Divorces are a fact of life for many couples, and the kids get left with a parent who suddenly has to take on most of the duties of the home by themselves. What was once a two-parent home with shared responsibilities is now a one-parent home with the added stress of a fresh divorce.
How do you cope with all of the extra work that needs to be done? Here are a few suggestions to ease you into this new period in your life.
Manage Your Time with a Schedule
If you take on all of the responsibilities without any kind of plan, you may feel overwhelmed. You need to figure out what needs to be done and how best to do it. That can start with a to-do list and a schedule to work it all out. Plan out your day step by step to see what you can get done, and then determine what needs to be left for other days or even next week. Don’t try to tackle everything at once, and don’t schedule more work for the day than you can easily handle.
Keep in mind that the schedule is not something rigid that must be stuck to no matter what. You can modify it and make it more suitable to your needs as time goes on. Consider the original schedule as a rough draft that can be changed as necessary as you figure things out.
Bring in Reinforcements
You don’t have to do each and every house chore on your own. If you have a network of family and friends who may be willing to assist you, then call them in from time to time. You may want your adult siblings or parents to babysit the kids sometimes. If they are willing, then why not?
There may be some jobs you don’t feel comfortable doing on your own, like cleaning out the gutters or mowing the lawn. These are chores you might want your former spouse to do or that you might hire someone in the neighborhood to handle for you. Asking your ex to do anything might be a hassle, and the possibility of this option will depend on your relationship with them. In some cases, it will be easier to just hire someone to do the work than to ask your former spouse to handle it. If the divorce was amicable, then why not bring in your ex to cover part of the responsibilities?
You could hire legendary Long Beach cleaning services to tidy your home, leaving the housework to the professionals at least some of the time. You would save a lot of time to do other tasks or to spend with the kids if you hire a cleaning company to come once a week or a couple times a month.
Get the Kids to Help
If the kids are old enough to do some of the chores, then it’s simply good parenting to get them to do their part. Kids that are capable of making a mess are also capable of cleaning that mess up, in most cases. If your kids can get their toys out, they can pack them away.
You can start by having them clean up their own messes and save yourself some of the work. Then you can move on to teaching them how to use the broom, mop, and scrubbing brush. Once you get them to keep their rooms clean and wash dishes, you will save yourself so much work. In addition, you will be teaching your kids valuable life skills. You will be training them to have responsibility and giving them skills they can use later on as they get a job or have their own place.
At each age of development, there are new cleaning and house chore tasks that they can learn to do. Try them out on a few different tasks to see what they can handle. As tough as it may be at first to train your kids to do a new house chore, the work will pay off in the long run with one less chore you need to worry about doing on your own.
Take a Night Off
Handling all of these responsibilities yourself can be tiring. If you have to do all the housework, work a job, train up the kids, and make food, then you will be tired very quickly. That is a lot for any one person to do, especially if you have multiple kids and you work a full-time job.
It will be beneficial to you to take a little time off every now and then, even if it is just for one night. You can order some food, leave the house a little bit of a mess, and save some of the chores for another day. Taking that time to relax is important if you are going to keep from getting stressed and feeling overwhelmed with all that you have to do. As you make out that schedule we mentioned at the beginning of the article, make sure you schedule in some time for yourself to take it easy. You will need that, especially after a week of constantly taking care of everything.
Conclusion
It may be kind of tough becoming a single parent. At first, it will seem like everything is hard and nothing is as easy as it used to be. But you can handle it. Just take your time adjusting and try to get some good advice for coping with your new life. If you can do that, you will be alright.
We hope the advice we have given you here helps you out and allows you to adjust to your new life and the changes that come with it. It will not always be easy, but it does get easier with time, especially when you use tried and true methods to cope with the adjustments that will have to be made.
