Laura is my sister. She’s only 17 months younger than me and we’ve had periods of time in our lives where we’ve been close, then distant, then close again. Fortunately, motherhood has made us closer than ever as she’s my daily go to when I need a boost, advice or just a laugh. She had kids first and has always been a resource, shoulder to cry on and cheerleader in my own parenting journey. Her zest for life is next level and I often think I want to be more like her!
What I love about her mothering style is she (somehow) doesn’t complain. I literally cannot think of a time when she didn’t somehow see the positive. She doesn’t sweat the small stuff and remains relaxed in scenarios where I would definitely be feeling the stress! Cheers to that!
I’m going to chat with Laura about how she manages her household, especially given her husband’s work schedule, which often requires him to travel out of state. I’ll start our chat with a really tough question….
Dry Shampoo or mom buns?
BOTH! (but I could not live without dry shampoo!)
Date night out or date night in?
What is a date night out? HA! Out is definitely the right answer for us and the kids love it too because it means a favourite sitter gets to come hang out! Win-win!
Would you rather trade places with your partner or your toddler for the day?
Toddler, for sure! What a life!
What is one thing you do just for yourself?
Get crafty and wander through Homegoods.
You had a career prior to being a stay at home mom (SAHM). What have you found helpful in the transition to SAHMdom and what advice would you give to moms contemplating making this change?
Your identity is not in what you do whether it be your career or your motherhood. Your purpose on earth is the same whether it takes place in the office or at home all day. I feel having a career out of the home is just an addition to your life, it's not who you are.
I know that your partner travels for work often. What have you found to be the biggest struggle with taking care of multiple kiddos while your husband is working long hours or traveling?
It seems like all of their needs happen simultaneously. We'll just be hanging out, doing our thing until everything hits at once – dinner is ready, someone needs to go to the bathroom and the other makes a big mess! Without fail, it always happens at the same time! I have learned to give myself grace when I'm here alone (without my husband). Maybe it means we snuggle and watch a movie together because it's just easier, or, maybe it's take out for dinner because it's too much work to supervise them AND cook a meal! When hubs gets home, it is a juggle between getting to escape and recoup by myself, and soaking in more family time, because now he's around!
How do you and your husband split the housework and other family admin type responsibilities?
My husband does all the administrative duties for our house, our investments, etc. (it's just easier when you're already sitting at your computer all day.) I handle everything with the kids’ schedule (school, appts, gymnastics, playdate), parent volunteer stuff, all meals (hubs gets his homemade meals delivered to his home office each day but often gets to join us for mealtime!) all household responsibilities as well (although he is helpful when asked!)
What has been the best or most surprising or best part about your new role of managing the household?
It never stops, whether you are gone all day, home all day, have a cleaner, or not - there is always something else that needs to be done. "Cleaning with a toddler is like brushing your teeth while eating oreos! The more you clean, sometimes the worse it gets!" Grace for this too - sometimes we just have to sit in it and be okay. It doesn't always need to be perfect!
