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One of the best ways to cope with working and family life is to get your family’s time management under control. Create a schedule for the entire family and stick to it. Choose a method that works well for your family. There are many methods to choose from. Here are a few methods to give you an idea of what others do to cope with working and a family.

One method of staying organized and on schedule that works well for many families is to purchase a calendar with large boxes for writing. As soon as you, your partner, or children find out about an appointment, play date, meeting, or other obligation that will take time, write it down on the calendar so you can see if there are other obligations on that day.

Another method, using the calendar with the large boxes, is to color code your calendar. Give each family member a different color and highlight their activities with that color. This will allow anyone in the family to see when they have going on each day at a glance. Don’t forget to leave some time open on the calendar for unexpected appointments as well as time to spend together as a family at home.

Give each family member chores to do that will allow you more free time to spend with the family as a whole. There’s no reason why one person should have to do everything, asking each person to help will make you less stressed and more fun to be with.

If they balk at doing chores, you may want to offer them something in return. Why not suggest that if everyone’s chores are done the family play a board game or rent a movie everyone has wanted to see. This may encourage them to do their chores especially if they think they’ll actually get to have some fun with Mom and Dad as a reward.

Don’t be afraid to get help from outside of the family if you really need it. Maybe your family has very young children that can’t do chores. You can either hire a high school student to keep your children occupied while you do housework, or you can hire someone to come in and help out with housework once in a while. You can also ask family members like Grandma or an Aunt to come by to help out. They’ll have the added benefit of spending time with the little ones while you’re busy.

Knowing what your priorities are can also help you cope with being a working mom.

* You know that your relationship with your spouse is important since you’ve made a covenant to love one another through sickness and health, until death do you part. You know that relationship should have priority over others.
* Your children are also a responsibility because you decided to bring them into the world. It is one of your joys is to care for your children and watch them grow up.
* Family relationships with your parents, brothers, sisters, or grandparents may also be important to you, especially if your parents or grandparents are older and need assistance. Don’t try to take on that responsibility on your own if your life is already too full. Talk about hiring someone to come and care for your parents if you’re not able to do it.
* Work is also a priority that you need to consider. Your work may take you away from home for eight or more hours a day. Remember to keep your work in perspective, however. If your work is taking you away from home for longer than you’d like or is putting undue stress on you that you can’t bear, don’t be afraid to consider changing jobs or asking for concessions that will allow you to work from home or to reduce the number of hours you work.
* Community service or religious activities might also be important to you. If that’s the case, you’ll want to include these activities on your schedule.
* Sports or other extracurricular activities that you, your spouse, or children are involved in may also be a priority. These may end up taking up a lot of your time. Remember to keep these activities in balance along with the other things that your family is involved in.

Slow down. Don’t try to cram too much into your schedule. Try to leave some time where there’s nothing scheduled for a day. Not only will this give you a chance to reconnect as a family, it will also give your entire family much-needed down time to rest, recuperate, and refresh.

Avoid procrastination. If you know something needs to be done, don’t put it off. This will just put added stress and pressure on you. It may also take you away from something that is more important later on because it can’t be avoided any longer.

Be sure to take care of yourself even if you think it’s not possible. If you’re not rested and healthy everything and everyone in your life will suffer. You can’t take care of your duties around your home, your relationships with your family will suffer, and you won’t give your best effort at work. Getting plenty of sleep, rest, and eating a healthy diet can do wonders to helping you cope with trying to balance work and family life.

Don’t be afraid to say “no.” It’s a valid word in the dictionary and should be a part of every working mother’s vocabulary. Don’t take on another task if you’re already spending too much time away from your growing children. Don’t miss another football game or other sporting event that your child plays in because you’re too busy to get away from the office.

You can also say “no” to your spouse and your children. If they want to join another extracurricular activity, tell them “no.” They may not be happy with your decision, but you can only do so many things at a time. Of course, how you say ‘no’ can make a huge difference in how they accept the answer. Be kind but firm and they’ll handle the answer much better.

Remember that you have the choice of how you spend your time. Work and family life are not going to balance miraculously on their own. You and your family will need to sit down and decide what is important to you as a family. You’ll need to make the decisions as a family as to how much you want to do together or as individuals that will keep you away from home.

It also helps to cope with being a working mom if you realize that some imbalance may creep into your family’s schedule at some point. When this happens it’s important to recognize that things are out of balance and do whatever you can to bring them back into balance again as a family. Everyone will be affected, so everyone has a say in keeping the balancing act going.

Don’t put the added pressure on yourself by insisting that all of your meals have to be homemade. There’s nothing wrong with serving convenience foods to your family as long as it’s not an every day occurrence. There’s also nothing wrong with order pizza for delivery on occasion or stopping on the way home for take out. Do what you can to make cooking easier for you and still something the family will enjoy.

Insist on having a minimum of one “date” nights with your spouse each month. If you can manage more than one, that would be great, but one would be a minimum. Taking this time for just the two of you is vital to keeping your marriage strong. It gives you the opportunity to reconnect with one another, discuss possible changes that will affect your family, and to make plans without being interrupted by the children. More importantly, having a date night allows you to spend quality and quantity time with the person you’ve chosen to share the rest of your life with.