SAHM/Homemakers - What do you do all day?

[Fruem]

Those who choose to be a SAHM/homemaker, who don’t ‘have’ to work, what do you do all day?!

I’m talking the SAHM’s who don’t work from home. Who don’t have to look after the kids all day etc.

If you’ve done cleaning/washing/shopping etc. How do you fill your day?

I’m loving my new routine of working 3-6pm every day......

I get up at 7am and sort the boys for school. When I’ve taken them I’m home for 8.15 and have coffee.

Monday is my cleaning and tidying and washing day. Then I leave at 2.45 for work having prepped dinner for when I get home.

Tuesday I’ve started Pilates which has knackered me tonight......then I walked into town to the bank and have coffee with a friend.

Wednesday to Friday I do some volunteer work but go home for a snooze and a tidy up and prepare dinner.
I also do the food shopping on a Friday.

I try to do as much as possible Monday to Friday to free DH up for the weekend so he can relax and not have to do too much in the house.

It’s working well so far and dh says I’m delightful since I quit working in a school. 😂😂😂

Consideredintrusion Never heard of Buddha bowl dinner googled it and it oohs fab. Any recipes by any chance?

sortingmyselfout - yes the cleaner comes 3 mornings a week 9-1, but she does no ironing or laundry or beds. We're a family of 6 though.

Having worked full time through 3 dds for 20 years i am currently loving not working. 1 dd aged 10 at school.
Watched 3 series of Last Tango in Halifax last week.
This week im painting the kitchen

Being a stay home Mum is the easiest and nicest job I’ve ever had! I feel very lucky to be financially secure enough to be home with my dc.

Dh gets the dc up and gives them breakfast & loads the washing machine while I shower
Dh goes to work
I spend the day playing with my dc, and we do go to baby group 3 times a week. Twice a week we go out for lunch too.
I cook dinner 3 nights a week, Dh cooks the rest of the time

I don’t clean, I’ve got a cleaner 3 times per week
I order line shop, once a week

I was a sahm for six years. I went to the gym, taught myself French, read good books, shopped in local shops rather than going to the supermarket and then cooked from scratch. I also did everything in the house a lot better and more thoroughly than I do now I’m working. And I had more energy to do lovely things with the kids all the time. I crafted, gardened and listened to music. It was a lovely life.

Isn’t the question really what do you do in the hours that you used to spend looking after the children/doing children’s stuff when they went at school that you have free now that they are at school for 5ish hours a day?

Grrr meant to say when they were at school

I'm a sahm at the moment because I'm on mat leave but apparently I'm doing it wrong then as I don't have any free time :( babies take a lot of looking after funnily enough, then there's the housework because we can't all afford cleaners, laundry, shopping, cooking, school run, clubs, homework, etc etc..... however, previous to this baby I just had school age kids and only worked part time and used to go to the gym 4 - 6 times a week, on top of the usual chores and working three days.

After 30 years of ft work and commuting, 15 of them combined with raising kids, I now have loads of time (teenage chldren, very independent) to feed my head (go to lectures, French classes, art galleries, have a massive reading list I'm working my way through), work on my fitness (attend a gym class 5 days of the week), make my house and garden gorgeous, cook great meals, do all the household finances and admin, help my kids with their schoolwork, help them organise extra-curricular activities, work experience, think about university choices, learn to cook, manage their finances, and other practical things; do all the work associated with the flat I let out, volunteer at careers events for local schools, talk to and visit my elderly parents more than I used to, keep up with friends, organise social and cultural life for me and and my husband. My husband, in the meantime, is able to work whatever hours he needs and focus his mind on work, which means his career has soared while I keep the domestic show on the road. It's a fantastic arrangement. I wouldn't have wanted to do it earlier - was quite driven at work, enjoyed earning plenty and making good financial provision for us, even if juggling childcare, etc was often stressful. But being a SAHM now is just brilliant.

I'm incredibly bitter and jealous of all SAHMs. It's one of the things I want more than anything and one of the things I'll never get

It’s a genuine question

Really - would you ask a retired person the same question?

Do you really have so little imagination that you cannot understand what people do if they are not in paid employment or looking after small children?

I can't even be bothered to answer your question, I do work part time now but I had many years as a SAHM with a child at school - most of the time was very enjoyable and fulfilling and in terms of contributing to society (ie: volunteering) I think I did more in those years than before or since.

Whatever I want. I bought a treadmill this week though as noticed my Fitbit step count was pretty low.
Basically I’ve turned into someone who I used to think how can they live like that haha.

I do not know about anyone else but I lie in bed half the day eating chocolates and spend the rest watching daytime television. The cleaning, cooking, childminding, admin, activities for the kids take care of themselves do not disturb my lazing around thankfully.................

(I am kidding).

I normally have a walk after dropping the DCs off. I'll do a run or class at some point most days. A bit of housework and a lot of procrastinating about it

My evenings are busy between the DC's activities and a voluntary role. I'm also going to help with reading at the school in the near future.

We've got some major DIY going on and I do some of the lighter contributions towards that. There's some decorating done that wouldn't have stood a chance when I was working. A lot got put on hold for several years when the DCs were young/ I was working and I'm still catching up on some of that.

I've got 4 DC at school and 1 at preschool (9-12 mornings). I usually clean during my 3 hours of child free time.

Well I'm working from home too, but only part time. So when the kids aren't here and it's a slack week at work (i'm freelance) I :

go for a 5 miles walk
meet a friend for coffee
do a yoga class
watch box sets
knit
sew
do other crafty stuff
Give A Shift at my local Oxfam

Off the top of my head.

I was a stay at home Mum, or single parent up until DS was 5. My day was filled with household chores, and playing with DS. I look back on those years fondly but I wouldn't d it again!

I booked a lovely spa hotel with DH once. Was midweek as cheaper. Getting changed into my costume in the morning after a late breakfast I was listening to two women chatting. They'd taken kids to school and one was going into town to choose curtain fabric and the other was going home to do some light housework before picking the kids up. They'd just spent the morning in the spa which I gathered they did a lot. They then arranged to skip the spa tomorrow, as the weather was so lovely, and meet down on the beach instead. One was bringing food and the other a nice bottle of something.

Sounded lovely.

I'm currently on maternity leave with an 11 month old and 2.5 yr old. If I were at sahm when they go to school, Id make sure I spent at least two days doing nothing at all .

I could fill the days several times over.

Dh works away so I do everything at home, and have to do all my socialising and errands during the school day.

Big house and garden that take hours of cleaning (but I usually find something note interesting to do instead).
Endless DIY and decorating.

Walk dogs plus clean them afterwards = 2 hours per day.
Exercise class 3 mornings a week.
Power walk with friends twice a week

All shopping, errands, admin, cooking etc.
Coffee with friends once a week.

Volunteering job one day a week.

I wish my cinema showed films at 10am......

When I was a SAHM -

Shopping
Several loads in washing machine/dryer
Housework
GP /hair/Dentist appointments etc - mine, & arranging everyone else's
TV if anything decent-ish on and there was time
Exercise class and/or walk
Cook evening meal in advance
Occasionally catch up with the few friends who were also SAHM
Sometimes after dropping off DCs,, if Summer spend an hour or 2 in a cafe with a nice view, and read a book.

It was nice having time to sort things between school drop off & pick up although that window of times speeds by

Now that DCs are grown I work part-time self-employed, as I have been for several years now. Some of it is outreach,, mostly its from home. I'd never planned to go back to full-time work. Suits me.

There's nothing magical that SAHM do during the daytime. Its day to day stuff . Thats it

Take my mum out a couple times a week, visit my dad in his care home, coffee with friends, go out on my motorbike (sometimes with a friend and sometimes on my own), read books, mumsnet, research ideas for our new house we are going to build.

Oh and I’ve just started going to Pilates and I’ve signed up for a ceramics course. Obviously I also do all the housework, ferrying kids around after school, various life admin stuff like making appointments, washing cars, shopping and cooking