Exhaustion/managing home and work

lisaannjamRN · Apr 23, 2014

Hi Oedgar,

I really feel for you. I am sure you run your butt off all day at the ob/gyn clinic. I have a good friend that does that work as well, and she is exhausted too!! I find it really helps me to do a lot of cooking on the weekend, so that I have home made meals at least 4 days out of the week. If we grill chicken on Sunday, we may have that with sweet potatoes & snap peas on Sunday and then use the chicken in a salad on Monday. I also make vegetarian chili. I also keep frozen tiliapia in the freezer, which is really quick to defrost and make with some rice and veggies. Hubby will also help with the cooking a few nights. Hope this helps.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Apr 23, 2014

10 and thirteen is plenty old to cook simple dinners. And they should be doing their own laundry as well.

You could also hire a cleaning person for the heavy duty stuff.

PS: I have four (now adult) kids. They could all do the above by age ten. You are not doing them any favors by doing it all yourself. Trust me.

aeris99 · Apr 23, 2014

I'm in school still and have kids age 12 and 8 who are both special needs. I find that my crockpot is my best friend! I prep it the night before and supper is done when we get home.

I made the kids pick a chore each. One feeds the cats, the other empties the dishwasher. They both put away their laundry.

Fairly certain that a redistribution of chores is coming though. I'm burnt out too.

Oedgar · Apr 24, 2014

I do use the crockpot a lot! At times it's difficult to get the stuff ready in the morning, or I have a recipe that would do better with 4 hrs instead of 8.... but I love my crockpot! When I do cook, my goal is to make enough for two nights... though that wasn't the case last night unfortunately! I have considered a cleaning person, but since I work in a doc's office I don't make great money. Still working on my kids. They actually do more now than they did before I went to work. I just don't trust them with the stove.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Apr 24, 2014

Get and extra used fridge to stuff with frozen meals. Get some heat and eat stuff for those nights. I like the whole breast breaded chicken patties. They make great sandwiches and chicken parm. Frozen meatballs are good too. I would make extra meals on one day and freeze them along with spaghetti sauce. I have great recipes and are kid friendly. I always set aside a order in night for pizza or another pick up food for one night of rest. Your market should have those broasted chickens....I will cut up and stuff it with a lemon as I reheat to keep it moist.

My kiddos from a young age had chores. They were not paid per se.....it was their responsibility as being a part of the family. They had to "clean" their rooms ( I would terminally clean them every 10 days or so) they did the dishwasher, their socks, feed the dog...dust.....that kind of stuff.

I also learned that a clean floor isn't everything and a little dust isn't fatal. My husband learned to help if he wanted the extra cash in the house budget....he took over the bills and learned to wash everyone's clothes.

toomuchbaloney · Apr 28, 2014

Buy a cookbook devoted to 30 minute meals.

Determine to plan your menu so that meal prep takes less than 1 hour total.

You are back to work so there needs to be a shifting of family responsibilities. If you haven't already, have a family meeting to talk about how your return to the workplace has affected each of the family members.

Make sure that you listen to each person describe their experience.

Then make certain that they listen to your concerns and needs as well.

After the problems and issues are identified you can begin to solve them as a family.

It is not healthy for your relationship to have a huge imbalance in the responsibilities of the home, your husband should be honest about changing the routines to take some of the pressure off of you, IMHO.

We had chores for our kids when they were that age. We were sort of picky about them and privileges were lost if they did not commit to their part of the workload. Similarly, we had to be hard on ourselves.

Mulan · May 1, 2014

Have a bunch of stuff in the freezer that you can take out and defrost or zap in the microwave.

Make taco filling ahead of time, freeze it in individual portions, wrapped in paper, defrost and heat in the microwave, and have your tortillas and whatever to go with it.

Make chili and freeze it, let it defrost in your frig and heat it up when you get home.

Make lasagna and freeze it, again package it in individual portions.

Manicotti, freeze in individual portions.

Some frozen pizza is very good.

Frozen garlic bread comes in slices, just heat in the oven.

Frozen breaded chicken patties for sandwiches, frozen hamburg patties, frozen fries, just cook and add your buns, etc.

Quick and easy and very few dishes to clean up.

You could also use paper/styrofoam dishes, plastic utensils, and you'd have even less cleanup.