s/o SAH - typical day?

[southerntransplant]

If you SAH, either full or part-time, what does a typical day look like for you? Do you enjoy it or do you wish you were still working? Do you have any help?

Also, how old are your kids? What do you plan to do when they are in school?

[lindyanne]

I have been SAH for almost 2.5 years and have a 3 year old. I don't know that we have a 'typical' day.
My DS is very active so summer has been a lot easier than winter even though he's not in school bc we can play outside and swim (although it's been storming a ton lately). I've gotten out of the habit of hitting the gym lately bc we're pt'ing but normally we'd wake up around 6:30 and have breakfast, play awhile or watch a cartoon if I need to clean up a bit, get ready and go to the gym (they have daycare there) get home around 10/10:30 and play/read. Have lunch. Play some more and color/craft. Naptime from 2-5ish then start dinner, feed DS (he normally eats himself bc DH doesn't get home from work till 620), play some more, do flash cards, clean up toys, bed at 8. One day a week we'd do grocery shopping in the morning and then of course other errands stuck in there depending what is going on. I also belong to a mom's club so sometimes we go to organized activities which are all sorts of things - playground, library time, visiting different place for tours (we just did an alpaca farm!), having lunch together etc. We also have an awesome playground about two miles from our house that we hit if it's not too hot (even at like 80 it starts baking bc it has a rubber floor) or too cold.

[6fsn]

I've been home full time since my almost 4 year old was just over 1. We also have a 16 month old now. Our day starts around 6. I let the kids watch a couple of shows then we eat breakfast and get ready for the day.

Somewhere around 9 we're doing something. It could be playing around the house, playdate, playground, library, grocery, zoo, science museum, doctor, whatever.

11ish we start getting things put away and get cleaned up for lunch. After lunch they get another show and the little one goes down for a nap. (In a few months we'll start preschool so we'll add that in there)

During nap the older on has quiet time. We read stories, color, do learning stuff, maybe bake or clean.

After nap we play until DH gets home at 5 and I start dinner.

This has worked until now. I'm not sure how preschool and baby 3 are going to change things though.

[katrana]

I am a teacher so I only SAH during the summer and school breaks. My DS is 2, and also very active.

Mornings: breakfast, then a show while I get ready/clean up a little bit. We always go *somewhere* (this week we went to a local nature center-free, the grocery store, the library, and a local children's musem-$6). Sometimes it is fun, sometimes boring, but I definitely need to get out of the house! This is obviously easier in the summer because you have more options (park, etc).

Then home for lunch, some quiet time (reading), nap, then wake up, snack, play outside in back yard for a while (he likes to help me water flowers and garden and play at the water table). Sometimes we will do art outside (chalk, painting, etc). In the winter or bad weather we would play inside with art time (play doh, crayons, paint)

Then dinner, then play inside (blocks, farm animals, cars, etc). Then more books and bedtime.

[Deleted]

Things are a little different for us right now because we just had a baby 3 weeks ago and my mom is staying with us to help out for a while. My dad goes back and forth between our home and theirs. But this is what our schedule will look like when she leaves in another 3 weeks:

The boys typically wake up between 7-8. I get them dressed and make them breakfast. Then I let them play with their toys for a while and watch 30 min. of television while I clean up the kitchen and drink my coffee.

DS1 goes to summer camp/preschool every day from 9-12. DS2 goes 2 mornings a week. I also take him to a Little Gym class one morning a week (the baby will go to my FIL's) and he goes to my FIL's one morning a week for a little one-on-one time. On the fifth day, I plan to use that time to go to the gym and put both kids in the sitter service.

We come home around noon for lunch. Then I get the boys started on some type of quiet activity: playing with their blocks or trains, coloring, playing with play dough, playing outside in the yard, ect. while I do a few quick things around the house to tidy up.

I've hired a babysitter who will come over every afternoon from 1:30-4:30. I plan to take the boys out for some type of activity (such as a play date or an outing to the Children's Museum, the Science Museum, the zoo, the library, the playground, DS1's Little Gym class, ect.) for the first two hours while she watches the baby at home and then we'll switch so I can get a bit of a break. The sitter will feed the boys a snack, read to them, and play with them for an hour. Then it will be time for dinner and baths.

The baby doesn't have much of a schedule yet beyond wanting to nurse every 2-3 hours and going to my FIL's one morning a week. She still sleeps a lot of the day.

Obviously, I do have help in the form of the babysitter and my FIL. We also have a cleaning service come by every other week. I don't think I'd be able to do this with three small children without any help. I know I wouldn't want to try! lol.

[bunch]

Dd is almost 1.

Up at 7, nurse, play with toys while I have coffee and watch news. Breakfast around 8, nap at 9. When she gets up from nap (anywhere from 930 to 11) we get out and do something. Run a errand, moms club event, library. We come home for lunch and the she takes a nap for an hour in the afternoon. Late afternoon we either go somewhere else or play around the house. H gets home around 630 and we do dinner, bath and bed. It's not an exciting life, but is fun enough.

[drloretta]

I SAH and do some occasional freelance work for my old company. DD is 2.5. A typical day right now is:

I get up around 7. DD gets up anywhere from 7:30-9. If it's on the early side, she hangs out with DH until I'm done showering, etc. If it's on the late side, I'm waiting for her
We usually do errands, playdates, etc. in the morning, home for lunch, play in the house for a while, and she goes down for a nap around 2-ish. She sleeps 2-3 hours, during which time I do housework, craft, or get any freelance work done
When DD gets up we play around the house and wait for DH to get home to do dinner. After dinner she spends time with DH, we do a bath, I put her to bed around 9

Next month she starts preschool 2 1/2-days per week. DH will take her, so I get 2 mornings to myself and I.can't.wait. I love her dearly, but I don't do 2-year-olds very well. She was much easier as an infant.

When she starts school I'll likely be picking up more freelance work, but I don't want to go back to work FT. There will be enough school-related and after-school stuff that I'll probably still be insanely busy.

[jessj222]

I work part time (2.5 days)

Typical day when I am home with her

7:30- Wakes up, nurse

8:30/9:00- Breakfast

9:30-12: Some sort of activity (Library, Errands, Pool, Park, Splash Pad, Playdate, Mall, Walk)

12: Lunch

12:30-3 Nap (I usually clean for an hour and then enjoy the rest of the time for myself)

3-5:30: Play inside or outside, sometimes a walk or to the park that is close by, sometimes Errands. Depends on what happened in the morning too. If we were super busy probably just hang out around the house.

5:30ish: Daddy gets home

6:30: Dinner

7:40: Bath

8:00: Bedtime

[DarcyLongfellow]

I have one daughter, who just turned 3. She didn't do preschool last year -- she starts for the first time in a couple of weeks.

I get up with DH around 8 or so, then chat with him, make his lunch, let the dogs out, etc. DD gets up around 8:30 or so.

After DD and I eat breakfast and get ready, we leave the house -- usually around 9:30 or so, sometimes not until 10. Almost every morning we have an activity -- sometimes it's a paid class like swimming or Music Together, but usually it's something with my moms club (I can't recommend momsclub.org enough!!). So our activities are usually playgroup with friends (held at someone's house), a trip to a playground, meeting at a neighborhood swimming pool, going to a kiddie gym or bounce place, things like that. On Fridays I have a moms group that I meet with at our church that is without kids -- DD either goes over and hangs out with my MIL or she goes to the church nursery.

No matter what our morning activity is (sometimes it's just running errands), we're home between 12 and 1 so that we can eat lunch, then DD goes down for a nap around 1 or 2. During nap time I clean the house, think about dinner, read, play online. Whatever I feel like doing :-)

She wakes up around 5 or so, then she plays while I work on dinner or laundry or whatever. We eat with DH around 6 or 7, then she goes to bed around 8.

I LOVE being home with her, and I don't miss working at ALL :-)

[littlemermaid]

I've been a sahm going on 12 years. I have never regretted leaving my career to be with my children. My kids are 12 & 9 years old now so my typical day now is much different than when they were infants. Even though my kids are in school full time I chose to stay home. I love being here when they get home from school. Our lives are much less stressful because I am home and I take care of all the errands and household chores during the day when everyone is at work or school. It allows us to have more free time on the weekends because everything gets done during the week so there is no "catching up" on chores on the weekend.

[anna7602]

I am just a pretend SAH mom. DD isn't in school or summer camp for the summer, so I took the summer off. I have been doing some work on nights and weekends, but none during the day.

In July, we mostly traveled around- a 10-day vacation with DH and then a 4-day just girls' vacation.

Since mid-July or so, our schedule roughly looks like:

- hang out at home until 11am-ish, playing, while I clean up the house, shower, get packed for the day, etc. (I pack a lunch for us to take)

- go to a park from about 11am-ish until about 4pm-ish, home by about 5.

- 5-7: play at home, bath, I make dinner

- 7-8: have dinner

- 8- ?: do bedtime stories, implore DD to go to bed.

It's 11:30 pm here right now and when I last got up from my desk to get something in the kitchen (about 45 minutes ago), DD heard me and came out of her room.

I am not sure how to get DD to go to sleep earlier, but I blame it on how late the sun sets here. Waking her earlier in the morning doesn't do anything to move her bedtime earlier.

DD is 4. When she goes back to school in September, I will have more time to devote to freelance projects I've been putting off. If I have downtime, I will enjoy every minute of it by going to lots of yoga classes, doing runs around the park, lunching with friends and catching up on my long list of books I want to read/movies I want to see and museums I want to visit. I have no problem thinking of ways to fill my time while DD is in school if I don't happen to have any work to do.

However, I sometimes think I have the best of both worlds since I can more or less manage my own workload.

[annieh2]

I sah with my 2yr old son and have DS#2 on the way.

Right now our schedule is up around 7, eat, get ready for the day. We then walk the dog or play for a while. We try to run most errands in the morning and/or have activities/playdates. We're home by 11:30 to eat lunch and then nap. After nap, we play outside, make dinner and wait for H to get home. Bedtime is 7:30ish.

Some days, we are really busy and other days we're home the whole day. I'm a homebody, so I actually enjoy having a couple days during the week where we're primarily home.

Also, I always nap or take the time for myself during naptime. It's the only way I can survive until bedtime right now, although I was more likely to clean and do other things when I wasn't pregnant.