I am a tired Mum. But then aren’t we all? My tiredness is due to the fact that Tayo is still up 3, sometimes 4 times a night, he likes to say hi to me at midnight, 2 and 4 generally and throws an extra one in for good measure sometimes (although recently he has thrown in a few 10 until 4 stints!). So this can lead to me being a bit weary, a bit blurry eyed and sometimes just feeling too tired to do anything. SO, whatever makes life easier has been my motto for the past few months. Here’s a few of the teams top life hacks for tired mums.
Food
There are a few ways to make things easier when it comes to food. Last month I signed back up to Hello Fresh. I’d used it when Leo was a similar age to Tayo now and it has really helped. Sure it can seem expensive but it has removed the burden of having to think about what to cook. I’ve found that spending half an hour in the kitchen cooking something that I’m excited to eat has made me feel good about food and what I’m putting on their plates and in their mouths. It’s also really good to have some variety going on.
If you’re not interested in Hello Fresh or the like (recommendations welcome!), a few other tips are to learn some basic recipes that you can make batches of food with. For example, in the past when I know I have a particularly busy week ahead, on a Sunday I’d make a Lasagne, a casserole and maybe cottage pie. That’s three meals that I know can feed us for six dinners. Sure, thats a bit repetitive but gosh it makes me feel better knowing it’s just ready and waiting in the fridge/freezer.
It’s always good to stock up on a few easy essentials too… Lazy garlic is a winner in my house, there’s no washing up of garlic presses or tainting your sponge with the smell of it. It’s also good to have packets of microwave rice, they can accompany pretty much most things. Team RMF also really favour frozen veg. That way if it does come to having yet another plate of fish fingers or chicken dippers, you can at least mix up their veg intake. Bang the bag in the microwave and ta-dah. An extra Mum point for you!
You might also find shopping list apps useful. Anthony and I share a grocery app where if you’re the last to use something you can just add it on to the list. All the supermarkets also have apps too so it might be worth getting one on your phone and doing the same.
The House
‘Why haven’t you got a cleaner yet?!’… Anthony must ask me this question every week. My reply… ‘Well if I can dedicate an hour to it I can get loads done’. His response? ‘But think about what else you could be doing in that hour’. And he’s right. I could be prepping that food ready for batch cooking, I could be taking the dog for a walk or I could go to the gym maybe. I also assume that what I can do in an hour a professional can do double and probably to a much better standard. So, on my list of things to do in November, I am looking for a cleaner. Whatever makes life easier remember.
Another great hack for in the house is to have a change station downstairs. You may have started with one just in the babies nursery and it probably soon became apparent that actually, trudging up and down the stairs every time your babe needs a nappy change is knackering (or maybe you see it as a good form of exercise!) But having a hamper/drawer/cupboard downstairs with a change mat, nappies and the other essentials means you have everything on hand you could need if your little one catches you unawares and you don’t want to carry their very cute but explosive poop bum up the stairs.
I also find trying to be tidy and having some organisation helps keep my mind tidy too. I know that we say when you’re baby is born not to worry about the washing up, don’t worry about getting dressed etc. and I do agree with that but I think once those extremely hazy few weeks pass if you can try and find a routine with your house you will feel like you have some control. For example, have a washing day(s), try to put those clothes away when they’re ready then when you wake bleary eyed you’ll know exactly where to find what you’re looking for. I tend to put my washing on a timer so that it starts at about 5am and then Whilst Tayo eats breakfast the cycle has finished and I can take it all out and start getting it dried. I’m quite the domestic goddess. Not.
You
I am not the best person to talk to you about self care so I won’t make this section about that but I will make it about quick tips to make your days a little bit easier. I tend to wash my hair at night. I put Leo to bed (It’s always ‘Mommy put me to bed’) and then I get straight in the shower. By the time it comes for me to go to bed it’s usually dried by itself or I can give it a quick blast to finish it off.
Learn a quick hair style. If I’ve fallen by the weigh side in washing my hair at night and I wake up with it looking dreadful, I tend to plait it. A spritz of (must have) dry shampoo, put it in two plaits and secure together at the back with a few grips. That or the bouffant pony tail. In my opinion sometimes the messier the better… ‘dragged through a bush’ is a really in look at the moment 😉
Find a quick make up routine. Now that I am on the school run every day I’ll admit I feel a certain pressure to actually look half decent when I drop Leo off and I have fallen into an easy routine that goes something like this: Two slicks of concealer under each eye and one on my chin (and any other problem areas that have arisen over night). A quick flick of bronzer followed by a a wave of blush on my cheeks. I have a browny gold eyeliner (it’s one of those that can be used as a eyeshadow too) that I slick above my lashes over a light neutral shadow. The liner gets a quick smudge, two coats of mascara and a dab of lip balm. It literally takes me about 6 minutes. Sure I don’t look flawless but I at least look 60% less tired than I did before I put it on.
And the biggest hack of all… Accept help when and if it is offered. Whether it’s a friend bringing food, your mum watching the baby so you can have an hour to nap, a neighbour popping to the supermarket and asking if you need anything. Take it. They wouldn’t offer if they didn’t want to help.
So there you go, a few hacks to try and make your life a bit easier when you’re finding it a bit tough.
Are you a sleep deprived tired Mum? What hacks do you have that I need to know to make things easier? Share them ALL with me!
Very practical tips Becky…I really rate Hello Fresh as well because sometimes it is the planning & buying the food that you don’t have the extra time for. The fact that it just arrives & I can get on with the cooking for a few nights a week (I do the 3 meal option) has really made a difference so I have recommended them to lots of tired friends too!
We do the three meals too. I do the batch cook on a Sunday still to cover the days we don’t have it but those three days are SO much easier 🙂 x
I hear you! My 17 month old is still up 3 times a night, I’m back at work 3 days a week and I’ve just found out I’m pregnant again. Tired often doesn’t cover it! I’m going to look into Hello Fresh as the weekly food planning and shop drives me nuts and my husband asking wages for dinner can send me into a rage!
Do it Sophie! I’ve honestly found it’s helped so much. And congratulations on your lovely news! xx
My little one is a similar age to Tayo and has never been a great sleeper. I’ve been back at work 4 days a week since September and at first I really struggled with tiredness. Ollie co-sleeps with us now, and although it’s not ideal, he has knocked down his wake ups to once or twice a night, but will not go to sleep before 9ish no matter what we try 😩. I’ve been doing slimming world for a little while now, and on days where I have no time to prep, I get their ready meals or meats in (all frozen) so that I’m not tempted to go off track. Have you ever tried Berocca vitamins? They’re great for a pick me up, and you can pick up unbranded ones now for around £1. They’ve definitely got me through some tough times! I’ve tried the sleepy cream from lush that everyone has raved about but it didn’t work for us 👎🏼
Francesca, I’m also working four days per week and we co sleep with our 18 month old. It’s hilarious coz people always think we’re trying to make some sort of “parenting movement” statement by co sleeping but I’m just trying to get more sleep. 😂
Lush didn’t work for us either, I had such high hopes!
We have co-slept with Mabel on and off for years, she was doing really well for ages and then we moved house and she’s not been sleeping through the night since, sometimes it’s just easier at 5am to have her at least go back to sleep with us for an hour or so rather than try and negotiate her getting back into her own bed when we are half asleep ourselves! x
We gave Juliet a double bed at about 2.5. It meant that one of us could get up and join her when she demanded it at 3.30am – no laying on a cold floor next to her bed and no additional person in our bed meaning that we didn’t get great sleep. It worked really well, and at 4 and a half she FINALLY started sleeping through! 🙌🏻
Oh no I haven’t tried Berocca but I will! People keep tagging me into the Lush cream on Facebook… I must harp on about how tired I am all the time… Think it’s their way of telling me to shut up! Haha.
I love all of these Becky – really sensible but useful tips!! My fave is definitely the cleaner. I have got to the stage now where I would honestly sell my sofa before losing my cleaner (I have two ladies who come together and do some ironing and MAKE MY BED OMG BLISS). It’s just not worth trying to do everything.
I do think this is especially true when your kid is a wakeful one. I also have one like that! Tired mummies unite – these cuties make up for it in other ways (and they will sleep one day!!).
I bought this white board sheet thing which sticks on our fridge (Notice Board Large A3 Meal Daily Planner https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01CUJGXPE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_SWT8zb4GQWBCT) – it’s got the days of the week on it so we stick on it what we are eating for the week and use it for reminders/stuff we need to buy. I love it, it’s so useful!
Ooooh Kate that is useful!!
I am definitely all over this cleaner malarkey! And well up for someone else making my bed… And the boys beds and the ironing… Maybe she will brush my teeth for me too if I ask nicely? 😉
Such great tips Becky! I do a lot of the above and learned early on with a newborn to jump in the shower once my husband got home in the evening. It was stressing me out no end when I was struggling to get showered during the morning/day with a newborn on my own and this switch helped me no end. I also really rate having a change station downstairs! Since returning to work and the onslaught of 5:45am wake ups 🙁 I’ve started doing click and collect grocery orders which I complete over my lunch break and then collect on my way to collect the baby in the evening. On the cleaning front my husband and I have a quick evening 20 minute routine once baby is in bed, I then do the bathroom when I’m about to get into the shower on a Saturday and my husband hoovers the stairs and the bedrooms. We are in the process of moving to a bigger house which will make it tougher on the cleaning front. Another thing that helps is getting the baby bag ready each night for the next morning. I really must go away and learn how to work the timer on my washing machine! Looking forward to reading others tips too xo
Helen I am definitely having a changing station downstairs when the new baby arrives. We didn’t really have room in our old house and I found myself climbing steep stairs multiple times a day which was so exhausting. The click & collect grocery order is such a good idea, James and I’s biggest problem isn’t the ordering as much as choosing a time slot we are actually available to have it delivered – where as actually, this is a much better option logistically! Thanks for the tip x
Helen you sound SUPER organised! And what a great team you make… team work definitely helps. And I agree to getting things ready the night before. I’m not the most organised person but Leo’s uniforms and bags have all been ready the night before since he started school. Bit proud of myself for that!x
Like the other commenters I can confirm that what I thought was tiredness wasn’t anywhere near until I went back to work.
I prep everything the night before so we fly out the house in the morning. Bags, lunches, clothes. Kids dinner comes out the freezer in pots and you’re right, microwave rice is a godsend. Husband gets in with the kids at 5.30pm then gives them dinner and switches on the slow cooker if it’s a shorter dish so when I get in at 7pm and have put the kids to bed, we can eat together. Things like Hello Fresh don’t work for us as you need to be in the house to cook and well, we aren’t.
I also use the slow cooker at night to make large batches of meals whilst we’re sleeping – then I can use it at the weekends to make lasagne or whatever. I usually make 4-5 in one go and the time involved is down to about 10 minutes because the bolognese is cooked.
Washing, get a machine with a timer. You can set it to go off before you get in or put it on in the morning and have your cleaner hang up the wet laundry.
I can safely say there is not a spare minute in our house. The train commute is used for online shopping, meal planning, house admin and managing the kids.
I’m bloody KNACKERED.
Side note – there is no way I couldn’t have a cleaner. I strip the bed and bung in the sheets then she hangs them and makes it up with fresh.
Yes to the slow cooker Rebecca. My neighbour was showing me hers last week and I thought it was brilliant! x
Weary high five from another tired mama (Jenson thought it was hilarious to repeatedly spit his dummy out from midnight last night).
Loving this post Becky and all the tips in the comments x
Get some air wrap bumpers and fill the cot with numerous dummies. Baby can then always reach a dummy and the wraps stop them falling out the city seriously, we discovered this at 8 months old and that’s when he started sleeping through.
Jenson is still swaddled but when he’s not, I am definitely going to be getting some of these. How have I never heard of them before?! I used to dread hearing that noise when Lyra’s dummy used to fall out of the cot onto the floor!
Oh to be able to afford a cleaner and Hello Fresh meals on top of everything else (namely childcare!) we can but dream..but isn’t it amazing what you can fit into ten minutes when you put your mind to it? I’ve actually become more obsessed with having a tidy house and being organised since having our 6 month old, and batch cooking at weekends, having a Whattsap shopping list with my husband where we tick off when one of us has done it, and making meals that we can stretch out/add to for a couple of nights makes a difference.
Annie I am the same! I have never been so tidy! I just find if stuff is everywhere my brain can’t seem to cope! Batch cooking is a life saver! x
What is the grocery app Becky? My husband never tells me when he uses something up – I think he thinks things magically appear in the cupboard!😂
And YES to the cleaner! I always say that mine is my best friend. It’s a dream to come home to a clean house!!
I love Hello Fresh but now being on my unpaid part of maternity leave I can’t justify the cost. As soon as I’m back at work though it’s getting reordered though. It’s so delicious.
Wunderlist, it’s bloody amazing, you both have it set up on your phones and it adds / deletes / ticks ect on both your phones simultaneously when either of you makes an amend or addition. We use it for groceries, packing for holiday, housework and you can assign tasks to each other too. Very helpful and means when you use up the soy sauce you add it to the groceries list it wont be forgotten when your wife is dreaming of tofu stir fry….oh no wait, that’s my life. I’m training my husband to be better…..
Alice this sounds brilliant! And much better than the one I currently use 😂 Thanks for the tip x
Meal planning and batch cooking 100% life savours. I got so fed up of stressing at 5pm then discovering I didn’t have a tin of tomatoes or a stock cube. I used to sort of meal plan in my head but now I do it properly writing it all down and it makes a HUGE difference. I often do it when watching TV on a Friday night and shop over the weekend. I’ll batch cook something to freeze to eat towards the end of the week and eat the fresh stuff first. Stir fries or fish or whatever on Monday the lasagne/cottage pie/meatballs in the freezer for a Thursday. Plus I nearly always do fish fingers, veggie burgers or something convenience for the kids on a Friday. Quite often we don’t eat the designated meals on the specific night its gets chopped and changed around.
If I have a super busy social weekend I shop online otherwise its Aldi.
My other one is do a load of washing EVERY day and try and put one away every day.
I’m currently on maternity leave with my second (also have a 2 yo) and The Organised Mum method has revolutionised my life….we used to have a cleaner but I swear my house is both rider and cleaner now and it’s a super easy (free) plan to follow. I’ll probably get a cleaner again when I return to work but only to do the grotty extra jobs that I hate like cleaning the bathrooms.
She also posts loads of easy recipes which are delicious (I promise I don’t know her or am being paid for this, she is just fab!).
She’s on instagram, Facebook and https://theorganisedmum.blog
Tidier not rider obviously…😂
Lol Cat, I thought rider was some super cleaning lingo that I am too messy to have heard of before 😂
I am pleased someone else has mentioned it already – I am ALL about the slow cooker! Prep in the morning before work and then when you get home dinner is cooked! I went from working four days to five in August and it is SO much harder not having that extra day to sort stuff out. Click and collect groceries I haven’t thought of before – I might look into that! My house is a collosal mess (not so much the cleaning its the untidiness that gets me) and I would love to have a cleaner but husband says no :/ The mess doesn’t bother him you see…*massive eyeroll* He went away the other week for two nights and I couldn’t believe how much tidier the house was with just me and the toddler…so, any tips on making husbands tidy up after themselves without making it sounds like you are constantly nagging?
The other thing I do in the mornings sometime is just prep part of the meal and put it in the fridge…last night we had homemade burgers for example so I made the patties and some beetroot relish in the morning so then when we arrived home all we had to do was cook burgers and assemble!
Would be really good to have some recipe ideas.
I do (1) bolognese for lasagne and spag bol (2) chilli (3) roast chicken (4) five veg tagine from BBC Good food (5) Lancashire hot pot and (6) stew.
But I do feel some things only need 2-3 hours when we are out the house for 12…..so everything ends up a bit dry or, as I say, my husband ends up sticking it on at 5-6pm for us to eat at 8 or 9pm.
We get Tesco between 9-10pm. Only chance we have to guarantee we’re home.
yes you have to pick and choose your recipes, some things don’t take well to twelve hours. I have a couple of slow cookers books and even some of the recipes in those are hit and miss. I’ve worked out which ones are good now and just cook those! 12 hour things which are good are Soups (just blend when you get home), slow cooked pork fillet or beef with tomatoes kidney beans, mexican spices and then serve shredded meat with wraps and salad to make burritos, lentil dal curry or beef curry. Any cheap bit of meat that needs a long cooking time is good. Lamb shanks are amazing too but pricey. Pinterest is a good place to find slow cooker recipes (or crock pot as the Americans call it). A tip to keep the top from drying out if your meat sticks out above the liquid is to wet a bit of greaseproof paper and press down over the top of the meat ad liquid, then put the lid on x
The pork, Apple and cider casserole on BBC Good Food is delicious – I did it as a ‘regular’ casserole but it’s actually a slow cooker recipe.
Just to add as another 5 day week worker and no money for a cleaner the fly lady website twitter etc is ace. She gives you a cleaning task to do each day so it splits the cleaning up. Following her means stuff like the skirting boards get done as well
Love the sound of this Helen… I daren’t look at my skirting boards!! x
I have tried loads of the recipe boxes and would really recommend gousto. Same price as hello fresh, 3 times the choice of recipes and the ingredients are much fresher and better quality I think. Worth a try at least for the first one with an offer code! 🙈xx
Definitely worth a try I think Emma… I had a look at their site and they do have a great menu selection! x
Changing station downstairs is a great idea, I can’t believe I didn’t do this with my first but I did it with my youngest. I’m not sure if someone has already mentioned it but we keep extra toothbrushes and tooth paste in the kitchen so we don’t have to go back upstairs again after breakfast. We have gousto three times per week and I don’t find it to be expensive, it has reduced our weekly shopping bill and we have less waste!
Less waste is my favourite thing about Hello Fresh Sarah! Funny you should mention about the toothbrush downstairs… Most morning Tayo andI are already trashing the play area before Leo gets up so he often brushes and washes in the downstairs loo now so he doesn’t have to ‘miss out’. Maybe I need to jsut get an extra set for down stairs 🙂
This toothbrush tip is genius! I run up and downstairs so many times in the morning when I can’t tempt my little one back upstairs to brush her teeth and then I always bring the wrong toothbrush down (she has two and her preferred one changes daily!). We even have a downstairs loo, can’t believe I didnt think of toothbrushing tools downstairs. Thank you xxx
We have toothbrushes, toothpaste and a sponge in the hallway console table 🙋😂
It’s also interesting how we still take on a lot of the burden of domestic jobs. I saw this a while ago and it really rang true!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/26/gender-wars-household-chores-comic
This is exactly what I thought of when I read this!
Top tip for tired mums: get your husband/partner to book the cleaner! Actually I booked ours, so this is do as I say not as I do! But in all honesty our life has been so much easier since we divided chores betweeen us. I’m in charge of managing all the laundry (sigh!) and I am default parent so I do most organising and care of our boy, but he manages all the cooking, shopping and most of the washing up plus all dog related care. The cleaner thenhoovers, dusts, does the bathroom, generally ensures social services don’t come knocking.
Use the word “manage” when you discuss the division of labour. It’s a game changer for the emotional load.
If you’re batch cooking, frozen or fresh soffrito mix (chopped onion, carrot and celery) is brilliant – it’s the base for pretty much every casserole, pasta sauce, and soup I do and buying it ready chopped saves a surprising amount of time.
We have a cleaner (love her), and I do try and do a quick tidy before I sit down of an evening.
The other thing I would recommend is having a couple of extremely easy and quick store cupboard meals up your sleeve for evenings where you haven’t done a shop, there’s sod-all in the fridge, you’re lacking in inspiration and you’re HUNGRY. My main go-to for this is shakshuka, but I also always have the ingredients for corned beef hash in (not quick but very easy).
Excellent tips Sara! I always like to make sure there’s some eggs in the fridge so I can whip up a quick omlette if I get desperate! x
These tips are awesome. My pet peeve is that I can not plait my hair! Is it possible for low-tech mum Hair style tutorials please?
Xx
Great idea Charlie… I’ll see what I can do 🙂 x
Gosh I love having a cleaner too! We “got” her, when I went back to work in February after mat leave, since I work as a doctor with night shifts and weekends etc. She is such a godsend! And I am much tidier because of her, since I don’t want her to arrive to an absolute mess ^^ I am really liking the idea of the Hello fresh box etc, but my husband says we don’t need it. Usually I find it worst to think of what we are going to eat, the making is not such a problem afterwards!
Love how real and practical this post is. Thank you! I work part time and have a three and a half year old, a two year old and my husband works away one week a month.
I have a cleaner once a fornight. She cleans for three hours 20 and irons for 40 mins. It’s £80 A month and I would budget in all sorts of ways before I would lose her!
I meal plan and online shop, have deliveries at9-10pm as that is when I know we will be in.
When things get particularly tough, I follow a meal schedule (ie Mon is veggie, Tues is pasta, Wed is soup and sandwich, Thursday is pie night…..) which simplifies things. On weeks when I am on my own I buy a range of ready meals/pre-prepped bits from M&S.
I use a “cleaning routine” plan from pinterest which helps me tackle a small, effective, manageable amount each evening. Search them-they really help.
I quite like the organised mum too x