How to spend quality time with your family when you’re a busy working mum

I work full time, I blog and I also sometimes freelance too. To say I’m busy is an understatement and did I mention, I also have a three year old too. So how do I, and other busy working families manage, to make sure there’s always enough hours in the day/week/months to spend quality together?

Here are my top tips on how to spend quality time with your family:

Morning Routine

Mornings are a struggle. I often wake up exhausted, especially when my son was younger as he’s never been a great sleeper. It’s always a rush in the mornings to get myself ready for work as well as my son ready for his day. However, I always try and make sure we have at least 15 minutes, ideally half an hour, for morning snuggle times before the day begins.

So, as soon as our son comes into our room and snuggles in bed with us, I ask him what he dreamt about, talk about where he’s going and what he’s going to be doing today and reassure him that either myself or daddy will come and get him at the end of the day. We will then cuddle up and watch some CBeebies before the mad morning rush begins.

I really think having that short time together at the start of the day helps us all. Me, because although I love having a career, I do obviously miss being with my boy. My son, because he has had love and reassurance at the very start of the day.

Of course, I know this isn’t always possible. There’s times where we’ve all over slept or have too much to sort out before we leave for the day, but we do try and make this our routine every day when possible.

Flexible Working

Are you able to negotiate with your employers some flexible working hours? As a full time working mum this has been invaluable for me personally. It’s really made a difference as it has meant I’m able to spend Fridays at home with my son even though I’m still working full time.

Many companies will consider flexible working and I will be writing a blog post soon about flexible working and your rights as an employee so if this is of interest to you please make sure you subscribe to the blog.

Family cooking and mealtimes

On Mondays to Thursdays my son will have his meals at either nursery or at my parents, depending where he is on the day. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays though he’s at home and we will always try and eat together. It’s not just about the eating though, it’s most definitely the creating! We have great fun with yummy recipes which also gives my son a healthy interest in food.

Cooking together means we have fun quality time together as well as carrying out a practical task. Our favourite cook book at the moment is Grufallo Crumble and other recipes as we love the Grufallo and there’s some great recipes we can make together.

Family mealtimes are special and we love making these fun and varied from picnics and BBQs to pasta nights, takeaways and Sunday Roasts. We also love going to family friendly restaurants like Pizza Express or enjoying a pub lunch with family and friends on a sunny day.

For recipe ideas and inspiration, visit our Recipes section on the blog.

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Days Out

We love days out together on our valuable days off and it allows us to spend time together without interruption.

Days out don’t have to be expensive. We often go on bike rides or take our scooters to the seafront. Walking in the woods and going on pretend bear hunts is one of our favourite things to do. We are also members of the National Trust so if we fancy some history and culture or just want to wander through the beautiful gardens we will head over to a National Trust property.

The Tesco Clubcard Vouchers are the best if you want a cheap day out. We recently used our vouchers for a day out at Longleat Safari Park and Chessington World of Adventures,

Another idea for fun days out is to get a Kids Pass who are currently offering 30 days for just £1. The Kids Pass gives you discounts on cinemas and family attractions as well as kids eat free deals and even 10% off holidays.

Weekends Away and Family Holidays

We love travelling together as a family and discovering new places. In fact we often go away for the weekend.

This year so far we’ve stayed in a caravan at Longlerat Safari Park, stayed in an Airstream in London (blog post coming soon) and had an island adventure when we visited Jersey staying at the Waterfront Radisson Blu.

We love Travel Zoo for a bargain on weekends away and holidays. In fact we booked our Jersey holiday through Travel Zoo.

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Life can be busy and really stressful at times but it’s so important to spend some quality time together. These are some of the things we do to help us keep growing our love together as a family. I would love to find out what you do to spend time together when life can be so busy? Please let me know in the comments below.

I have used affiliate links in this blog post including links to Amazon, Kids Pass and Travel Zoo. These are all products and companies that I genuinely would recommend and any money made from affiliate sales will be used towards the cost of running the blog so I really appreciate people using these links.