100. A Working Mom Or A Stay At Home Mom? Do Your Best!
The other day, I watched The Oprah Show. The topic was 'Stay-home moms vs Working moms'. There were some stay-home-moms and some working-moms spoke about their lives, their feelings, their children an all. There was also an argument about which of the two roles was better.
The best part was when a psychologist explained these two things: 1. You could be a stay-home mother or a working mother, as long as it was your own decision. 2. Your goal here was not to get everything, but to make yourself suitable with what you had chosen.
There were a phase in my life when I was a working mother. Here are some tips : 1. Parenting tasks must remain the first priority. It also means that we need to work smart, be effective and go home from the office at a decent hour.
2. We have to comply with work pressure as well, therefore arm ourselves with patience, great patience. Take control over our temper, before we lose it! 3. Take charge on arranging daily menu for the whole family, because our family's health and well being are our responsibilities. Firstly, prepare healthy snack and drinks especially for the children. Milk and fresh juice are the best nutritious drinks. We can add other favorite drinks as well, like a glass of lemon tea or yogurt. I never buy softdrinks. Children might prefer to have softdrinks whenever we eat out, but not at home. Secondly, don't eat out too often. Restaurants' food contains much fat, cholesterol, unhealthy cooking oil, MSG, food color, preservatives. Keep thems for special occasions (celebrating birthdays, etc) or tough days when we don't have the energy nor the mood to cook. Thirdly, stick to easy to make meals during week days and more fancy meals for weekends. 4. Don't forget vitamins and imuno-modulator supplement for us as well as the children 5. Always have a hobby and find a time to do it regularly. 6. Don't forget to check on children's progress at school. If, on the other hand, we decide to stay at home (this is a far better choice), get prepared: . 1. We must feel comfortable at home. Don't go out too often. We might need to buy groceries, but the question is how often? From personal experience twice a week is a reasonable schedule. especially if you have small children. 2. Use the rest of our time to handle family matters. We have children to take care, a house to clean up, children's school affair to deal with, doctors' appointment to meet, etc. 3. Whenever we need to refresh ourself by going out somewhere, we better do it together with the whole family members.
4. Don't lose contact with friends! There are many ways to maintain contacts with them. Phone calls, sms, emails, blogging, sending gifts etc. We are at home and stay close with our family but we are unable to survive without good friendships. Meeting friends face to face is also important, but again the question is how often? A friend (we may include relatives here too) to meet every week? Sounds nice. So this week we visit A, next week we meet B, the following week we go to another friend's house, and so on.
I like making schedules and plans. They're challenging, help us simplify our lives and make us a very reliable person. Groceries shopping twice a week and meeting friends/relatives once a week. The rest of our time is family time whether we spend it at home or some other places.
5. The most important thing is that we have to develop our knowledge too. We can do it either via internet, books, radios or TV. 6. Make ourselves a source of knowledge for the children. I regularly share my spiritual knowledge via sms to my eldest child, mostly during midday while I have flexible time and she is at school. I also teach Rania (my youngest child) and Aqmal (my second child) basic education: names of the body parts in English, the alphabets, new vocabularies, kids songs and many else. 7. Make our home as comfortable as possible for the whole family. We may have limited income as opposed to families who two sources of income, but no matter what our home needs good quality and lost-lasting furniture. Buy it piece by piece. It is a way to invest money. 8. One final thing, as I always tell my children: don't forget to start our home based business. No hurry though! As the children grow bigger, we will have more time for ourselves. That's the perfect time to develop the business. . Children needs must come first. Devoted love and perfect care are what children need in the earlier stages of their lives.
|
|
Personalized Gifts for Baby and Mom. Shop CafePress.com Click here for great fitting plus size outerwear, activewear, swimwear, loungewear, and casual clothing at Junonia. |
New Parents Guide on Baby Care and Maternity, A Working Mom Or A Stay At Home Mom? Do Your Best! |
