My Arriving Home Routine: Easy Routines for Moms with ADHD for Calm Evenings and Smooth Mornings - "Top Tips" Encore #152
Today I'm explaining what I do when I walk in the door after a long day.
Before the chaos really takes off, I take a few minutes to sort the clutter of backpacks, diaper bags, lunch boxes, and work bags and prepare for the next day. This gives me less to do before bed and keeps the to-do list short in the mornings.
Starting this chain of events sets you up for a handful of habits that will make your life easier. Less to do before bed when you have absolutely no energy, and less to do in the morning when you're already running late, amirite?
**Note: This episode originally aired in April of 2019. As I take a break for the summer and quality time with my family, I'm sharing episodes that will help you get ready for the summer, support you with some integral support skills for ADHD, and then get ready for the new school year.
I'm cooking up some good stuff behind the scenes. Plus, I'll see you in the fall with brand new episodes! Talk to you then, Successful Mama!
To hang out with me over the summer, you can:
1) hop on over to our free Facebook community to meet your people and feel like you're not a weirdo -AND/OR-
2) join me on Wednesdays during our weekly meetings by signing up for my course, Daily Planning for ADHD Moms, where you'll get your day organized and actually show up for stuff mostly on time, or my program, Time Management Mastery for ADHD Moms where you'll create the best daily routine for you and your family that your ADHD brain will actually be okay with following. Get stuff done while you love your life & your brain.
Patricia Sung 00:00
Hey there successful mama, it's your friend Patricia Sung. How's your prioritizing? Are you making space for what you need? What matters to you? Are you resting? I recently asked myself these questions and the answers were terrible. No, I don't know. And no. So it was time for some reflection. How do I serve you well, and take care of me and my family at the same time, I know that I have to cut back on something in order to do more of another, which is not the solution I want to hear. But it's the realistic one. And that means taking a break from something I really love the podcast, and hang out with you each week. This is a very adulting decision on my part, because it's not what I want to do. What I want to do is make more episodes. I also want to spend time with my family during summer break, and I want to create space to serve my community better. This is a skill I've been working on with my ADHD coach is how can responsible Patricia and fun Patricia both get what they want. So when I look at this summer, and ask myself, How can I serve you better? Well, there's two places you can hang out with me either join our free Facebook group where there is a huge community of mamas who are amazing. We'll be there to answer your questions and cheer you on. And I love spending quality time with you guys in that group. Or you can join our student community because all of my students are invited to our Wednesday meetings. I've also got a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on to prepare for the fall. And I know I'll be at the zoo and swim lessons camp and all that. So that means this summer to make space for all that good stuff. I'll be sharing some oldies but goodies on the podcast straight out of the vault this summer.
Patricia Sung 01:40
Now, most of these are in the first 25 episodes I ever did. Full disclosure total perfectionist moment, I know that these first episodes are not as good as the ones I do now, because I've had way more practice. But I also know that there are some really great skills and information in this first group of podcasts. So I'm looking my perfectionism square in the face and sing to it new. I will not let you stop me from sharing important things with my mama's. One thing that I've learned the hard way in this podcast is that we learn by doing, we figure out what works by doing, not thinking about doing. And this is one way that I can be myself with you and say, I know that these are not the best episodes, but I know that they're really good information for you. So don't judge me. Okay, I chose episodes that will help you get ready for summer support you with some integral support skills for ADHD, and get ready for the new school year. So I'll see you in the fall with some new stuff. And hopefully I'll see you either in my student community or in my Facebook group. I'll link all that in the show notes so you know where to find me. Until then, talk to you soon successful mama.
Patricia Sung 02:46
Are you overwhelmed by motherhood and barely keeping your head above water? Are you confused and frustrated by how all the other moms make it look so easy. You can figure out how to manage the chaos in your mind, your home or your family. I get your mama, parenting with ADHD is hard. Here is your permission slip to let go of the Pinterest worthy visions of organization and structure fit for everyone else. Let's do life like our brains do life creatively, lovingly and with all our might. When we embrace who we are and how our brains work, we can figure out how to live our lives successfully, and in turn, lead our families well, at the end of the day, we just want to be good moms. but spoiler alert, you are already a great mom. ADHD does not mean you're doomed to be a hot mess mama, you can rewrite your story from shame spiral to success story. And I'll be right here beside you to cheer you on.
Patricia Sung 03:47
Welcome to motherhood in ADHD. Successful mom is your friend Patricia. And today we are going to talk about a coming home routine. Now as I mentioned in the last episode, I said he born organized people like I work for National Geographic. One of the things that I have noticed is that in this whole constant state of tidying Is that coming home, they have a routine. I didn't want to do this at first because you know, you get home and you're super tired and you don't want to do anything. But the problem is you also don't want to do it at 10 o'clock at night once your kids are in bed. So just go ahead and do it right when you get home because you're already moving. So just like plowing along with the energy level. And once you get the habit in place, like it takes a while to get habits in place and it's going to take longer when you're trying to figure it all out. But once you do it like my coming home routine literally takes me like under five minutes. Obviously the more kids you have and the more stuff they have. The routines can get a little longer but also then you start training your kids how to do stuff and they help and so it still ends up taking you know that 510 minutes and it really just makes your life so much easier when You've got your autopilot in place, first thing is unloaded unpack everything. So everything comes out of the car, all the backpacks, purses, diaper bags, work bags.
Patricia Sung 05:10
Now once you got to do in the house, you have to unpack it all. And everything has to go in its home, everything needs a place. Because we're just not going to remember where stuff is otherwise, like I'm the biggest culprit was setting my phone down wherever I am. And I'm constantly wandering around going where's my phone, and then calling from another phone because I can't find it, and then it's on vibrate, and I still can't find it, because I can hear it. Like, is it so just avoid that whole issue by putting things in their home every time. So examples are shoes go into shoe basket. Even my kids know like as soon as we come in the house, we take our shoes off and put them in the basket, my husband's Asian so we don't wear shoes in the house. So it definitely keeps down the dirt because even with not wearing your shoes in their house. With two kids running in and out. There's just dirt on the floor all the time. Second, I always put my keys in my purse so that they don't get lost. They always live there. My purse goes in the same place in the kitchen. And then we sort out backpacks, the lunchbox gets emptied to put by the kitchen sink. I don't clean it right then I usually clean that during dinner. But until it leaves out and emptied all the papers that from school will get dealt with right then either something I can quickly do and stick back in the backpack that gets done. If it's things that I need to deal with later, they go in my to do basket, my Tuesday basket art projects, I take a photo of them. If it's something my son really likes, I'll hang it on his art gallery wall in his room. Otherwise, I sneakily throw it in the trash can when he's not looking. I really don't keep a lot of artwork. I'll do a whole post on that. But I'll I'll get back to that I won't get on that tangent right now. So just think about all the things that come in the door with you put away whatever needs to be put away. Deal with the things that need to be dealt with right away set the things that need to be dealt with shortly where they need to be like if you know homework papers should come out and set them on the table. If your kids young enough. If they're older you know they need to do that on their own.
Patricia Sung 07:15
Mama, are you looking for some extra support? Could you use a few more like minded Mama's in your circle? Here is your official invitation to join our Facebook group The Motherhood in ADHD community. Here you can ask questions, share advice, but most importantly, know that you're not alone. Click on the link in the show notes or search on Facebook for motherhood in ADHD community. So come join our little corner of the internet with other mamas who know how your brain works and won't look at you crazy when you share what's floating around inside there. Instead, they'll say I get it. I've been there. And I know how that is. So come on. What are you waiting for? See in there. Again, that's The Motherhood in ADHD community on Facebook.
Patricia Sung 08:00
The third step is to replenish anything. So like if you have a diaper bag, right then throw in another diaper. If you use one, replenish the snacks, anything that you've used from the bag, replace with a clean or new item, right then. Then the last part is think about what's going on tomorrow. So for me, I work part time from home. So sometimes I have my kids with me and I need to do the diaper bags. Sometimes they aren't with me. And then I have my purse. So if I know in the morning, I'm going to be on my own. But everything's in the diaper bag, right then I moved my wallet, my keys, they go into the bag that I'll be using the next day. Just have that moment to like Okay, is there anything else that I'm going to need tomorrow that I should put in this bag right now? If you can throw it in there then if you'd like say your kid is in like dance get that dance uniform? Is that what they call it? A dance uniform dance leotard? I don't know why obviously, I don't have daughters. So I'm, I'm a little slow on the girls. But, you know, leotard, put the leotard in the laundry, get that bag ready to go for the next day. It just makes life so much easier when you've got that prep done for the next day. And you'll know if you need to prep like Oh, something big for the next day, then you at least have it in the back of your head of like, oh, okay, well, I'm gonna need to take you know, five minutes before bed and pack up the stuff because we're gonna go to say the zoo tomorrow and we need to get our picnic lunch packed and all that stuff.
Patricia Sung 09:30
Once you get this habit in the place that really is going to make a difference in your evening because you're going to have less to do right before bed. It's going to make your morning run more smoothly because you already have things ready to go. What's your action item for this week? It is to find a home for your like work bag or your purse, whatever you're carrying on a daily basis. Find a specific home where that thing's gonna live. If you already do that, choose one of the other things that I mentioned to start implementing in May Seeing that coming home routine a smooth process. So I want to see where you made your bags home. So take a photo and tag me on facebook or instagram at to Motherhood and ADHD so I can give you a virtual high five. Talk to you soon successful mama. For more resources, classes and community head over to my website motherhoodinadhd.com