An online lifestyle magazine for Christian women
How do stay-at-home moms spend their day? As a stay-at-home mom, my days are usually filled with cuddles, temper tantrums, chores, and lots and lots of baking. I recently interviewed my friend Katrina for our Featured Women category. I asked her what a typical day looks like for her, and I found it so interesting to listen to her response. I always wonder what the day looks like for other mamas! This inspired me: I decided to share what a typical day looks like for me with my (almost) toddler, Alexa.
From waking up to bedtime, this is a glimpse into my life as a mom of one. I hope it gives insight to the question, “How do stay-at-home moms spend their day?”
To be honest, Lexi has been having a tendency lately to sleep until almost 11am. I’m not a fan, because it makes bedtime at 9:30pm impossible to stick to. Starting today, I got up at 9am, got ready, and then woke her up at 9:30am. Eventually I’d like to wake her even earlier, but I’m just taking baby steps!
I heated up a hash brown for Alexa and brewed some espresso in my Moka pot. I steamed some oat milk and made myself a latte, which I sipped while serving Alexa breakfast. A few bites in, she says, “Elmo? Elmo?” This is her request to watch Sesame Street. I decide to let her watch a short episode, keeping in mind that she’s not allowed to watch more than an hour of tv each day. She finishes her breakfast in a good mood now that she’s spent time with her red, furry friend.
I am currently working on a freelance web design project. I usually work at night after Alexa goes to bed. However, there was a small task I had to complete during the day while my client was actually awake, so I completed that and sent an email update.
Alexa wanted me to read to her. She picks up a book, says, “Book? Book?” and then reaches her arms out so that I can put her in my lap. Once the book is complete, she finds another and repeats the process. We read about eight books before she tires of this.
I clean up the mess from breakfast and load the dishwasher. Then I empty all of the trash cans from the house and dump them into the kitchen trash and take that bag outside. I grab all of the dirty hampers from around the house and start doing laundry. All of these tasks are completed in my kitchen, which is joined to my living room, so I’m able to keep an eye on Alexa while she plays.
I started by taking some refrigerated cookie dough that I made a few days ago and making some cookies for my husband to snack on. Then, I grabbed all the ingredients to make apple cinnamon muffins. At this point, Alexa realized that I was baking, so she dragged her little kitchen set to the counter and stood on it to watch me bake. She watched me make the muffins with great interest, all while snacking on an apple that I removed the core from.
I got Alexa bundled up and we left the house to run an errand. I dropped off some cookies at a friend’s house, then went to BJ’s to tackle some of our grocery shopping. This didn’t take long, because this week was a short list. Alexa loves riding in the shopping cart and is usually well behaved on these outings, as long as they don’t last too long.
I dropped Alexa off at my moms and then ran home to unload the groceries. I returned to my mom’s and stayed for a little while. Alexa loves her grandmom and enjoys playing with all of the toys that my mom keeps on hand for her.
I started eating leftover spaghetti for lunch. I tried to give Alexa some homemade chicken nuggets, but she wanted my spaghetti. I served it to her cold, and she polished off the whole bowl in the messiest possible way.
Alexa continued to snack on her apple and some pieces of homemade granola bar. Meanwhile, I kept the laundry going and tidied some more.
I sat down for a few minutes to write notes on my day for this blog post. This is something I often do – I’ll write a blog post or list blog post ideas in the notes section of my phone while watching Alexa.
If you read my post about the chiropractor, you’ll know that I do regular physical therapy so that my back is strong enough to hold Alexa without any pain. This has really worked well for me! While I did these exercises, Alexa climbed all over me. Sometimes I’ll lift her instead of a medicine ball! She also likes to lay next to me and copy what I’m doing.
I sat down with the intention of relaxing, but Alexa walked up to me with a book. “Book! Book!” So we read a couple of books.
I started watching my favorite YouTuber, but I never actually finished watching it because Alexa wanted attention. We played and read some more!
My husband Juan joined us. We decided to run to Aldi for the rest of our groceries. He got ready and I bundled Alexa up again and goofed around with her.
We only needed a few things from Aldi, so it was a quick trip. Alexa wanted to run around the store, and when I picked her up to leave there was a small tantrum.
Alexa fell asleep in the car and took a short nap. Most days, she doesn’t nap at all. I’ve come to accept this, and I’m fine with it because she sleeps for 12 hours at night. But if she does nap, it’s usually just for a half hour.
Alexa woke up and was very cranky, so I put on Sesame Street again and we cuddled on the couch while Juan made us dinner. Cooking is something we both enjoy, so we take turns doing it. It was nice that I didn’t have to cook today, because I worked so hard this morning on baking and cleaning.
Juan has made Dominican meatballs and rice for dinner. We paired this with a simple salad. It was delicious!
After dinner, I washed the dishes, put away Lexi’s clean laundry, and swept the kitchen floor.
We recently started giving Alexa bubble baths in her little baby tub. She gets so excited and screams, “Bubbas, bubbas!” when she knows bath time is coming. We let her play in the tub for quite a while, and she didn’t want to leave.
I relaxed in the living room and watched TV while Alexa played. I’m currently watching the Superfan episodes of The Office.
Alexa comes to me again with a handful of books. We spend some time reading them!
Our nighttime ritual is that we lay in bed at 9pm and watch Little Bear. I know it’s not the best to watch TV right before bed, but it’s become such a relaxing part of the routine and I’m not ready to give up the cuddle session. I hold Alexa and scroll on my phone while she watches.
I start praying over Alexa, and she starts crying because she knows that means bed time is coming. For a while, she was going right to sleep at 9:30pm, but lately she has been crying in her crib for about 10-20 minutes before falling asleep. I’m hoping that waking her up a bit earlier will rectify this, but we’ll see!
I have a few tasks to complete for my freelance web design project, but they only take me about fifteen minutes. The past two weeks, I’ve been working about two hours a night on this project, but it’s almost finished.
I worked on writing this post and editing the photos that go along with it. Typically, when I’m not working on a paid project, I would spend about two hours writing blog posts, SEO optimizing them, editing photos, and brainstorming new ideas.
I usually do this right after putting Alexa to bed, but I forgot today. I walked into the living room and realized that my husband had cleaned up for me, and that made me really happy.
Once I’m done my work, I lay in bed and watch TV until I fall asleep. I don’t usually fall asleep until after midnight.
I hope that hearing how I spend my day was interesting and informative about what a day as a mama could look like. Not every day looks exactly like this – I have days that I don’t get as much done because Alexa is more demanding, days where I have different kinds of work to do, and days where I’m so tired that all I do all morning is sit on the couch and watch Alexa play. But overall, this day was a pretty typical example of how I spend my time.
Lauren Magazine is an online lifestyle magazine for Christian women.
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