3 Actual Ways To Find Work Life Balance As A Mom

To listen to the blog post “3 Actionable Ways To Find Better Work Life Balance As A Single Mom” over reading it just click the play button below.

If you are a part of the single mothers club and you are trying to balance work and family it can be hard. As a single mother you have to work, maintain the house, do homework, care for the kids, and somewhere in between you still need to sleep and take care of yourself.

I get it, when are you supposed to have fun and spend time with your children? You feel like you never have time because you are always exhausted right? Even though all this may be true you need to give yourself a break. Don’t suffer from single mom’s guilt just because you cannot do it all and be it all to your children.

That is why I am going to tell you exactly how to maintain the work life balance as a single mom with these 3 tips.   And as a working single mom myself I have literally implemented and have been successful with the same tips I am going to give you. Also consider checking out my video about being a lonely single mom where I talk more about how to balance work, life, and family.  And don’t forget to subscribe to my channel.

Are you ready? Let’s get into it.

Finding Work Life Balance As A Single Mom #1 Maximize your days off

One of the first lessons that I began to understand about finding work life balance as a single mom is that it is not about the QUANTITY of time that you spend with your family. But it is more so about the quality of the time.  I get as a single mom you may have limited times off, you may have to work overtime, and you cannot just take off from work to go to every single field trip or school activity that your child wants you to go to. Instead of trying to make more time, just try to make the most of the time that you have off.

Find A Better Work Life Balance As A Single Mom ~ How I did it

One way that I found work life balance. When I used to have to work weekends and was off during the week those were the times when my son was young and not in school yet. So instead of taking him to child care, I would choose to spend time with him during the weekdays while I was already off.  Some of the places we went include the following:

• Free parks or playgrounds.
• Having your own picnic in the park.
• Going to the library as they often have a kids section and or events geared toward children. 

Now I have weekends off, and I really maximize my time with my son over the weekends. Once again it is up to you as a parent to figure this out. Do not feel like you have to take your kid to some expensive place each and every weekend. Focus on the quality time you spend together, having fun, and making your relationship stronger.  You can check out my video below to see an example of what I mean on how to create a work life balance as a single mom.

Finding A Work Life Balance As A Single Mom #2 Take A Short Vacation

I am lucky because my son’s birthday falls on July 3^rd, which is one day before the 4^th of July.  Meaning that I can always do some things special around his birthday like go to Universal Studios. As a working parent, I know you have a limited amount of paid time off.

So my point here is to try to combine a trip with a holiday you already have off.  Like Memorial Day falls on a Monday, you can leave town with your children Friday afternoon and come back on Monday, that way you do not have to take leave for work. You can check out some trips that we have taken here to mall of America and here to south beach by literally just combining the weekend with a holiday. Check out my vlog where literally for my son’s birthday we went to my grandmother’s house and went to the beach.

I know that not everyone has holidays off so you may even get creative.  Once I had to work the 4^th of July at King Dominion theme park for an outreach event.  At the time I worked with veterans and I had to set up a table for the organization I was working for.

The park was kind enough to give me two free tickets to the theme park and since I was already in the park, I did not have to pay for my own admission.  I used the ticket for my son, and that is what we did for his birthday.  And it cost me nothing!

It was a way to combine family time without having to take off from work.  You can find affordable out-of-the-box trips to go that your children and you will enjoy, that is not going to break the bank.  You can possibly even consider taking them somewhere you can drive, take a bus, or train to since their prices are cheaper AND you can just do it over a two day weekend instead of wasting the paid time off at work OR worrying about trying to take time off from work to take a vacation. Just do it on the weekends or even three days weekends you are off.

Single mothers balancing work and family # 3 Spend Time Together While At Home

Okay, so you may be saying to me that you do not have time, energy, or money to on vacation and ride around town with your child. I get it! BUT I would say never underestimate the power of sitting at home. Let me tell you a story, my son was on punishment for charging $1,100 to my Microsoft account while he was playing Xbox (see blog here).

As a result, he was placed on punishment.  No electronics and he could only watch television in the presence of my mother.  This turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  Because it forced us to have family time.  Since he was stuck in the room with me or my mom watching TV, he was forced to interact with me and play games.

Before he would spend time watching cartoons on the spare TV, playing video games, or playing on the computer.  So him being grounded made us spend time together every night. Instead of allowing your child to be in a separate room from you or be in the same room when neither of you is really present at the moment because you are too distracted by electronics.  Find time to do something positive and constructive while at home, AND make yourselves turn off any electronic devices and actually pay attention and have fun with each other as a family.

As a single mother, I know it can be daunting because you feel like you may not be doing the BEST job. I want you to realize there is no perfect mother. I do not care if she is married or a single mom, she does not exist.  As I close this post I want to leave you with an excerpt from my Single Mom’s devotional that will explain my point perfectly.

Excerpt from my book, click here to buy.  

What I am telling you is that you have to remember you and you have to remember the things that make you happy. So many single mothers feel that they have to over-compensate, because they are a single mom. They feel they have to buy, spend, get the latest gadget, work 80 hours a week, and then feel guilty because they work too much and cannot spend enough time with their kids. Or they feel guilty when they cannot get their child what they want, because they do not have enough money.

In the end, if your child is alive, clothed, fed, and loved, I feel like you are doing a pretty good job.

If you know a fellow single mom who could use this information then feel free to share this post with them.

If you liked the excerpt from above then click here to buy or if you want the first few chapters for free  Just click here or the picture below to join.