It’s the start again of another month. I am really hoping that this will be a more productive month than last month.  It was unimaginable how my responsibilities as a mother to my kids and wife to my husband made me on my feet most hours of the day.  That includes running around the household to finish the never-ending chores.  Being outside the household makes no difference; it cannot be an escape.  My multi-tasking as a grocery-shopper, driver, post woman, bill payer and a lot more makes my time everyday flies.

I think I deserve a break.  But do moms really get a break?  Lucky are those who can afford to get helpers at home.  Oftentimes, I wonder why here in this beautiful country house helpers are not common unlike in the Philippines.  Back home it is affordable to get helpers and even personal drivers.  And now I am dreaming…wishful thinking.  But life now is different.  Things change…even the direction of lives we’re heading to.  I think few years back, when destiny brought me here, my life’s direction has completely changed.  A very active, responsible and extremely challenging life.

Perhaps, for now, a good mug of my favorite coffee with lots of cream will do me a favor of few minutes of break.

Most stay-at-home moms are multi-taskers.  This statement is based on my personal experience seeing how my mom worked around the house and out when I was still a kid, as well as my experience now being a mother.

My day usually starts 10 minutes before 5am when I need to prepare breakfast for my husband.  I sometimes still take a short nap after he leaves, then wake up perhaps after 30 minutes to start working around the house.  I need to do as much as I can while kids are still asleep.

My son Alvin wakes up early at around 6:30-7:00.  Then, it’s time for me to stop whatever I am doing and get myself busy with him, prepare his breakfast, feed him, change his nappy, give him a wash and dress him up.  Once  Ivana wakes up a little bit later, I set her breakfast and leave her on the table where she finish brekky and clean the table all by herself after.  Then, I wash Ivana and dress her up as well.

While the kids are playing and/or watching early television programs, I am already busy preparing packed lunch for Alvin because he doesn’t sometimes eat the food in the daycare (kindie).  He loves my pastina with lots of parmiggiano cheese and a bit of butter.  I prepare the kids’ bags and then I bring them to kindie.

After I leave the kids at kindie, I go straight to Coles and buy whatever I need for dinner.  I also go to the bank, post office, do some mystery shopping assignments if I have one scheduled on that day, then go back home and do house chores.

Doing house chores is not just doing house chores really, but, doing house chores while my computer is on.  If I need to write a report about my mystery shopping assignment or write articles, then, I have to do that in between house chores.  Being at home and working online at the same time gives me a lot of stress especially when I have deadlines to meet and I can’t neglect the house.

Most of the times, what I do is, I set the alarm clock for one hour to doing house chores, then when the alarm gets off I work in my computer and set the alarm for half an hour.  When the alarm goes again I go back to my chores and set the alarm for one hour again.  This way I use my time alternately doing chores and work.  Besides, I feel that I make use of my time wisely this way…anyway, the work in the washing machine and clothes dryer, as well as the cooking in the oven, are still going even if I seat on my online work for half an hour.

Though this sounds stressful, it is the most effective way for me to multi-task and accomplish more within a day.  I am just not sure though if this will work for others.

Advantage:  Multi-tasking, if carried out with careful planning and time management will be very effective  in making sure that everything will be accomplished in due time.  This also allows a determined mom to accomplish more in a day and allot the remaining time of the day all for herself.  Accomplishing more makes us moms very productive and gives us feeling of fulfillment, enjoyment and happiness.

Disadvantage:  This can put a mom to a very stressful situation.  There are times when we need to multi-task due to too much load of work in a day.  Moms who are not used to it but need to do it may experience stress.  Stress can cause mom to get frustrated if the task doesn’t get finished in time, thus causing more negative feelings.

The best way, whether you are a multi-tasker or not, is to be wise in alloting and scheduling time to do specific tasks.  Nothing beats a well organized person.  Multi-tasking works for me and knowing that I can be a multi-tasking mom somehow makes me proud of myself…  Cheers to all moms!