All working moms face different individual challenges while trying to balance work and family at the same time. Both work and motherhood responsibilities demand maximum attention and time from the same person, which is often difficult to achieve without help in one way or another. It would therefore help to make the lives of working moms easier and happier.
Working moms secretly want weekend off days, an organizer for appointments , extended business hours, extended maternity leave, in-home personal care services, time-saving short cuts, daycare drop-off/pick ups at work, and extended business hours.
Important Things Working Moms Love and Need
1. Weekday off Days
Working moms desperately needs off days on weekdays. There are many tasks both personal and family-related that a mom needs to personally take care of that need a weekday and not a weekend. However, most employers offer their employees off days on weekends only.
Yet doctors’ appointments, school appointments, and support groups’ meetings among others. So many appointments such as support groups, postnatal yoga, library story-time, and swim lessons etc are all scheduled during the day on a weekday.
It would be great for working moms, if weekdays were available as off days. It would be so beneficial if this schedule was flexible such that one can have a day off one weekday in a certain week and work on the weekend instead.
Read: How Working Moms can Create Me Time
2. Appointments Organizers
Remembering to make and honor appointments is a very elusive thing for most working moms. Many struggle with remembering appointments, making important calls, and even picking up important stuff. One can hence miss out on the most critical appointments.
Also it is difficult keeping track of things that need to be done. You will only remember something when it’s too late and has to rush or simply miss it.
There are many great organization apps that handles not only reminders but scheduling and automation of some tasks as well such as bill payments among others. Such an option would greatly improve the lives of working moms.
Such organizers will assist working moms with scheduling, making appointments such as doctor appointments, and integrating reminders for related tasks such as make calls, pick up/buy items, and scheduling among others.
It is even better if it is friendly shareable organizer app to simply share with other family members what they need to do on these tasks. While you are doing the bulk of the work, there are those tasks under your organization lists that you assign maybe to your partner or nanny.
Read: Time Management Tips for Working Moms
3. Extended Business Hours
The normal business hours that most businesses follow are inconvenient and inflexible for working moms. Working moms need businesses and service providers that run on extended hours across say from 6.am to 9.am. Without it one can easily miss out on specific appointments and meetings that are only held at a certain time on a weekday.
A business running on usual business hours locks out the working mom from getting the services they need. Once only has the option of reporting to the office late or leave early just to be in time for the other engagements.
Extended business hours allows working moms for instance to report at 6.am and leave at 2 pm, which gives them enough time to handle things such as appointments. They can also flexibly handle the rush hour, sick time for doctor appointments, and take kids out of school for appointments among other things.
Read: How to Make and Keep Mom Friends
4. Extended 6 Months Maternity Leave
The issue of maternity leave is very sensitive and different people have different opinions. What is generally agreed on is that mothers indeed need adequate time to recover both physically and emotionally from delivery as well as have enough time for bonding and taking care of the baby.
However, what is still a matter of contention is how much time is enough time. The law has set a minimum of 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, but some companies are gracious enough to offer their employees more than this.
However, most women would gladly appreciate it if they could get at least 6 months of paid leave. It has actually been one of the working moms’ pain points of the inadequacy of the current maternity leave. A baby at three months is too small for most moms to leave behind, especially at the daycare. Further, not all moms have the privilege of having family and friends around willing to babysit a 3-month-old baby as the mom returns to work.
At 6 months however the baby is older, has started solid food, and can do well and adjust to the daycare arrangement. As such many working moms would secretly love to have an extended 6 months maternity leave option.
Read: How to Spend your Maternity Leave
5. In-Home Personal Care Service
Running a full-time/part-time job or business is draining so self-care is very important for working moms. Without a doubt self-care is very critical to achieve the right mental and physical health to handle these demands.
Sadly most times women don’t get enough time to take care of themselves. It leaves them strained and fatigue, which further affects their performance and productivity.
Working moms desperately needs a more customized personal care solution that fits into the busy schedule. An in-home care service is very popular as it helps relieve the pressure of work and motherhood, at their own convenient time and comfort of their home.
It includes services such as nails, wax, massage hair care, closet organizer, personal shopper, and other professional care services among others. Someone to get you to sit down, light a candle, play soft music, help you to clear your mind, meditate, & relax are all things that make the lives of working moms easier.
Read: How to Create a Self-care Plan
7. Time Saving Shortcuts
The one thing that working moms never get enough of is time. Working moms struggle to accomplish so many in so little time. There are so many things to do in one day and so little time to do them. There are so many mundane and complex tasks too that one has to rush to accomplish.
Since much of the day is spent working, the rest of mom and family duties have to scramble for the remainder of the evening before bedtime. It is tougher when you have no help to help with house chores. But even so, there are those tasks that the mom must do herself.
Therefore many working moms love time-saving shortcuts that allow them to have the tasks done and still have time for family and themselves at the end of the day. It is more pleasurable to spend the evening quietly with family and kids than rushing around to finish off tasks before retiring to bed.
Time-saving shortcuts such as meal delivery service, grocery delivery, house cleaner, lawn person, etc. greatly help working moms do the most optimum number of tasks in the least amount of time possible.
Others include automating some tasks, doing some tasks online rather than an actual visit, and solutions that would help a working mom achieve some home tasks while at work.
Read: Time Management Tips
8. Day Care at Work Place
Daycare is crucial for working moms but it takes the longest time;which means they have lesser and lesser time for other things. The the time trade-off is not pleasant at all and working moms do need daycare at work.
with a daycare at the workplace, you simply drop off the child as you enter the office; no time wasted and you pick them up later as you leave. It makes the lives of working moms easier by saving on time and convenience.
What’s even better, you can pop in during breaks and lunch to see how they are faring, which is super helpful to moms who are still breastfeeding.
Also working moms do need daycare centers to offer affordable pick up and drop off services . It is done at home or another convenient designated location, say a mall, which even allows the mom to pick the baby up and run other errands as well.
