Lisa blogs at Mummascribbles, and lives in Hertfordshire with her partner, her toddler Zach, and a cat. This is a day in her life…
5.45am
The dreaded alarm goes off. Most of the time I tend to wake up before the alarm and lay there waiting for it to go off, and even then I still snooze it for a couple of minutes! Sometimes Zach has woken up and so I’m awake already. Sometimes I make it all the way through to the alarm! If Zach is asleep, I creep downstairs, have a shower, make my much needed morning cup of tea and sneak back upstairs again. If Zach is awake, I have to leave behind the protests of Zach downstairs ‘swell and leave him with a sleepy daddy.
6.05 – 6.45am ish
I return back upstairs, sneakily if Zach is still asleep and the other half goes down for his shower. If Zach is awake, I have to deal with the tears of him wanting to go downstairs with daddy and then try and get ready with him buzzing around, requesting Wheels on the bus and the space shuttle launch on Youtube a million times, wanting to play with my make-up, wanting to look in my mug to see if the tea has all gone and crying when I put the hairdryer on.
If Zach is still asleep, I get myself ready very quietly! I put my make up on in peace and I spend the time I’m drinking my tea quickly catching up on Facebook, Twitter and my emails.
Zach entertaining himself in the morning
6.50am
We’ve all gone downstairs and we are trying to get Zach ready. Sometimes we have success, sometimes, if I see that it’s going to be a bigger battle than I can handle at that time, he stays in his pj’s (this is only on days he goes to my mum, although I did send him to nursery in his pj’s this morning for Children in Need!).
6.55am
On mum days – I run around collecting everything we need for the day. Mondays are particularly hectic as there’s so much extra stuff to take – milk, food, wipes, clothes, fruit, snacks, breakfast. I usually always forget at least one thing!
On nursery days – I actually have a bit more time so we usually spend 10-15 minutes together after the other half has left– it usually involves him pulling a bunch of toys out and leaving them there for the day or sometimes it can be taken up with trying to get him to brush his teeth.
7.00am
On mum days only – we get in the car and leave the house. At the moment, it’s dark, cold, wet, the windscreen is steamed up by the time I get round the corner so I have to pull over and wait for it to clear and I have to pump the heating out to keep us warm. Come back summer! The drive to mum’s takes about 15 minutes. For the most part it’s fine but I tend to get stuck in traffic somewhere along the line, usually in the same places each time. Mum’s road gets really busy with a backlog of traffic so I always call ahead (I have Bluetooth in the car) and ask her if I need to divert the quieter way round.
7.20am
On mum days – we arrive at mum’s upon where I have to unload everything on her (again on Monday’s there is far more stuff including the buggy which she keeps until Friday pick up), and then get Zach out and into the house. He has to stop on the way to investigate nannie’s car, and then again to try and disable the burglar alarm with the button that’s on mum’s key’s dangling from the lock. He then has to let the dogs out (unless I’m wearing tights in which case they remain out of reach), and either turn the tv or radio on. I brief mum about the previous night, and what’s in the bag and then say my goodbyes to go and join the line of traffic.
On nursery day’s – we leave the house, drive up the road to nursery, park the car, go into nursery, brief the girls, dash out before he can get upset and jump back in the car to drive back home. Sounds easy right? It is a bit but the frustrating part is that it takes me 5 minutes to get to nursery and 20 minutes to get back home again because of the traffic! So I have to drop him off at 7.30 to make sure I get back in time to catch my train!
7.50am
On mum days – I arrive at my sister’s house where I park on Mon, Weds & Fri. She has a drive and she lives 5 minutes from the central line and she offered me the use of her drive when I first went back to work. Thanks sis J I dash round to the train station and jump on the first train that comes along.
On nursery days – It’s about this time, or slightly after, that I arrive back at home. I park the car and walk round to the station to catch the 8.07 train. Sometimes it’s on time, sometimes it’s late, sometimes it’s cancelled.
My journey in to work varies. On mum days, I catch two tube trains before arriving at my destination. This is a lovely easy journey most of the time. On nursery days I catch the overground train then two tube trains. Slightly more panicked as this route should get me into the office dead on 9am – if there is even the slightest delay like there was this morning then I’m late!
8.30/9.00am– 4.30/5.00pm
Depending on which day it is depends on what time I get in and what time I leave. My day at work is fairly chillaxed. It’s a desk job for the most part – just an interesting one J I only take a half an hour lunch and most of the time I eat at my desk, taking a quick 10 minute stroll in the Southbank to get some fresh air.
4.30pm
On nursery days – I dash out of the office in the hope that I’ll make the right connections and catch the 5.09pm train. If I miss this one, the traffic is so much worse when I have to go back to nursery. Catching this train involves walking very fast, the trains being on the platform waiting for me and running up escalators. If I miss it, I have a 15 minute or so wait for the next one.
5pm
On mum days – I dash out of the office to catch the tube on the slightly easier route home. I tend to get back to my sister’s to get the car at about 5.45 if the journey has been ok. Last night I got back there at 6 – very late!
6pm
On mum days – I’m driving back to my mum’s to pick up my little munchkin. It’s about a ten minute drive in good traffic but the roundabout at the end of her road is always so busy and stressful – I’m surprised my car hasn’t been bumped yet – so sometimes it takes a little longer. I tend to get to mum’s by about 6.10 though. I get the lowdown on his day and then get us in the car (battled is more like it) and he is whining on route home, even with promises of daddy at the other end along with the promise that he can check if the cat has done a poo!
On nursery days – I’ve driven up to nursery and have collected my boy. I have battled to get him in the car and he is currently whining on route home.
6.30pm
We are home from wherever we have been. Sometimes daddy is home, sometimes he’s still on route. We have 10-15 minutes of play and then it’s time for a bath. If he’s not having a bath then we play a little longer before it’s pj’s and milk time.
7 – 7.30pm
Bedtime routine. He’s in his pj’s, with his beaker of milk and a couple of bedtime stories up in his room. We put him down to bed and tend to just leave him to fall asleep. Just recently he’s got a bit clingy/unwell and he asks us to stay and stroke his hand!
8pm
We tend to be downstairs by now, watching him fall asleep via the monitor. Sometime between this time and 9pm we do our dinner. Sometimes we then have time for an hour long programme, sometimes it’s got to be a short one!
10.30ish
We go to bed and get ready to do it all again the next day!
So there we have it. There is a day in the life of a full time working mummy with a toddler. In amongst all of this, the cat and the fish do get fed and mummy and daddy might be able to muster up a conversation or two!
I live for the weekends!
Lisa is taking part in my #DayInTheLife project, a series of posts where people write about their typical day. If you would like to take part, please fill in the form on my blog post here.
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