To ask you to see if I'm missing something in my day

[bapplebanana]

Could you help me to manage my time better in the day- every day is the same, never enough time to go to the gym / do something for myself, or so it feels.

6.30am wake up, get two young DS ready, do breakfast, get myself ready
7.30am leave the house for first drop off at nursery
8.00am second drop off at breakfast club
8.20am arrive at work (secondary school)
4.00pm leave school, pack up school work I haven't finished, and pick kids up, be home by 5.00ish
5.00ish start dinner
6.30 husband arrives home, me and husband eat
7.00 husband starts bed time for the boys, I start work
9.00-9.30 finish work and fall asleep on sofa by 10!

What can I rejig there to make life a bit less repetitive? I love working out it makes me feel much better and currently only managing a work out at weekends

We live in a small, very very busy city, so it ends up taking longer driving to ds school than it would walking most days,

why don't you walk and wheel a bike - then when you've dropped off the dc, cycle to work and vis a versa on the way home.

You'd get walking and cycling in and it'd be quicker

Are your children in after school care?

I stay at school to work as does my Deputy with our children both at our school because then when we leave the work is done for the day. We both leave around five. I check emails in the evening but my brain can’t do anything really productive later on.

your morning time appears to be much long than our house. We eat breakfast in the car or at school.

6.40am wake up, shower dress. DH gets DD ready in this time.

7- 7.10am leave

7.10-8am commute- spellings in car each day

8am work and drop off at breakfast club.

work, work, work. I eat lunch at my desk and plough through as much as possible during the day.

3.50-5pm after school work - it’s quieter and less interruptions.

5pm drive home

6pm make dinner ( we cook at the weekend for dinner Mon-wed)
reading and tv and bath time.

7pm DD heads to her room to read or watch her tablet

7.30pm lights out

7.30pm check email and do to do list for next day if I haven’t done it in school. The list keeps me focused each day.

evening free for wholesome and energetic hobbies or watching Netflix and scrolling on mumsnet

11pm bed

Obviously add about three meltdowns.

sorry if I missed it. Can DH do some drop offs or pick ups in the week so you can do some work in school rather than bringing it home?

If your husband can help in the mornings then you could try doing workouts on the FIIT app at home. Or do one when he gets back and eat later.

Are you sure you're not teaching more than 90% of a timetable? Three free periods, when you're 2ndic, and you have an ITT student to mentor is nothing. If some of that time is management time, I can't see how you're getting the right amount of PPA. If you add up your teaching periods, plus a period of management time, plus your other frees, is the teaching time plus management time more than 90% of the total? It shouldn't be, but I'd be surprised if yours isn't.

Get a slow cooker and do 2-3 meals
a week in that so you aren’t spending ages on meal prep every day. For the rest batch cook 2 meals on a Sunday (shepherd’s pie, lasagne, pasta bake, chicken pie etc) that you can simply heat up. Have 1-2 nights a week where you don’t do additional
work and be strict with yourself about it. Maybe use those eves to do a class like yoga or aerobics (or whatever you like, I’m stuck in the 1970s!)

I work 12-15 hours a day, do drop off and pick ups as my husband travels for work. I exercise on the weekend! It is pretty typical for working mums.

Less cooking 2/3 nights a week . Maybe have pot soup made at weekend or Sphag Bol . Eat with kids then when husband comes in you leave for the gym. .

You and DP need at least one night “free” a week to do your gym classes etc.

So one evening a week he does the whole routine. Kids bath and bed, preps dinner, does the dishes. You go to gym, get a bit of work done, you and DP sit down to eat together at 8/8.30ish and chill for a couple of hours in a tidy house.

Another night a week you do the same, get a couple of hours work done while kids in bed/DH out of house, have dinner together.

Can you do school reading/spellings in the morning?

we get up at 6am. Husbands makes a cuppa and whilst he is doing that and get son a drink and snack we do his reading book. He’s more awake and alert so find he’s better before school than evening time. Then the kids can play and you can get a quick session in at home in the evening?

Husband can also get the kids ready whilst you do a session 2 x per week or walk them to school?

make means in advance and just reheat?

Ideas:

• shift everything in the evening forward by 1/2 hr so you get 1/2 hr at 5-5.30
• wake up earlier to go for a run/workout
• go on your lunch break

• find a class or one nigtt and ask your partner to cover for you one night. Do the same for him. So you both get one night a week to do something nourishing for yourself, where you're removed of responsibility.

• get a standing desk for when you work at home
• can you find a way to reduce your evening work from your job

• can you commute via bike so that part of your day is exercise. Get the kids cycling too? Or using school bus?

• can you find a way to get your kids to school without having to take them yourself?

• your dinner hour and a half is long?

Basically get a huge freezer, 4 meals you can do in a big big batch. You can use frozen veg to reduce chopping time. My go to meals are: bolognaise (i use lentils and veg), bean chili, a curry (you choose your fav) , a Dahl (lentils, potato, spinach) . Once you get into the swing of it, one night cooking can save you 2-3 nights of not cooking. You can switch your preprepared meals over. So you don't eat the same thing every day of the week. And just heat up pasta or rice or some complex carbohydrate to go with the meal

You could also look at doing slow cooker, or look at recipes you make in one baking tray. There is a recipe book with those called one dish or something.
You can automate online deliveries to deliver to the house and you can get frozen veg so it's less time to chop.

You have Fri sat and sun where you can role reverse with your husband on cooking, buy instand food, or go out and pack up a picnic (i love going and using a camping stove as an outdoor date night. Combining it with a walk).
We do Veggie burgers, risotto, nachos, pizza as quick dinners.
My friends do omelette, prebought quiche ect.

1.get up at 6.15

1. Do a lucy Wyndham reid 7min workout before brekkie
2. Make a shorter dinner . No reason why cooking from scratch needs to take that long.

Get up earlier
Get a slow cooker
YouTube classes for exercise. Trying to get to the gym and back is adding more stress!
Workout when dinner is cooking, or the children are watching a cartoon for 30 minutes
Make a walk on Saturday or Sunday part of your routine

Your husband should be contributing to the child wrangling/chauffeuring and cooking if he is in the house. However, fundamentally, I don't think it's really unusual not to have time to go to the gym/do other stuff during the week if you have a ft professional job and children. Both my and my husbands days look like yours - we both work at home mostly, and finish work early to pick up/have dinner with/look after the kids then continue work at home in the evening. It's pretty normal for this time of life I think. My me time is a swim and a sauna most Saturday mornings, so maybe you could do something similar one weekend morning.

I have an Instant Pot slow cooker/pressure cooker combo. Really cuts down on cooking time and with the auto shut off if I’m momentarily distracted it’s not a problem. I also typically will cook a double batch of whatever and freeze the second batch or eat in a couple of days.

You chose this life. Accept that or change it

in my book, a meal has to last two nights.

You could find a gym where the kids are entertained too. You also need a babysitter occasionally so you can do grown-up stuff. Plan a few things nearby. A later night on a Friday is fine.

You need to start having nights when you don't bring work home with you. Remember also that "school holidays" are actually your time off in lieu sadly for all those evenings you do work. I used to get a huge amount done on a Sunday afternoon, and do all my photocopying for the following week on a Friday when everyone else was rushing out of the door.

Start sharing Schemes of Work and get your students to peer mark work in lessons by creating tick lists of Success Criteria. Give GCSE students mark schemes and get them to assess each others' writing or work.

Your DC are unlikely to need a bath every day. Get DH to hear them read on those nights and try to eat dinner as a family so you're only cooking once. Get DH to cook dinner and eat a bit later whilst you do marking or planning at least two nights a week.

What time do you pay childcare until? Can you go to the gym 4-5 and pick them up a bit later so you get home at the same time as husband? Dinner prepped in slow cooker beforehand etc.?

Hi, fellow teacher.
For a start 3 ppas?!
You should get 10% planning which is like 2.5 a week but also management time if you are a second. Also an hour meeting time per trainee/ect. Maybe talk to your union.
Ok so the slow cooker is a good idea, or an instant pot so you don’t have to remember to do it in the morning and can just bang it all in once you get home.
I found the only thing that works for me is I work solidly from the minute I arrive at work, I eat lunch while working. If there’s time before meetings I work. I then stay at work and work until I absolutely have to leave to get children (usually 5pm). This maximises my use of paid childcare. Unless it’s exam time and I have papers to mark, that’s it I’m done. Once I’m home and cooking, packing lunches (the night before) ironing uniform, bath times etc I don’t have time to work.
Take some headphones into work to block everyone else out so you can focus.
I am also too tired to work at that time of night and everything take 3 times as long and is littered with mistakes. I use to go in early to squeeze an hour of work in before the day started but won’t be possible with a change in childcare. If you can do this it’s another way to get more out of your day.
Remember you will never get EVERYTHING done. Prioritise.

As a secondary teacher I have decided this year to take some of my life back. My day is like yours but I am lucky enough that my husband now WFH so does school drop off and pick up, your husband being out of the picture till 6:30pm means you are doing a LOT as well as a full time job and the out of hours work teaching involves. I have a big commute which doesn't help though. I am not doing school work every night any more, I refuse, it's totally unreasonable and not fair on my own children or me. I've had to adjust the way I mark a bit and have taken on zero extra responsibilities but I'm just not willing to give that much of my life to my job any more. I'm still regularly up late marking, but not every night. It's your job that's causing the issue here so that's what I'd look at adjusting in terms of what you bring home.

Really interesting thread. I have much the same problems.

Many of the answers are asking what DH does. In my case he has chronic illness which makes his contribution to domestic life much less than mine. @bapplebanana maybe has the same
Issue. So I won't be piling in on that one.

Teaching is a tough job. Can you drop to 0.8? That might help.

Is it? Really? I have to DRAG myself out of bed at 7 or 7:30. Is there something wrong with me?! I don't get those people who can get up at 5:30, it is a true mystery to me.

I have to train at 5.15am to fit it in.. early but guaranteed me time .

Does your husband only do the bedtime story and you do everything else you mentioned everyday?