When you are a mom, you are busy. Full stop. Whether you are a professional parent who has a career outside the home, a part-time employee, or a stay-at-home mom, you are a full-time mom no matter what. And that simple word - mom - is loaded with so much responsibility.

Outsource Cleaning

If there is one thing that everyone appreciates, it is a clean home. You may even enjoy cleaning it. There is a cathartic feeling that comes from scrubbing away dirt and tidying up rooms. When you have to do it day in and day out, it becomes a struggle and is almost impossible to keep up with.

Consider your busiest weeks. You work, the kids need transportation to and from school, you coordinate their afterschool activities and team snacks, and then there is homework and dinner and bedtime, and the list never ends. The weekends keep getting busier. All of a sudden, you look at your home. It is a mess. Where do you even start?

Take a breath and hire a home cleaner. You need help, and you should ask for it. Keeping up with cleaning is almost impossible when you are never home. When you are home, do you really want to push a vacuum around when it would be so much more fun to play with your kids? Probably not. Opt for a weekly cleaning service to take care of everything that builds up over the week. You can also add a deep cleaning to get into those time-consuming spring cleaning jobs that never seem to get done. Either way, when you hire a cleaning service, you will have a clean home and more time to spend with the people you love.

Talk with Your Partner

Parenting with another person should be the easiest way to be a mom, but sometimes that is not the case. No matter where your parenting responsibilities lie, you can always make changes.

Sit down with your partner with a pen and paper or an open laptop. Have a real discussion about your needs and honor theirs as well. Use “I” statements and messages to convey your wants and needs. Talk about the time you have in your day to take care of your children, work responsibilities, and all of the extra invisible work that women usually take on. Be respectful of one another’s alone or free time and make a list of responsibilities together.

Do your best to help one another and avoid the instinct to keep track of who does more work. Try to create an equal household where sometimes one partner does more and at other times the workload leans in the other direction. Nothing is perfect, that includes parenting and relationships. When you keep an open line of communication and work for the betterment of your family, things tend to work out.

Watch this video for a perspective on how to divide household chores.

Life is filled with moments where you need to work, be a partner, and be a mom. You need time for yourself, too. While you cannot make more time, you can find ways to balance your workload by hiring help and talking with your partner. Once you make some changes, you will be able to relax and make memories with your family.