Reassure me WFT gets easier- please!

[Itwasgoodwhileitlasted]

I consider myself very lucky in these times to have landed myself a full time job. I am very grateful for the work, I love the job itself and my employer is incredibly flexible.

Before this I stayed at home with the kids and worked very part time, then part time.

The problem is I am knackered!!!

And worse, started to feel overwhelmed about adding in school run, football training, buying uniform, helping elderly mother, Christmas and all that entails and I am halfway through a degree (part time).

Husband does garden, ironing, packed lunches and bedtime.

Please tell me it gets easier...I don't know how to keep everything spinning without falling down myself.

You make things easier. Christmas for instance - I do one big supermarket shop, a huge Amazon order and thats about it tbh. Buying uniform - make children try existing uniform on, see if it fits, and if not order the size up from the uniform shop/M&S for delivery.
Calendar with who is doing school runs (if there is any variation) and clubs on. Don't agree to them doing more activities than you want them to do.
Equally, does your mum need your actual support, or has that just been something you've been able to do - or can she buy in help/ use a mobility scooter to go out/ get a taxi etc

Mum needs more help with bills than anything else and she is lonely. I might see if she is up for a school run once a week. Kids can have a chippy tea.

I suppose I hadn't considered that money will buy me time. I've spent so many years scouring deals, I suppose I can ease up on that a bit.

Wish I could afford a cleaner. I get stressed if the house is messy/ dirty.

I am my own worst enemy in this situation.

Get all your mums bills on direct debit, then thats sorted. Set her up internet banking (write down all the passwords etc) on her phone, and then even if she can't use it, all you need to do is get her to hand you her phone and its the work of seconds to pay the paper bill or whatever. If she needs company, picking the kids up and doing them tea sounds perfect

How old are the kids? Sounds like they aren't tiny, so they can all take part in house cleaning at the weekend.

Is your list of what your DH does everything he does? No organising breakfasts, cooking dinner, meal planning, shopping for food, cleaning, packing school bags etc?

Prioritising a cleaner even every other week is money well spent when you both work full time, as you say, money can buy you time.

Meal plan every week and if you can then batch cook and freeze, taking something out of the freezer before you leave to put in the microwave is so much easier than having to cook from scratch when you get home tired.

Start to follow TOMM to get the house work organised better and then divide up the chores between all of you. There's no reason why children can't strip the beds and load the machine once or bi weekly.

You have to become a fully functioning unit and everyone has to play their part for it to work and not burn out.

Yes talk about this now during the holidays and start 'practise runs' now before school etc gets thrown in.

It may be helpful to write down all the jobs ( I mean ALL - including the tiny things that take a few minutes but need somebody to think about and organise) and their frequency (daily, weekly, monthly etc) and agree which each family member is responsible for.

Once agreed stick to your own list - remind DH/kids while everyone gets used to their responsibilities BUT don't be tempted to take over for an easy life. See this as 'training' for all of you. If you can set it up like this to start with, you can then adjust if one person is overwhelmed or work gets particularly busy etc.

Also automate everything you can (bills, online greetings cards, food deliveries, household items from amazon etc)

I definitely like the sound of moving as a unit.

We've been out all afternoon and all tired but while everyone jumped on video games I've brought in washing, emptied dishwasher and put rubbish in recycling, updated the Tesco order.

It worked before but not anymore.

Definitely going to write down all the jobs. I also do beds, curtains, blinds, organise everything with the car and do all bills.

Too much for one person now I think.

I think I will ask husband to do football training. Four different sessions a week, so time consuming. That will save me about 6/7 hours.