Five Strategies Stay-At-Home Moms can Use to Decrease Stress

by Chris Le Roy

All around the globe, whether you are in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the United States, the role that Stay-At-Home moms play is well under valued and often even their own partners do not recognize the stress they come under in running a household.

However, as a stay-at-home mom you need to consider your role in the home as a professional position on an equal footing such as a Nanny or housekeeper and treat it in such a way. If you do, you will find it much easier to deal with the challengers and stress of the daily chores.

Strategy 1 - Plan Your Day and Week

If you worked in an office, you boss would expect you to plan the work that you would be doing on a day-to-day basis and in the upcoming week, so why is it any different in the household for Stay-At-Home moms. Well quite simply it is not. As a stay-at-home mom you know the work that has to be done, why not schedule it just like a job.

The best way to do that is to purchase a full size A4 diary from the local news agency. Make sure the diary has a time schedule in half an hour intervals, next simply write down and allocate a length of time for the tasks you need to get done during the day.

This is a great device for Stay-At-Home moms as it really makes you focus on the tasks you need to get done and it also shows you how much you have actually accomplished in the day. Just knowing what you have accomplished will help you with your stress levels.

Make sure though that as you are planning your day and week that you include an appropriate amount of travel time to pickup and drop the kids off. Also make sure you schedule in your day some YOU time, to do things like meet with friends and do some meditation but more about that shortly.

Strategy 2 - Plan Your Meals In Advance

One of the greatest challenges I see stay-at-home moms face is getting the evening meal ready. I often see stay-at-home moms rushing to the shop at about 4 pm in the afternoon trying to get the groceries for the evening meal with the children screaming and yelling in tow. Stop It, Its Crazy!

Plan your meals in advance ... do not leave it till the last minute. Whilst planning your day and week, make sure you include a period for planning the daily meals. Make sure you have everything ready to go each day. There are now so many websites where you can get really fantastic recipes that you can use to make your meals interesting and the preparation does not have to take that long.

Also when you are planning your weekly meals, make sure that you document them in your diary each day. This will ensure that you will not forget what meal you allocated to each day and also make sure you allocate enough time to cook the meal. Most modern recipes include information on how long the preparation time takes and how long it will take to cook.