Five Ways to Be a More Efficient Working Mom

A 2023 NPR article entitled “Women are earning more money. But they are still picking up a heavier load at home” explores data from the Pew Research Center regarding the division of labor in the home by gender, income, and political leanings. As the title suggests, even when husbands and wives earn within 40% to 60% of each other, women are spending double the amount of time on housework than their husbands and almost two hours more a week on caregiving, including tending to their children. As a mother of three teens in high school (17-year-old senior, 15-year-old sophomore, and 14-year-old freshman), as well as a lawyer practicing criminal defense and family law in the suburbs of Chicago, I knew I was part of that statistic. When my children were younger, I had difficulty balancing my need for perfectionism in our home and the mom guilt for failing to achieve it. As they grew, I learned to delegate because there is simply not enough time in the day. I leaned on my tribe to help me fill in the gaps of domestic life. Your tribe can consist of family, friends, neighbors, teammate parents, and other members of your community. Over the years, I have found the following tips and tricks to help me be more efficient for my second shift.

#1: The POPLIN Laundry App

What started as a Mother’s Day gift a few years ago became a lifesaver. There is an app that you can put your dirty clothes outside the door of your house, and a washer returns the clothes in a day or two laundered and folded. Unfortunately, the service simply returns it back to your doorstep so the struggle of putting everything away is still there. You can be specific regarding how you want things washed and/or dried. The price is about $1/pound depending on how fast you would like the service done. On average for my family of 5, we spend approximately $100 a week.

#2: Buy an Extra Uniform

Speaking of laundry, sometimes the ball games are so close together that you can’t use the Laundry App. If your child is playing on a sports team that you are ordering a uniform for, I recommend ordering at least one extra jersey/uniform, including (especially) socks. This tip is extremely useful for those tournaments with multiple games spread out the entire weekend. This way when you get home super late from the field/court, you won’t have to rush to wash it for the following morning. I would also recommend buying each kid one additional P.E. uniform. When they hand you the crumpled up stinky one from the bottom of their bookbag on Monday morning, you can exchange it for a clean one and have time to throw it in the bag for your Poplin washer.

#3: Grocery Pick-Up or Delivery

Most major grocery stores have an app that will allow you to place an order for pick up so you don’t have to waste time going into the store. Set up auto-shipments for household paper products such as paper towels and toilet paper on Amazon. There are even apps, such as Shipt, that will deliver those grocery items straight to your door. This does require you to take inventory of your current items and plan out your meals and/or snacks. As I notice we are out of items, I will add them to the virtual cart even if I am not ready to check out. While you do pay extra for the same groceries to be delivered, you may actually spend less because you are not putting extra items (that candle that smells amazing is not a need) into your cart.

#4: Meal Plan

What is for dinner? Every day at approximately 3:00 p.m. (this is what time my kids get home from school) I receive a call or text from each of my children asking that same question. Meal planning is essential if you are not home right when the kids get home. I have prepared some easy recipes in the morning before school, so they simply need to put a pan in the oven. Crockpot or pressure cooker recipes became a staple. Repurposing any leftovers so that you have two meals instead of one is very helpful. I am also a fan of baking two packages of chicken breasts on Sunday and slicing the chicken up for the week. Because of their schedules, there are days when everyone must fend for themselves. My daughter loves making her own chipotle style bowl with the chicken by microwaving a rice pouch, adding shredded lettuce from a bag, salsa from a jar, a scoop of sour cream, and/or guacamole. My son likes to take the chicken and put it in a tortilla with cheese for a quesadilla. I like throwing the chicken into a salad or sometimes on bread or a bagel for a sandwich. If we are all home at the same time for dinner but short on cooking time, I love having breakfast for dinner. Why is cereal acceptable at 6:00 a.m. but not 6:00 p.m.? I have found that scrambled eggs and bacon taste delicious in the evening as well as in the morning too. Once I shifted my focus on enjoying our time around the table together, what was on the table didn’t seem to matter as much.

#5: Kids’ Birthday Parties

There was a point when my kids were in elementary school that I felt like I was at a trampoline or inflatable jump place every weekend for one of their classmate’s birthday parties. In my home office, I had a stack of generic yellow birthday cards and gift cards from Target that were my go-to birthday gifts, so I wasn’t running to the store before the party. I kept a bag of the special jump place socks in my trunk, so we did not forget them at home. I also tried to coordinate with the other moms from class to share in the transportation when the kids were old enough to be dropped off. I would sign the waiver as soon as it was sent so it would not be buried in my inbox. My kids have summer birthdays, and we had a pool in our backyard, so we hosted all their parties at our home. I hired a certified lifeguard that I found on a Facebook group of area moms so I could run around and know that the kids were safe. After I forgot to hand them out to guests one year, I decided to stop handing out goody bags to guests. In ten years, only one child asked if he was receiving one. I told him no but enjoy the cake. If you are feeling so inclined then I would recommend keeping it simple, such as personalized cookies. Speaking of cookies and all baked goods, find a baker on one of those local mom’s groups. I used to think I had to make the baked goods from scratch for it to be special for my kids. That belief put a lot of pressure on me that wasn’t needed. My kids were oblivious to who made the cake, they just wanted happy memories. A stressed-out mom isn’t one of those.

At the end of each day, you may feel exhausted from trying to balance the demands of your career and your responsibilities at home. Give yourself grace and accept the outside assistance in the ways of apps and people.

Nicole Sartori is a partner with McAdams & Sartori, LLC, located in Yorkville, Illinois.