How do you create a balance between work & life when as a parent?

[SAMASidekicks]

I'm experiencing a burn-out! What helps you set up your kids activities and schedules? Do you find time to recharge? Your insights would be so helpful.

How old are your children?

I'm on Mat leave currently but only had 1 before, so it'll be 2 (the baby is 6 weeks) I made sure that the routine is set, so he goes to sleep at 07:30pm, we have dinner between 08:00/08:30, on sofa by 9, in bed by 11 - just to have that bit of child free time.

Washing machine goes on in the night, so it's to be hung up in the morning, we have a cleaner, so that reduces the amount of work in the house. If I have to work late, hubby takes toddler or picks him up. Having children is hard x

Do you have a hands on husband? I do think that helps so much.

How old are your children?

Having a husband who contributes, good after school care arrangements and a high degree of organisation (whiteboards in the kitchen with activities, meals etc) helps.

Hope you're ok OP.

Sharing the load with DH! I do the school run, he does activities. I do some chores, he does others.

Also, we now both wfh so that has massively changed how we can juggle everything. We do have to balance our meetings, but most days are okay (others are nightmareish!)

If I ever returned to an office, we'll be hiring a cleaner.

Routine daily and weekly, meal planning and a shared email address with calendar is survival!

We've got one high school, one primary and a baby. Our older two help out with anything they can, putting out and folding laundry, load and unload dishwasher, set and clear the table.

My eldest can iron, hoover and wash the car if he wants to earn a bit of top up cash (he thinks he earns a fortune- he doesn't really!). My middle one loves cleaning the floor and rotating toys for the baby. They can both put things into the Outlook calendar and asking Alexa to set alarms and reminders, eg so we can see what's happening week to week and who's picking up who from where. They can both sort themselves out with breakfast so that sets the day with a lot less stress than we'd otherwise all have with one bathroom and trying leave the house at the same time, plus baby wrestling.

I work 6 days as does my partner and other than childminder we get no help from anyone unfortunately.

-childminder for the baby that should say

I think our kids being independent and helping out with the small jobs day to day is the biggest help, they do lots more though can't remember them all. Putting out rubbish and recycling, weeding the garden- they get plenty of down time and are very happy to do these btw
how old are yours?

Hello @DelilahDingleberry, @gemloving, @howisyourcat, @JayDot500 and @De88Referring - Thank you for your responses :)

I actually am a care giver and trying to figure out what parents expect/need from/look for when discussing things with them - is there anything more or less I can do to help those parents?
We're focusing on kids of the age of 1 to 6.

@De88 - You mention a childminder. What is their role? do they help with the planning of activities, the set up, the clean up?

Thank you so much for your feedback! It was super helpful :)

Ah I see, sorry I read it as you are a parent trying to get a better work/life balance!

My childminder is just a childminder, so baby goes to her house 7:30-5:30pm where she has all her meals and plays all day, I think!

On childminder days all we have to do for baby is milk in the morning, and when she gets home she'll join us for the evening meal, milk, bath and bed. We have a daily diary boght from eBay that we share, so there's no lengthy handover when we drop off or pick up, childminder can tell us what she's eaten, played with and how she's napped. We literally throw her in the door and run in the mornings, evening pick up she's already in the buggy ready to go and this works great for all of us.

Sorry if that's not helpful!

@De88 Thank you so much! That's actually very helpful :)