What ‘Life Admin’ do you do and how much time do you spend?

[MooFroo]

I first picked up this term here on Mumsnet and use it for anything Home and Personal related including things like car insurance, medical appointments, etc.

• Car and home insurance is once a year
• Dentist, Opticians etc are a couple of times a year

We are a family of 5 with older DC now so out of school and all the school and social admin, and thankfully no disabilities or health issues which would require dedicated time and attention.

Be interesting to hear what you life admin you do how long it takes you.

I’m not very organised so usually wait until I get an email to remind me to do something or something happens and then needs sorting, so if you have any tips on how you organise this, that’d be great too :)

1 dc has a hospital appointment every 6 weeks.
1 dc has one every 3 months
Dentist

School admin is relentless ! Since Feb Half term there's been
2 x non uniform days for a donation of a bottle / choc.
Maths day wear a number outfit
Special awards assembly x2 parents attend
Class assembly similar to a play x2
Picnic on the field
2 x school trips
1x crazy hair day
Wbd
Victorian day
2x join kids for lunch days

Also 3 of their clubs are manual payments can't set a DD Have to log on and pay various dates ( 1x 4 weekly, 1x calendar monthly 28th. 1x calendar monthly 9th )
1 club is cash weekly so have to remember to go to bank

Looking back on the calendar they've had 13 parties between them since Feb.

Organised 2 parties so far.
Dentist x2 a year
Orthodontist
Dc prescription every 2 weeks ( they won't give 4 weeks worth ) they now no longer accept it by call and it keeps unlinking dc on the app. So physically drop off to surgery.

I can't really say about DH leaving the admin to me,he's autistic and has just spent 3 days cleaning roof, guttering, conservatory roof,and windows.He does all the services and repairs for our car and 3 kids,mucks in with the cooking.

Yep, this is me. I need to make a broker appt to review finances for possible house buying- the idea of getting our house organised to sell makes me want to cry though! I need to organise a collect for fabric recycling (trying to be sustainable adds a fair bit of admin 😫), review some plant options for my garden plan, renew two passports (when you’re a family of 5 with dual, I feel like we are always renewing passports) , add extra to my dhs pension before the deadline, update the budget to consider school fees and house purchase /reno, review and update investment plan, remind Dh to send photo of grandparents to school for grandparents day, I’ve rsvpd for two Mother’s Day breakfast (we are not in the uk) and pointedly suggest dh buy the tix for the school one, do some birthday party planning for our June bday kids, consider if we should get ds a pediatrician referral for an adhd assessment, and I know I’ve forgotten half of the things.

When your DC have finished education your list will be as short as mine. The only extra thing I have to do now is act as guarantor for DD's rent.

DH sorts his own prescriptions out. So far, I am extremely fortunate that I'm not on regular precription medication at the moment.

Oh, and I have annual eye tests, but that is easy to sort out.

I do everything re the house and cars, i.e. home and car insurances, road tax, booking cars in for services/MOTs etc, keeping tabs on utility, broadband, telephone, tv, mobile contracts and changing/shopping around upon anniversaries/expiry, etc. I also do the home "book-keeping", ie. download spending from all our personal/joint bank accounts and credit card accounts and balance/analyse all the in's and out's to keep an accurate set of "books" so we know where we are financially at any time which feeds into tax returns, etc. I do the appointments for dental check ups/appointments, eye tests, flu jabs, and sort out tradesmen if we need work done to the house or garden. I do the home grocery shopping lists and online ordering, buy most of our internet shopping for household items, gifts, etc. I'd say I spend maybe an hour or two per week on average. I have it all organised with online calendar/reminder systems so I don't have to waste time searching through paperwork etc to check what renewal dates are coming up - it all pops up automatically on my screen.

OH used to do a lot of it, but he's had cancer for 8 years and his "life admin" time is spent dealing with the GP surgery, hospital, oncology dept etc which takes a few hours per week trying to make appointments, change wrong appointments, chase up test results, etc as he's on lifetime chemotherapy which takes A LOT of organising because the NHS is completely hopeless, and can't organise correct appointments etc for him even though his four weekly cycle has been the same for a few years now - the NHS still make appointments for him in the wrong order, the wrong place, for the wrong things, issue prescriptions for the wrong drugs to be collected in the wrong place, etc. He's set up his own system to keep track of when the appointments need to be done and a very long list of NHS names/phone numbers. Most weeks he has to spend at least half a day on the phone to different people, and in the week before his "active" treatments starts, it's more like 2 or 3 half days on the phone to various people sorting out their cock ups. I had to take house and car "life admin" off him as he couldn't cope with that on top of the NHS!

Changes monthly, for example

School lunches - choose to do this one half term at a time, so one day in the school
holidays I sit and choose what each child will have each day for a whole half term. This is way harder than it should be because the payment system always takes a couple of attempts and doesn’t remember payment details, one child is free and one child is paid for.

At the same time I’ll book the next half term’s after school club.

Some clubs are booked and paid monthly, some termly, so that varies too.

Birthday, we have 9 family birthdays this month and LOTS of friend bdays (NCT type pals) who need pressies and celebrations.

2 kids currently under the hospital and me as well, so appointments there too.

So, to answer your question, can’t really say! That’s before we get onto bills etc. Varies so much month to month.

Oh wow! So many of you with huge responsibilities and dealing with stuff for the whole family, hats off to you.

@Taytocrisps you’re so right to say it’s hard to quantify as it can vary so much.

Interesting to see the kind of things that people classes life admin. I always thought it was paperwork related but a lot of you seem to include shopping and things like that within it as well which I never had done - I just thought that was just normal life!

Just seeing how much other people have to deal with, has made me appreciate that I have it very easy and just need to organise myself better.

I think what would work for me? Better would be to spend an hour or so a week and block it off in my calendar to do the doing. Then all I need to do is to add the stuff to my list and get it done in the allocated time. It really does take up so much headspace thinking about all of the things to do when actually I just need to jot them down in one place and then do them, then bin anything that isn’t needed.

We have wills and LPA to finish off too so the k you for whoever mentioned that on! Think they just need checking and signing - which means sitting down with DH.

DH has retired and taken a lot of the home admin off my hands.
He does: Utilities, council tax, insurance, income tax declaration, our savings and investments, prescriptions, tenants, school liaison and keeps a record of all outgoings.
Although I was delighted to hand over the responsibility I’m slightly uneasy about him having sole control of all that. Now it all needs checking online and paying with direct debit/passwords. In my day it was a trip to the bank or post office.
What if he pops his clogs tomorrow??? I’ve seen just that scenario with a widowed computer refuser.

@Sgtmajormummy make sure your name is on all of the accounts for the utility bills. Ex's name was on most of our bills and when we separated, the companies wouldn't talk to me because my name wasn't on the bills. My Ex had to give permission for them to talk to me and take his name off the accounts. I was lucky because he was very obliging and co-operated fully. But if he hadn't, it would have made life extremely difficult for me.

I consider my life admin the general day to day running of my life, who needs to be where and when, who is taking them and what time do they need feeding! Is Grandma helping this week, I’ll just check in and remind her! I co-parent too so that probs adds extra layer…

I have 3 kids across 3 different education setting. Luckily parent pay helps organise it in one place…

And whilst more adulting than life admin the whole deciding what we are going to eat and making sure we have in, is the absolute worst!

car insurance, mot etc are one off pita as need doing same weekish!

At the minute on my list is:
sort travel insurance
check out wheelchairs in local shop
sort car / find relevant paperwork
sort dog sitting

School stuff - there is so much to remember and plan on top of the normal lunches/wrap around care.
Other clubs they attend.
School holiday cover.
Our finances can be complicated because I get paid monthly whereas my DH gets paid weekly and varying amounts. He also doesn’t get paid for time off so the amounts can be quite different. Haven’t yet found a way of dealing with this that makes life easier!
Usual yearly stuff like insurances/utilities etc.
Birthday cards for family that live far away so need posting.
Booking holidays.
Managing home life vs work life and who needs to be where at what time.

Monthly meter readings
Paying bills (only the mortgage & gas/electricity are on DD
Paying school fees
Booking swimming/classes
Karate, driving & gun licence renewals
Passports & GHIc cards
Topping up ds' phone
Booking chimney sweep, boiler service, car service, MOT.
Buying car/house/travel insurance. & RAC. TV licence.
Booking school bus & extra curriculars
Booking dentist appts for household.
Any emergency plumber/electrician/tree surgeon etc.

There's bound to be more

I have 5dc with SEN and I am dyslexic so I have loads of life admin and I struggle with it.
Dla/pip forms x5
Ehcp forms x2
2 children with dental problems with dentists 40 and 70 minutes drive away (that is a nightmare tbh)
1 child about to go to uni with student finance and accommodation to sort out
1 child about to start secondary school so there is paperwork for that too
3 children on a waiting list for operations which need chasing up
1 child in the middle of an autism assessment
2 children on regular medication
1 child with a 1-1 TA who we need to exchange emails with regularly
Universal credit needs sorting monthly
2 elderly cars which need tax, insurance, MOT etc.

In the last week

• booked kids hair appointments
• ordered and collected medication for DD2
• Read an amended only document about DD1 disability
• contacted senco
• paid for birthday party and ordered gifts and sweet cones
• Been through both DCs clothes to get rid of the small sizes and ordered whatever they need
• Taken the cat to the vet, I need to make an appointment for treatment
• Order school lunches, write meal plan and order food shopping
• Sorted out some income tax issue for my Dad

oh wow, that’s sounds like a full time job.
wish you and your DC all the best and hope you get to look after yourself too @elliejjtiny xx

Hardly anything, and certainly not any significant amount of time.

I do car and home insurance (DH has a disability that means he can’t drive so insurance has just become my thing). That’s a small job once a year.
DH does other bills (gas, electric, water, broadband, council tax). I cant imagine that takes much time beyond figuring out what to do at the end of the contract/fixed price.

I take our DDs to the dentist (easier because I can drive) but I just make a family appointment and have my check up at the same time. Every 6 months so minimal. DH does their optician appointments (just our eldest at the moment) - his disability is a visual impairment which it doesn’t seem like our DDs have but he takes her and highlights the family history to the optician. And the opticians is walkable so that’s why he does that and I do dentist.

Luckily for us, our DDs dont have any long term conditions so there are no ongoing medical appointments or medication to manage. But whoever is available/finds it most convenient will take them to any necessary appointments (illnesses or vaccinations).

School & nursery communications are dealt with ad hoc by whoever. We both have the apps on our phones so both get the messages about trips etc. Same for things like buying DDs new clothes/uniform.

I do the life admin. Adults working. Two teens, one SEN, plus being assessed for extra, plus health issues and GCSE year.
Loads of it. It's very boring and yet very overwhelming and time consuming...

But just when my parents were calming down in life, BAM!
One parent is looking now after a relative's house after a sudden incapacitating illness, and dealing with the hospital and Drs, visiting an hour away and coordinating with SW as the relative will go into a home.

The other is doing probate and clearing their parent's house.
For them it's gone mental and they're both in their 70s and not wonderful, but not terrible health.

The stress is taking its toll on them, and it's not of their own making. It makes our life look like a walk in the park... But if something happens to them...

I do all of it bar anything holiday related- if dh did it chances are huge life would be easier for us all, I’m not very organised!!!

Single parent since I was 25 to elder DS so I’ve had years of it- even when I was ex DP I did it all and still tend to do the majority of it now with shared DD. I do think people overegg the pudding with how hard it is. It’s just a part of life and easier than ever now with smartphones/internet. Things like dealing with a house sale, disabilities, illness, bereavement are obviously difficult and stressful but for most people the day to day humdrum of life is just a fact of life. I prefer life admin to housework.

My friend talks about this and I have no idea what she is talking about- it’s just life as adult!