Working hours

[TheQuasimother]

When I'm working (currently on maternity leave) I'm home by 5:30 and do everything that needs to be done with my kids e.g. bath, read, clean, feed etc. She cooks a simple meal (with my instructions) that takes no more than half an hour to prepare, tidies up while we eat and washes our dishes when we're done. By 7, she's done. I'm not done as my son has just stepped in the bath but she is.

While I'm currently on maternity leave, we have been practicing this routine too as I head back to work in mid December.

Weekends - I do laundry (two loads each day), cook and clean after my own kids. She comes back from her day off never having to do a sinkful of dirty dishes as we clean up after ourselves. Even my 4 year old knows to tidy up, clean up his own little simple mess e.g. spilled drink and has other useful habits like bringing his dishes to the sink. He clears up his own toys. We have a toy organiser for it so it's easy. He does this daily anyway.

 

[Frenchy]

Our helper starts at 9am and finishes at 7pm, with 1h - 1h30 break for lunch. I like to be the one preparing breakfast and dinner, and either my husband or I will do the evening dishes (I hate it when it stays in the sink all night), bath the children... She doesn't work on saturdays unless there is a baby sitting or any urgency, so I just do the laundry, meals etc... myself.

 

[thanka2]

I think our helper's schedule is probably similar to the ones mentioned above.

We don't require her to wake up at 6 am but she is a morning person and this is about when she gets up. She only needs to be up when my son gets up which is usually around 7 am.

By 8 am we have all left the house so then she has until nearly 1 pm by herself. She does the daily cleaning in the morning which usually includes starting the laundry or just tidying. Feeding the animals. Making some beds. Watering plants. It's a pretty light work load. She is free to take as many breaks as she wants or have a rest during this time as she always completes all the tasks given her.

At around a 12:45 pm my son comes back from school and she feeds him lunch and cleans him up and then he lays down for a nap by at least 1:30-2 pm. He usually sleeps for a couple of hours. During this time she just continues with household chores and takes a rest or eats her lunch if she hasn't already eaten with my son.

At around 4 pm either my son gets up or she goes and wakes him up, feeds him an afternoon snack and plays with him for awhile.

I get home usually by 4:30 pm and then I take over while she prepares or finishes preparing dinner. I usually give my son a bath at this time. We eat dinner usually around 6:30 pm. After dinner I play with my son while she cleans up. Then she just spends the rest of the time (about another hour) just assisting me if I need it--like boiling water for tea (we drink tea in the evenings) or just helping me because of some back problems some of the physical things with my son I can't do while I'm pregnant.

Usually our helper is done with her job before 8 pm. But, the way it works out she literally gets about 5 hours a day of "down time"--because she's very on top of her work duties she ends up having a lot of time to call he family or text them or just rest. Sheesh! I wish I had 5 hours a day like that!