How To Survive Motherhood

As a mother who works from home and takes care of my children all by myself at home every single day, many friends and followers have come to ask me on how I can survive.  Survive, you say? Yup. Because practically, every day, is, war. Hahah! But you see, you can sort of win the war if you know how the battle (with kids) work. And when it comes to kids, the key is to simply make sure they are happy. So here are some tips on how to survive a day with kids at home without having to lose all your hair. (PS: I have a 3 year old toddler and 5 months old baby girl, so all my tips are based on my own experiences with them which might work or not work with yours. Nevertheless, just wanted to share!).

• First things first; wake up before they do. Waking up early before your kids do has soooo many benefits, including having a quality me-time to sort of just get yourself together (body and mind). You get to pray, do some stretching, check your emails and messages, eat your breakfast comfortably, shower (if you like early morning baths), tidy up the house, and start preparing food for your kids. If you wake up at the same time with your child, you'll feel very jumbled up and end up feeling super exhausted throughout the whole day because you didn't get the time for yourself (or even your own breakfast).
• Early morning, prepare your kid's food for the entire day. Put them in meal containers, fridge them, heat when eating time. Meal times become simpler and faster to serve.
• Kids become the crankiest when they are either sleepy or hungry. And for the latter, therefore, make sure there is enough stock of your child's favorite food at home, especially their snacks. Trust me, kids love their snacks more than their actual big meal. If you keep feeding em right, they'll be happy enough to behave well.
• Let them spin, jump, run around all day long if they want to. Kids need that kind of stimulation. We just have to get used to the noise and consider it as 'white noise'..:D
• Make use of bath time. If you have a bath tub at home, let them play in the tub for a longer time because this is the best time for us moms to rest. I would let my son play his toys inside the bath tub to even stretch the time longer hehehe. I'll just grab a chair and sit next to the tub so I can keep an eye on him while I check my phone or read a book. If you don't have a tub, big buckets work too.
• If possible, have a dedicated room or area inside your home that is completely child proof (safe enough to prevent children from injuring themselves or doing damage). I have a room that is fully cushioned, has no power plugs or sockets, nothing climbable, no nails, no small toys or choking hazards (including batteries), just big-sized toys and books and balls. When I am really tired or need to get some work done, I can let my son play by himself in this room with less worry.
• Make sure there are plenty of toys, books, and other things to do at home that'll keep them busy without having you to always be beside them. For toys, keep them separately in boxes or containers with lids that are rather difficult to open, so that every time they want to play a toy, they will come to you and ask for your help to open it. This allows you to 1) keep track on what they are up to, 2) teach them on communication, 3) teach the concept of finishing one thing before starting another. If they want to play another toy, they will have to put the toy back in its container, and ask for your help (again) to open the other one. For Shahmeer, he loves puzzles very very much so I have a stack of puzzles with different sizes and level of difficulties. Only after he finishes a set of puzzle he is allowed to open and play another one. And puzzles keep him busy so mommy gets to lie down and rest for a bit heheheh.
• Enjoy music together. It does not always have to be Baby Shark or Wheels On The Bus the whoooole day, you know? Nowadays, I like to play live concert videos of my liking too, and invite my kids to sing along with me hehehe. Just choose songs that are friendly for kids and don't contain curse words. And why live concert videos and not official music videos? Because the latter usually has clips which are inappropriate for children, whereas in live concert videos, typically it'll just be singers and the whole band on stage.
• Read books together. As much as it's wonderful to read kids book to your child, there's nothing wrong in reading out your own favorite books to them. I like to read books on marketing, and believe it or not, I like to read them out loud to Shahmeer heheh. This allows me to catch up on my reading while at the same time reading out new words for him. He might not understand, but it's okay!

I guess those are the few tips I can think of right now, and I really hope you find any of them useful! Motherhood is tiring so give time for yourself. It doesn't always have to be about your kids alllllll the time. You deserve to be happy too.