Tips to stay organised when going back to work after maternity?

[Bluedoritos]

Hi all

Has anyone got any advice on how to stay organised and on top of things when going back to work after maternity leave?

I'm going back to work (to a new job rather than my old workplace) in around a month and I'm a bit worried about how we're going to balance everything!

We have one child, who will be in nursery full time Monday to Friday. Husband and I both work full time. Husband WFH 5 days a week in general and only occasionally has to go into the office. I'll be in the office 2 days a week and WFH 3 days a week.

We're planning on using our lunch hours to tidy/clean/prep dinners but has anyone got any advice on how we can stay on top of everything and still be able to spend time as a family at the weekend and not get bogged down on just running errands every Saturday and Sunday?

None of my friends have returned to work full time after maternity leave so I don't know anyone in the same situation to ask!

Stating the obvious but you have to work as a team and therefore divide and conquer.

Eg in the morning we all get up about 7:10. DH hops in the shower, I get the DSs moving on getting dressed, DH gets dressed and starts breakfast downstairs whilst I shower and dress. I pack DS1’s packed lunch as DH finishes getting everyone breakfast and we’re all ready to go by 8:10.

online shopping (I like doing two smaller shops as then anything forgotten can usually wait)
our childminder feeds DSs supper after school
I have a whiteboard where I note things that need to be done (anything quick I do when I think of it)
diary invitations in both DH and my work diaries for things like dentist, parents’ evening etc
cleaner

Off the top of my head, team tomm for cleaning and meal planning

Divide and conquer sounds a good idea @delurkingaj although we shop at Aldi so can't get that delivered!

Not heard of team tomm @BMWfries but just googled it so I'll try and get an idea of what it's all about!

My advice would be have a plan for if your little one is sick. Who will take time off. My toddler was sick for about 6 months on and off when he started nursery which is hard work balancing with work (I too started a new job when I went back to work post mat leave).

Cleaner, online food delivery, making sure you both do chores and it’s not all you.

Tbh your setups sound pretty good if you're both WFH most of the time and have your little one in full time nursery, you should have enough time to keep on top of things.

If you can afford it, get a cleaner but if not then do quick cleans during the week and every couple of weeks a big clean.

I'm not really a fan of meal planning, but I'd spend a few evenings bulk cooking so you have a stash of meals in the freezer that you can just take out the night before. Eg. If you make a lasagne one night anyway just make an extra one for the freezer, make a huge vat of soup to freeze, etc.

One thing a friend of mine does often is that in the evening after kids have done to bed she and her DH make dinner for the following night. So they'll come home from work, simply heat whatever they've made the night before so they aren't furiously cooking while everyone is ravenous, get the kids fed, bathed and put to bed. Then they'll spend an hour or so with a glass of wine calmly making a nice meal for the following night, and it's a chance to experiment with recipes rather than sticking to what you know out of convenience.

But I agree with pp's, things will only work well if you both pull your weight. DH and I are always simultaneously busy- if he does bathtime I'm cooking and cleaning up the mess from the little ones dinner or vice versa, neither of us will sit down until the evening routine is done. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for single parents or those with useless partners.

Does your Aldi do click and collect (some do but not all); if so, do an online shop and one of you collects in the evening. Doing grocery shopping at the weekend is a fairly rubbish use of leisure time!

Do laundry daily - it’s easy enough to get one small load washed, dried and put away in a day and saves doing several loads at the weekend.

Have a shared list (eg Trello/oneNote) with details of upcoming admin, so that you can both sort out things like insurance/broadband in your lunch breaks.

Simplify your wardrobe- this is absolutely the time for a work uniform to reduce the mental load.

Declutter, and be ruthless about stuff coming into the house.

Both being mainly wfh will be a huge benefit! I've recently gone back ft (3dpw wfh) my partner works 4dpw (no wfh), we have 4 days childcare.

Some things that help us:

• having a cleaner fortnightly. The house never gets too bad. All we have to do is hoover downstairs daily because of the dog.
• repeating meal plan. Takes away the mental load of planning and creating shopping lists, it's all fairly standard. Sometimes I diverge from the plan if I find myself with time and energy, but that's rare!
• laundry on wfh day whenever there's a full load to be done. On in the morning, hang out at lunchtime. Or on at lunchtime and hung out by whoever is not doing bathtime & bed.
• slow cooker. Lots of my meal plan is slow cooker meals. Pop it in first thing on a wfh day and it cooks away with zero input from me while I get on with work.
• online shopping. Update the order throughout the week as needed (instead of running a shopping list) and I can use my commuting time to finalise it. Usually get it delivered sat eve when baby has gone to bed.
• wash my hair on wfh days so it's quicker & easier getting out in the morning when I'm going to the office.

You can get loads more done in a lunch break when wfh when little one is in childcare than you could get done in an hour on maternity leave when you're trying to do stuff with a baby around too!

Thanks everyone these are all great tips and to be fair a lot of it is just using common sense isn't it!

I didn't know that Aldi even had a click and collect option so I'll see if our one does! Love the idea of making dinner after bedtime for the next day I think that could work well.

Can't afford a cleaner I don't think but once we get into the swing of paying for childcare and see what we're left with we'll have another look at our budget.

Also @sazzt that's a really good point about getting so much more done than on maternity leave as if I'm doing something quickly in one room she's just getting into everything in another room and making a mess! So I'm sure her being at nursery all day and having us two WFH we can get a lot more done!