Jennifer, or Dinomama as she is also known, is a spirited extrovert full-time-working mom with a slow-to-adapt semi-extrovert, hardworking loving husband and a highly spirited extrovert independent 6 year old boy. She blogs about all this excitement in her blog We are the DinoFamily.
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Life was so much simpler and easier when there were only the two of us. When DinoEgg came into our life 6 years ago we have to change our lifestyle and schedule our time around him. As full time working parents we try to spend quality time with him, provide him with the best of everything and give him the opportunity to learn and grow without much restrictions. However there is only so much that we, as the parents can do alone, so sometimes we rely on other sources for help. In this post, I’ll be sharing what works for our family.
1. Family support
We are lucky that we are staying in the same neighbourhood as my mum and brother. On days that we are unable to fetch DinoEgg from school before 7pm, they are only a phone call away. My mum is more then willing to take care of him on days when the childcare centre is closed for teachers’ workshop or some other events.
2. Child Care Centre
We were able to find one that is near my mum’s which have good and responsible teachers and provides good curriculum. The school even provides Chinese calligraphy, Montessori, computer and abacus classes at no additional fees.
3. A good Part-time Cleaner
5 years ago we decided to engage an auntie to do some cleaning and ironing during weekends. Seriously, as much as I like to have a clean house I always procrastinate doing the chores, especially the ironing. After 2 aunties we managed to find the perfect one and Mdm Koh has been cleaning our house weekly since then. My requirements are very minimal; vacuum, mop, wash toilets and ironing but she is very hardworking and capable and she goes all out to clean window grills, windows, door frames, gate, kitchen top, stove, sink etc.
4. Routine
We started having routines for DinoEgg when he was a 4-month-old baby with a milk feed and bedtime routine which enables him to sleep through the night. Gradually we added more routines for different parts of the day and some specific ones for weekends. A new one we created earlier this year is the “reach-home routine”. This routine simply requires him to bring his school bag into his room, unpack the school uniform and wet towel into the laundry basket, pass any letters or spelling book to us. Well-formed routines mean less work for this mummy.
5. Independence
One thing that we are grateful for sending DinoEgg to the childcare centre at the age of 1 year old is that he has learnt to be independent at a young age. He started bathing himself at 3 years old, of course with me supervising at that time, and now he will spend a full 10mins in the shower before I go in and urge him to hurry up *and dun waste the water!*. He is eager to learn things and is willing to help us to do things sometimes even without being asked, like the time when he suddenly started washing his plate and utensils after meals and when I casually asked him to fold his own clothes and he gladly did so with much enthusiasm.
6. Clear up the clutter promptly
There are only 3 of us staying in the house so basically every one chips in to ensure that the house is neat and tidy. I have a specific area where I will dump my bags or shopping loots the minute I enter the house but the pile will be cleared away by every Saturday. Groceries are packed away either into the fridge, cupboards or store room immediately. We usually do a monthly declutter exercise so we do not have many things that are stuffed into the storeroom or at some corners of the house.
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Do you have tips you’d like to share? If you have, link up here for this series of Tips for Moms – by Moms, and stay tuned for more tips from other Singapore Mom Bloggers!
Tomorrow, we have Jolin who will share her tips on how she still manages to plan fun-filled weekends as a full-time-working mom.
Check out Winnie’s Home-learning tips for busy full-time-working moms shared yesterday!
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