Commuting Makes up Your Day and is a regular part of most working parents’ days.
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When Commuting Makes up Your Day
For me, I commute about 45 minutes per direction per day. I know there are others who commute 1.5 hours or more per direction.
In the ideal world everyone would live 2 blocks from work and commuting would never be an issue.
Reality is it’s not easy for everyone to live near their place of work. We have made the decision to live near my husband’s work.
His schedule allows him to pick up the kids after work while I am heading home.
My schedule lets me drop the kids off at daycare and school before heading into work. This is what works for us.
What does this mean for our Family?
Commuting turns my 8 hour work day into me being out of the house from 7:30am until almost 6pm .
What does this mean for our family? I need to become more organized.
Yes this is a work in progress.
I am much better at figuring out what works and what doesn’t work for us since starting this position 7 months ago.
traffic on a highway by night
A Routine makes it Work
We have found a morning routine that works in the morning for my husband and I that includes both of us working together to get everyone out the door.
He knows it takes me a few more minutes to get ready so he starts getting himself ready and gives the baby a diaper change before getting lunch ready for himself and packaging a lunch for our daughter.
Once I’m ready I get our daughter up and get both kids dressed and my daughters’ hair done.
If my boys are with us, my husband will get them breakfast and pack their lunches for me if needed.
Together we work on getting everyone’s outside stuff on and getting everyone (and all of their stuff) out the door.
Off he heads to work and I do daycare/school drop off and hit the road to work.
After Work – What’s Next
After Commuting Makes up Your Day and work is over and he’s the one doing daycare or school pickup and I’m heading home. He checks the mail and gets everyone inside before I am home.
The dog has been let out and everyone is out of their inside stuff.
Now he’s moving into the kitchen to start whatever I need for supper or load the dishwasher.
It’s not much longer and I’m coming in through the door being welcomed by all our children wanting supper.
Prepare for Tomorrow
I work to pre-plan meals more so that my husband can have it started when he gets home, or it won’t take long to get it ready once I am home.
I also use my commuting time to my advantage. It is my time as needed.
Yes I must concentrate on driving, but I can listen to my music as loud as I want.
I also made sure to get myself a good hands free ear clip for my phone so that I can do any calls I need to get done without kids screaming in the background.
Often a good friend and I spend my drive home chatting about what’s been going on recently as it’s the one time we know we will be able to chat uninterrupted.
Once I’m home my mind has been cleared of work and I’m ready to jump into family again.
What do you in the car? Listen to music, enjoy the peace, talk (handsfree) on the phone?
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