Working When You Have a Toddler and Baby

Working When You Have a Toddler and Baby

How can you work when you have both a toddler and a baby to look after? We’ve collaborated with Lucinda from Nurturing Mums to give you advice on how to get through working as a mum to two (or more)!

Being a working parent to two children under 3 is often a juggling act… here are my tips to finding some sort of calm in the chaos…

Get in the zone

If like me, you often work from home, if you’re just sat at your kitchen table, it can be very tempting to procrastinate: tidy up, put the washing on etc etc. If you have a desk or designated work zone and can either shut the door or simply focus at a desk, productivity levels go up.

Is it all play, no work, or all work and no play?

Sometimes it feels really hard to get the balance right. Occasionally it is unavoidable but being on your phone with the little ones around tends to leave us feeling more stressed. Stressed that you’re neither parenting nor working “properly”. Designating power hours to work – whether that’s during naptime or when the baby is in bed or childcare just focus your mind. No housework, admin or social media – just a solid hour of work – it’s amazing what you can achieve and how effectively you can work without distraction… the pay off is then feeling zero guilt just getting on with parenting afterwards.

If it can be done when they’re awake – don’t do it when they’re asleep

I think this is another great way to free up more work time. Putting on the washing etc can be done when your little ones are up and/or around. That important email response can’t. This simple rule can help you compartmentalise your time and help you be more efficient.

Divide and conquer

Rely on your partner or the ones around you as much as you can. Just because you’ve always done a household job: ordering the food shop, the washing etc. handing that over to your partner so you have more time to focus on work / life is no bad thing. Divide and conquer is the way forward.

Plan

Every Sunday night I sit down and plan my week. I make an achievable list of “must dos” and a whole other long list of “to dos”… it helps focus my mind and start the week on the right foot, ready for the juggle to begin!

Delegate

I have absolutely no difficulty in admitting that we have a cleaner, a part-time pa, and general help around the house. When you run your own business, you are everything… CEO and dogsbody… so delegating when and where you can allows you to grow your business and thrive.

Childcare

My older child really enjoys nursery, but with school holidays and the baby on the move, childcare becomes essential. Find someone or somewhere you trust and don’t feel guilty for not being with your child 24/7 – the amount they learn from external influences is just wonderful to see. I often try and carve out time for one child at a time too – they feel special and it feels like such a treat for you and them to get proper quality time one on one!

Lucinda Hutton runs Nurturing Mums which provides postnatal courses for new mums in London. Creating a space for mums to get to know other local mums and hear from experts each week on sleep, weaning, first aid and baby development. Find out about next terms courses and all things postnatal on Facebook or Instagram

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