Fantastic Guidelines On Planning Your Time As A Working Mum

Guess what time of year it is, the month of September, known to be both nerve-racking and exhilarating for parents and their children, whether they are just starting their educational journey or have been involved for some time. Despite the big build-up to the September send-off, the school year is a long ten months that requires continued parental management and involvement. The working mum might not know what to do, as she tries to balance the vocations associated with her career, alongside the responsibility of managing the kids. Planning lunches, meeting teachers, and chauffeuring your kids to ballet practise and piano lessons can leave you feeling as though you’re balancing on a tightrope in a three-ring circus! When you do feel a bit loony and in need of a good vent, make sure you’ve got an online coaching website bookmarked for some aid and support! In the meantime, with some careful preparation, you and your kids can look forward to a happy school experience year-round! We have some useful tips to help you achieve this.

Keep in Touch with the Classroom

Maintaining a relationship with your son or daughter’s school can help you keep abreast of all developments that affect your child’s education. If possible, meet the teacher a week or two in advance especially if your child is young as introducing them to their new classroom ahead of time can help ease any fears or anxieties they might have. Get a hold of a calendar of events from the school, so that you know how to follow along with your child’s adventures. Keep track of any questions or concerns and address them at Parent-Teacher interview nights, but ask your teacher to contact you earlier should any significant problems arise. Finally, plan on attending PTA meetings regularly, and if time allows, volunteer to help with school fund-raisers or bake sales. This will allow you to meet and get to know other parents and children, so that you can see who your child is socialising with, at the same time as you make some potentially beneficial new contacts and friends.

Bring the Classroom to Your Home

When it comes to a potentially successful school year ahead, it’s all about communicating and organising. Involving your children in planning and decision-making validates their opinions and gives them a sense of control over their educational experience. Before they get to school, make sure that they set aside a place for their homework, an area that they will feel comfortable within. Stock the area with supplies and storage tools to keep school work and clutter filed and ordered. Create a large wall calendar for parents and kids to keep track of holidays, tests, and extra-curricular activities. Make a point of gathering everybody together on a Sunday, so that the upcoming week can be discussed and the process of planning can be viewed as an inclusive and fun-filled family event.

What is Your Plan of Action?

We all know that we can’t plan for everything. Every now and again, the babysitter that you had arranged for after school could come down with the flu and be stuck in bed, or the child entrusted with the key could lose it on the bus ride home, somehow. It’s important for you and your kids to discuss potential emergencies and have a plan of action at the ready. Always be sure that you are in communication at all times and you should try and check in with the children periodically to see if everything is okay. As busy working mums, we might still find ourselves apprehensive about the school routine, worrying that homework might go unfinished or that Susie’s not getting enough one-on-one time with her teacher. No wonder you have a lot to do, as you add all this worry to the Monday morning work deadlines or upcoming midweek marketing meetings! When the responsibility seems unmanageable, that’s the perfect time for some professional coaching. A good Life Coach can help you to understand how to strike a balance between home and work, while ensuring that the school year progresses smoothly all the way through to the end.

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers online coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.