child each morning, then I have a mix of school runs (all aged 4-5) depending on what day it is.

Tuesday is my busiest,

From 7:30 onwards I have 2 sisters, my DS, a little girl and a little boy, then I drop DS, the sisters and the boy of at school/nursery around 9.

I keep the girl and gain another one at 9:30.

We usually go out in the morning, either toddler groups, sure start groups, park, soft play etc... then back to min for lunch.

Littlest one get picked up 1:30.

We then tend to have a bit of quiet time at home for an hour, maybe go for a short walk.

I do the school runs, starting with a boy from one school at 3, then onto the next school to pick up DS, a girl, and twins at 3:05 (we run btw, and the schoolsare next dorr to each other).

Then at home we'll have some messy/creative play at the kitchen table, the garden will be open, and theres a choice of toys in the living room. Dinner is 5. After tea they are allowed to watch TV. Most are picked up around 5:30.

My hours are 7:30am til 6pm, mon-fri, on top of that theres training, network meetings, childminding forums and paperwork in the evenings. It's intense, I wouldn't do weekends because I'd miss DS to much.

We're thinking of getting a cleaner to ease the pressure. DH studies full time and works weekends.

I attend groups. There is a church play group across the road from me that's quite nice. I like Sure Start things but they are being a pain atm. I used to attend a local Childminders Group but they hold it at the Sure Start centre now and that's causing ishoos.

I like music at the library.

I have decided (tonight) to stop doing dinner. The kids I could sort out but I can't get the parents on side so it won't work. I have had enough.

LPP -I am going along the same times as you. The amount of wasted food is awful, I only get clean plates when I do sausage, baked beans and chips which is more of a "treat", when I use veg, do shepherds pies, pasta and other good old fashioned basics so much gets left, or just say I do peas and sweetcorn, out of the 5 I feed, one won't like peas, one won't like sweetcorn another won't like both so I have to cook each one separately. Also 4 nearly 5 year olds will scoop up food with their hands and eat it, not even trying to use cutlery, I have 2 which eat dinners going to big school in September and i won't have them anymore, so am considering making my change at that point.

I would definately have done things different. I wouldn't be cooking dinner every night for ungrateful children for a start.

I've just posted in AIBU about it actually and I'm feeling pretty rubbish about it.

Thankyou Mum2bless, I just wish I could apply the same to my garden....

mum2bless, can you tell me a bit more about the foam that you have. Is it similar to the ones of the alphabet?
Im in need of something like that. Any information welcome.

Routine of emailling all parents with photos and info./obs daily as they happen so I never get behind.

Bulk online grocery shopping.

Online veg. delivery.

Cook huge vat/wokfuls of food at a time so I only need to cook every two-three days.

Clean the shower/bathroom/loo by a quick once over whilst I am in it as I keep antibac/cloths and polish in every room.

Forget ironing. If it's clean it will do.

Declutter and a place for everything.

Ruthless with paperwork. Regularly chuck out anything made of paper that isn't absolutely necessary.

Get up 30 mins before I need to so that all the floors can be swept/cleaned downstairs.

A4 list hanging on cupboard door to add any jobs that pop into my mind to be done. Pen to cross them off when done.

Learn to delegate!

Lots of good ideas on this thread.

One small thing that I have found really helpful is to 'hide' all the childminding crap at the end of the day so that my house looks like a home instead of a nursery.

So my paperwork, folders and stuff, used to be on a shelf, now they are in a cupboard with doors.

I swapped plastic toy boxes for nice wicker baskets with lids, in neutral colours.

I've taken down my parent's board because, quite frankly, they ignore it. I will be straight with Ofsted and just say "I prefer to actually speak to my parents, and this seems to be enough". (I will also do a newsletter every few months).

The pushchairs, highchairs, booster seats, car seats etc are in the cupboard under the stairs.

So everything is out of site unless I am actually working.

This doesn't save me anytime at all but walking into a calm clutter-free room everyday makes me feel a lot better than seeing all the toys and colour and childcare debris.

Thanks Mum2bless, I have been CM since Sept 2006, if you get professional chidlcare magazine I was actually in there a couple of months ago on "I love my job" bit!

I learnt the hard way to get organised although to be honest it does slip as life gets in the way as we all know I have some great parents at the moment and 3 cm friends i see most weeks whom i share ideas and resources with which really helps - the checklist i use for my LJs to keep up with EYFS was one of my firends and they in turn have used my LJ template - we all personalise them so its not cloned work, like i mentioned earlier, its finding good systems that work for you and if you looked at how we do things they are all very differant

On the tidying up front, i currently work with 4 x two year olds, but even they know that at certain times of the day we have "tidy up time" and rush to put things in boxes. I redid my play area so it was easier to keep tidy - not seperate room for me as a through longue so i have a number of large boxes everything goes into. Not too pretty but very functional

Forgot to add, i work fulltime, would love to only work 4 days but being the only breadwinner its not really and option but a day off inthe week to get all cleaning and paperwork done to leave weekends with more free time would be brilliant.

Hi. I have been childminding for 7 years now but can still always use some tips!!
I am a lone parent of 2 (dd 16 and ds 11) and am also main carer to my disabled parents so i try to organise my time but it doesnt always work!!

I currently have 5 under 4's on my books and 3 before and after schoolers and in the holidays can have up to 10 mindees in the house so i try to keep on top of things as best i can but i do think sometimes you have to lower your standards slightly and i also agree about only doing the necessary amount of paperwork and no more. A childminder friend of mine spends hours on daily diaries and learning journey books where as i just write the basics in daily diaries and do less detailed learning journey books ( still full of photos but shorter write ups and less linking to eyfs) and we both still got same grading at our last inspections (good grade).

I usually have groceries delivered on a monday evening, do some paperwork on a tues evening and thurs evening and i do my main cleaning on a saturday morning (pay my dd to help with cleaning) although do quickly hoover downstairs most evenings and clean the loo every morning. I try to do my accounts monthly usually on a sunday evening to keep on top of them. My 1 luxury is i have someone to do my ironing and its worth every penny because i find it very time consuming.

I don't think I'd go as far as getting the children cleaning, but I absolutely agree they should be encouraged to help tidy away toys, set and clear the tea table, water the patio pots and other such bits and pieces. Every little helps!