Sabbath for Working moms. Limited Chores time

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I suggest your children organise their own packed lunches and leave them in the fridge overnight - that will save time, stress and clearing up in the morning. Invest in a slow cooker - there are lots of meals you could prepare quickly in the morning and leave on “low” all day, so that supper is ready when you get home tired at night, with perhaps the addition of some rice, pasta or salad. If possible give one room each day a good tidy, dust and hoover - which should take no more than half an hour. Make the children responsible for their own rooms, and I would suggest that all school bags, clothes, shoes etc are assembled before bed which will save stress and panic in the morning - getting the day off to a calm start is so much better for everyone then starting the day frazzled.
 
I would love to spend time praying the rosary, reading scripture and some other spiritual reading and a nap always helps tired moms. I will take the wonderful suggestions offered to see if I can shift work to make more time for spiritual nourishment.
 
I really appreciate the time frame you give for room tidying, I think I find such regimen useful as I see my mind reacts happily to order. I can do that. The toilets, shower walls and floor are dreaded but I I’ve never timed how long I spend cleaning the bathrooms, i wonder if i should from now on. We have windows so with a bottle of water and some clorox everything is white in seconds. Thank you again, I appreciate your guidance.
 
I’m also a SAHM, but my kids are toddlers, and I’m pregnant with #3. Lately, I’ve been trying to make Sundays more of a day of rest; until recently, I’d been using Sunday as a day when Daddy could wrangle the kids while I got a lot of cleaning done. Not an entirely bad idea, but all work and no play, much less no nap or anything else, makes mommy Not A Happy Mommy.

So–I have instituted that certain chores get done on certain days, with general catchup on Saturday but NOT Sunday. Of course, I’ll still need to cook and do dishes on Sunday, but those are certainly necessary! I vacuum the main areas on MWF (or Saturday). I mop the floors on Saturday morning, and sweep them as needed through the week. Laundry is Tuesday and Thursday plus two loads on Saturday (DH’s work clothes, so as to do all at once, plus one load of towels and cleaning cloths I’ve used Saturday morning.) I clean the bathrooms on Saturday morning and hit them on either Tuesday or Wednesday, too.

Your kids can EASILY do most of this, and they can absolutely be expected to clean up after themselves. For context, while I do think I had too many responsibilities at the time, I was making dinner once a week by 8-9 years old, and that dinner was a soup plus biscuits from scratch. By the time I was 13-14, I was handling most of the cooking plus most of the floors and the bathrooms.

I would have a “this is going to change” talk, and gradually increase responsibilities. Rotate them, too, so as to be fair: one kid is in charge of vacuuming downstairs on Monday and the other does upstairs on Wednesdays for a month, then they swap. Likewise, one has to mop while the other cleans bathrooms.

Insofar as cooking, I’d start them slowly on things THEY like to cook. That part was crucial for me: I was bored, and was left alone in the house, so I looked up a recipe in a cookbook that I thought would taste good and went to work. That turned out well, and I went from baking cookies a couple of times each week to making far more complicated dishes.

I totally understand the food safety concerns. I would do cooking lessons as a one-on-one thing, emphasizing as I did so just how sick raw meat can make you if you aren’t careful, what cross-contamination is, etc. Make sure they know how to wash their hands properly, including scrubbing under fingernails and backs of hands. FWIW, since I started cooking regularly, I have never gotten sick from ANYTHING I cooked. These are totally learnable skills, and crucial ones to have as adults.

(Also, I personally would have a glass of wine to sip on while teaching a teen to cook, but that’s just me. 😃 )

Once they’ve spent a bit of time in the kitchen, assign each one a regular dinner night. They’re responsible for planning the meal a week in advance and communicating needed ingredients to you so that you can shop for them.

Oh, and laundry: also something they can do. Just explain about normal washing temps, delicates, etc, then assign each of them a basket of responsibility based on however you sort your laundry–you might handle delicates, for example, while Kid 1 does whites on Wednesday and Kid 2 does darks on Friday. And then, again, rotate.
 
This is wonderful! Thank you, I look forward to reading this again when I get home
 
momof2angells said:
Thank you, not sure what Blue Apron is or Hello fresh , are the’s books with recipes?
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They are box subscription meal services. They ask you how many people in your family any allergies or dislikes and then they ship you 3 meals. Each of the meats, veggies and any spices are pre-packed and ready to be cooked. They give you large very detailed recipe cards and I believe links to youtube if you are struggling.

Once you “learn” a recipe you can easily repeat it on your own.

They almost always run discounts so the meals are around $20- $25 for 4 people with a promo code. It’s expensive but worth it if you consider that they are providing a “lesson”. I’ve cooked for a long time, since I was a small child, and have taught others how to cook. The issue with many cookbooks and meal planning services is that they assume one has a base knowledge of food science and chemistry. The nice thing about these food service programs is that they REALLY assume you know nothing and take you from "put the pot on the stove with 5 cups water, turn on heat to boil, once boiling add noodles slowly so you don’t splash, set timer for 8 minutes, when timer goes off turn off burner, place colander in sink, drain noodles…etc, etc…and not in a demeaning way but so that someone who doesn’t know how to do things is taught and won’t feel inadequate.
 
As one who almost never take Sunday off, even when I am at home, I can give my own take on it. When I do not work on Sunday (employment) I like to reserve the less menial work for Sunday. I like to cook, so making meals is okay. Mowing is fine, heavy yard work I postpone. And laundry is easy, especially during football season, though not so much this year.
 
Our spirits need more rest than our bodies, thus recreation. Making things into a game. House clean in blocks of 10 minutes and rest in between. No need to be perfect. Clean as you go. No need to be perfect, chances are you’re going to wipe it or rinse it off anyway before you use it again. I like a good magazine to give pointers. It’s relaxing reading, too.

Plus dress for success, the better dressed you are, the more chances someone will help you stay that way. Also, try Adoration. When others see how it helps you, they’ll help you maintain going.

.💟💟💟💟💟
 
This sounds great, I will definitely try one month. I was always looking for a cookbook for teens to aid md but many of them, according to tevirws, fall short in one form or another and the research left me nowhere. Sounds like it’s better to just teach them our family staples first. Thank you
 
Family recipes are great ways to bond later in life, too. One of my sisters often texts me with vague meal details of something we ate as kids and wanting a recipe for it where an “official” version didn’t really exist–like, “Do you have mom’s corn chowder recipe?” Or “Do you know what recipe she used for chocolate cake?”

Taste is a powerful memory tool, as it incorporates smell. Even just simple food, like whatever meat sauce or taco meat you often make for the kids and are taken very much for granted now, can be something they want to get EXACTLY the same later on when they’re away from home or you aren’t around to make it for them. It’s hard to explain this quite properly, but I bet you can think of a few childhood dishes that tasted a particular way that you would love for someone to make for you today. 🙂

I keep a recipe binder, and make notes on them as necessary in case I’m not around to explain something to a kid who might want to cook from it someday, as well as to remind myself that “the first dinner I made DH was this sausage and pepper sandwich,” or “this is grandma’s pancake recipe” or “add a half teaspoon of lemon zest to this frosting and it really pops.”
 
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