Stay at Home Mom Schedule

For those who struggle

I have always struggled with building a schedule for myself. I’m a very detail oriented person, so until recently I couldn’t ever make a plan without feeling super stressed out by it. Schedules should help us feel less stressed, so I never understood why I felt this way until I took a look at how I was spending my time. I want to show you how I created my schedule as a stay at home mom.

The #1 problem I was having with schedules is that I simply was trying to pack too much into my day. In the age of convenience and hyper-productivity, slowing down with children can be an adjustment. Especially if you want to cook from scratch and develop homemaking skills.

Taking a time inventory

By looking over my time and what I was trying to accomplish on a daily and weekly basis, I not only was able to see what had to be cut out, but also what I needed to add. I wanted to start working out again after having my second baby, start working on a side hustle to bring in some extra income, and have the time to build new skills as a homemaker. Without knowing how I was actually spending my time, I had no idea how I would fit all of those things in.

Ultimately, our daily habits become our weekly habits become our monthly habits and so on, and that’s what becomes our lives! I decided I wanted to make sure I was building and living a life that I loved. There were so many times that even a social invite would stress me out because I wasn’t sure how it would affect my routine and if I would have time for everything.

By ditching the “what I should do” to-do list, I started a new list of what actually NEEDS to get done and based my schedule on that. It helped me be able to know when I need to say no and when I can say yes. Obviously all of these things are learned through experience as a mother and homemaker, but developing a plan helped me expedite that process.

A word about calendars

The first decision you need to make when developing a schedule as a stay at home mom is where you’ll keep the schedule. I definitely would advocate for a digital schedule because they are so easy to change when something comes up. Plus you can make the events repeat instead of constantly having to write it down. Not to mention you’ll have your schedule with you wherever you go since you can look at it on your phone.

Whatever you decide, looking at your schedule on a weekly basis is most helpful because daily routines can vary a lot, but most weeks look fairly similar.

Getting some perspective

Being a young mom, I had no idea how to start structuring my days because it felt like my children were so unpredictable. I will say, babies are still unpredictable. In my experience, they just kind of tag along with whatever you planned to do. But once you have kids that start being more predictable, there is a typical daily pattern. I was completely unaware of this pattern until my first got to be around 2.

Early morning

This is the time that children are still asleep. Typically, this is the perfect time to add something that you want to do that can’t involve the children as easily. You may just want to use the extra time to get more sleep. There are definitely days that I do that too. However, I have found it extremely helpful to wake up before my children in order for everything to feel less hectic once they wake up. This is where I added in working out. Now, are there times that I get interrupted or I have to come back from the gym early because the baby is crying? Absolutely. But by and large, I am able to have this time to myself most days. Schedules are not meant to be perfect.

Morning

Morning starts once the children wake up. You obviously need to make breakfast and get everybody dressed. But what to fit into this time slot past breakfast was hard for me to figure out at first. This is probably the best time to put in cleaning routines and outings. Once you get past nap time, it’s time to fix dinner. So accomplishing something normally happens during the morning or bulk of your day.

Lunch

This is fairly intuitive.

Nap Time

Nap time is a great time to fit in more of your personal goals. I would highly recommend prioritizing a nap for moms during this time as well, especially if you have a baby and/or are getting up early. It doesn’t have to be long, even 15 minutes can make a difference.

Dinner Prep/Family Time

Everyone knows that starting dinner early is a good idea. As homemakers, it’s our job to create a relaxing environment that people want to be in. A big part of that means having food on the table! Everyone will be hungry at the end of the day so be sure to prioritize fixing dinner once your little ones wake up. Stop trying to go out at this time. It will seriously eliminate so much stress and give you freedom to just hang out with your family.

Bedtime

Again, once your children are down for the night you can start working on more personal goals. This is also an important time for you and your spouse to spend time together.

Setting up your schedule

Now, getting to the nitty gritty… Here are the steps that I used to develop a weekly schedule. Don’t worry about making this pretty, you can do that later. Just go through the exercise.

1. On a blank piece of paper, or using this template, write down your children’s typical wake up time, nap time, and bedtime.
2. Drawing square blocks on each day, divide your days into the following segments: early morning, morning, lunch, nap time, dinner prep, and bedtime. Base these times on your children’s wake times as determined in step 1.
3. Next, add regularly occurring activities outside the home (church, sports practice, library story time, etc.).
4. Go through each block and determine what you will do during those time frames. The bulk of the variability will be in the “morning” and “dinner prep” times. Do your best to plan all of the intensive tasks during the morning and add in some fun activities for after dinner.

An example

This is a current look at my weekly routine as a mom of two little kids. It almost never plays out exactly like this, but it’s helpful to have an overview so I can prioritize items in those blocks.

The most important part

The key to making this work is that you have to be realistic, not idealistic. Sure, you’d ideally be able to do it all, but you can’t! As stay at home moms, the most important job we have is training and caring for our children. Managing the house even comes after that. So we have to plan for plenty of margin and flexibility in our days.

There are a million tasks to do every day as a homemaker and organizing them can be really helpful, especially mentally. We still want to have goals, be excellent, and feel like we’re accomplishing something. So making a plan is really helpful for that purpose.

Once you have your schedule made, you still need to begin each day asking the Lord what needs to be eliminated from your to-do list. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we know what is the next right thing to do. Then just do it! Don’t try to be perfect.

I hope you found this helpful! Happy scheduling!