Thriving as a Single Mom: Your Guide to Success and Happiness

A Single Mother's Survival Guide

I stood in the middle of the apartment, surrounded by the aftermath of what could only be considered a whirlwind of madness upon first glance. I could barely see my floor beneath the clothes, toys, papers... trash. Panic gripped my lungs as I labored to breathe. I couldn't take it anymore. Was this it? Would I never break free from the tumultuous waves of trash and clutter? I couldn't keep up! The tides of life, as a single mom of six, were wearing me down to feeble bones. I had run out of answers, I was drowning. I knew that there was only one thing left for me to do: I had to drain the swamp.

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How to balance work, childcare and home as a single mom

In this blog post, I will teach you my step by step guide to balancing your roles and responsibilities as a working single mom, and keeper of her home.

Fast Forward
Identifying your roles and responsibilities
Timing your tasks
Batching your tasks according to deadline
Creating schedules that support you

Fast Forward

Before I tell you to do anything else, I need to be honest with you. TV and Social Media is stealing your time. You are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, guilty and hopeless because you feel like you have more responsibilities than time. I am hear to reassure you that that is not the case. You have time, you are just allocating it things that are stealing from you rather than serving you. They are stealing your peace, purpose, confidence and relationships. I am not saying any of these things are bad. TV and Social media have their place and purpose but as the saying goes, "Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing." In order to move forward in your life, you need to fast from TV and Social media until you can get your life in order.

Identify your roles and responsibilities

As single moms, all of the roles we fill feel like a collection of jobs, and they should! Because that is exactly what they are and in order to succeed in balancing them all, they need to be treated as such. Once you identify what roles are vital to you and your childrens survival, outline the responsibilies that are vital to the success of fulfilling these roles. Then delegate what you can. All of which can be delegated, no longer should take up any more of your time or energy. Focus on only what you need to get done. Then identify what needs to be done by when [time and day], write it down! This is important for the next step.

Time your tasks

This step is very important. You will need to do this step in order to create a realistic schedule that you will actually be able to keep. It's easy for me to write up a schedule for you or have you write up one for yourself, but if you don't actually know how long each task will take, you may overschedule for some things and underschedule for others, leading you chaos and disappointment. That is why I want you to spend the next 3 to 7 days timing all of your tasks by clicking the stopwatch on your phone, before each and every task (including your shower). That includes timing how long it takes to get everyones shoes on and out the door. Time everything, and record it on your phone in your notes app because I know how easy it is to lose a notebook or planner.

Batch your tasks

Now that you know what tasks need to be done and how long they take, you need to establish in your schedule the optimal time for each task to be completed in order to create an efficient schedule that supports you and your family. Once you have established what time each task needs to be completed, it is then time for you to batch tasks according to similar time frames. Please include a 5 to 10 minute bathroom break within each batch. After you have completed this step, you can move on to the next.

Scheduling your responsibilities

When creating a schedule, you need to create timeblocks in your day. I recommend blocks of 2 to 3hrs within each block. In each block, assign your batched tasks, listing each task in accordance of priority. I encourage you to always prioritize what is most important over what is urgent. Be mindful to schedule time margins of 5 to 10 minutes within each block for bathroom breaks or last minute problems. Set timers for all of your timeblocks with notes in it listing what needs to be done. Some phones even have an option where an Ai voice can read out what is written with each timer. Leave post it notes around your house with lists of things that need to be completed before you exit each room. By doing these things, you ingrain in your brain what needs to be done by when, and in time, it will become second nature.

Now that you have your plan in place it is time to actually commit to it. You can read and plan all you want (I get it, it's satisfying), but it gets us no where when we don't actually commit to putting it in place. It's going to be hard at first, and depending on your mindset, it is going to feel impossible but it is going to take time to make consistent changes, especially with children involved. If you persist to resist the temptation to quit, you will succeed and grow in the self-confidence that will catapult you into growing and overcoming in other challenging areas of your life.

Download this guided worksheet to help you create the perfect schedule and routines for your family:

★From Floundering To Floating★

Author K.U. Walsh

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About

About the Author

K.U. Walsh is a Christian Authur-Illustrator based in the PNW. She has a passion for empowering single mothers, teenage girls and children to overcome the limitations that stand in the way of them becoming the culture impacting giants they were created to be. As a survivor of domestic abuse, it is K.U. Walsh's desire to equip women and children with the power of knowledge in order to empower them to break free from the mental & emotional strongholds that bind. As a single mother herself, she knows all too well about the struggles that single mothers face. With this website, it is her goal to provide resources and a community for single mothers to go from striving to thriving as they, too, navigate working single motherhood.