It’s hard to balance getting the household chores done, dinner cooked, shopping done … and still have time to spend with your family. “Parents” magazine suggests doing some of these things together. Specifically, they mention the idea of making washing the car a fun event:

If you get the whole family involved in washing the car, this chore can be a blast!”

We’ve done this recently. With the heat coming on strong already, it’s a great way to get outside while getting a much needed chore accomplished. Kids can help wash the car, rinse off … and, if you’re extra clever give the kids a “shower” in the process!

Read the entire article here.

There’s a lot of good information in the book “Trees make the best mobiles.” Although it seems to be written for the brand new mom, there is a lot of advice in the book relative to moms of toddlers and slightly older kids. It’s a quick read too. Here are some of the top tips that I got from the book:

• Our children sense our frenzy and are unnerved by it.
• In 1985 a Mexico City earthquake, there were 56 newborns who survived for more than a week, without their mothers.
• Society emphases speed for developmental milestones, but we should take our time. “Revel in the now.”
• An example of what a child hears when parents disagree — it’s like a pilot saying, “not that button, you idiot.”
• Sometimes it’s OK to let your child to become bored. This is when they learn to draw on their own resources.
• Give yourself a break.
• Discipline and disciple come from the same word — to teach.

My favorite advice from the book is:

• Ask more specific questions. Instead of how was school? ask “Who did you play with after your nap today?”
• The way you treat your child will be the basis of his emotional calculus for years to come.
• Make sure that what your child is absorbing from you isn’t your ragged, frustrated or furious self, but your best self. (This is great advice. We should act as if we are being filmed for a reality TV show and learn that the cameras are always on — they are on in our children’s eyes.)

There are a few times in the book where I disagree with the advice, like when one chapter focuses on not putting your child in contraptions. Sometimes these devices are necessary for Moms to take a shower, fix dinner, or just to keep the baby off his/her back. I also wish the book followed a more logical order — some chapters are about newborns or infants, others about two-year-old tantrums.

For the most part, however, the book if filled with good advice and is a winner for first-time mom-to-be.

A couple of weeks ago I finally made it to one of those meal preparation places. You go, preferably with a friend or a group and put together meals that you will later freeze for use when you have nothing to eat at home. It’s a genius idea actually. Have moms come together to socialize, make dinners together, and then look like a miracle worker at home when she takes the concoction out of the oven.

The company that I went to (Magical Mealtime in Orlando) offered several options, but I choose to purchase 8 meals that each serve 3 people. Cost was $99 (I used a coupon and got it for $89). There are also options for meals that serve more people.

Here’s the rundown of how it works:

There are stations set up (kind of like salad bars) with different menu items. You move from one to the other for each recipe you are putting together.

Once at at station, you simply follow the instructions on the recipe, putting each ingredient into the bowl or serving container.

Each ingredient is has a measuring spoon that is the exact amount you need, so you don’t even reallly have to pay that much attention. Good thing too, because most of these places let you drink wine while you are “cooking.”

Mix it up. Follow the final instructions to make your meal (the above mixture is what will become meatloaf) and put in the container they provide. Then, you seal it up with plastic wrap, put a pre-printed sticker on the container that tells you how to cook it once you get it home.

Viola! After about an hour and 1/2 you’ve got 8 meals all ready to put in your freezer. Take one out the next time you say, “What’s for dinner?” You’ll have an answer for at least 8 nights in a row.

Related:

• Magical Mealtime
• The Dinner A’fare
• Let’s Eat

Moms have enough to do without having to worry about cleaning the house too. I was recently sent a press release about a contest that can solve the problem of cleaning up after your family — the grand prize if bi-weekly maid services for a year. Yep, 12 months of a clean house. Here’s the information:

Weiman Products is offering consumers the chance to win a one-year break from their house cleaning routine. Weiman Product’s annual “Maid for a Year” contest, which runs May 1 – July 31, 2008, will award five U.S. residents free house cleaning services from Merry Maids every other week for a year. Consumers can enter by logging onto www.weiman.com/contest. Winners will be announced by mid-August 2008.

All U.S. residents 18 years and older can submit a 250-word or less essay between May 1 and July 31, 2008. Entries may be submitted online at www.weiman.com or mailed to Weiman “Maid for a Year” Contest, 755 Tri-State Parkway, Gurnee, IL 60031. Essays must describe what the feeling of clean means to the entrant and why he or she needs and deserves maid service. Essays will be judged by an independent judging organization on the following criteria: the description of what “the good feeling of clean” means to the entrant, why the entrant needs/deserves maid service and the originality and creativity of the essay.

Visit www.weiman.com for official rules and regulations. BalancingMotherhood.com is not affiliated with this contest, but thinks it’s a great idea. Good luck!

Let’s talk about celebrities and motherhood! I read a headline on a story from earlier this year about Katie Holmes and motherhood. Here’s the headline, “Katie Holmes Has No Trouble Balancing Motherhood And A Career”

It sounds almost crazy. I don’t care who you are — if you are a mother, it’s hard to do everything that you want to do. It’s great that Katie seems to have figured this out, but I don’t think that it’s true for most people.

Later in the article she is asked point blank about balancing her career with motherhood.

IS IT HARD TO BALANCE MOTHERHOOD WITH A CAREER?

No, not at all. It’s fun. I find it exciting.”

I wonder if she would be able to say the same thing if she weren’t famous or rich. I just feel like this comment is a slap in the face to the millions of mothers out there who work a traditional full-time job, for traditional wages and do find it hard to balance everything.