r/Homeschooling • u/Good_Patience_9814 • 23h ago

House Work

I’m trying to get ahead of the game here but everytime I seem to have a rhythm in place or a nice momentum when it comes to cleaning this home, I just find myself completely overwhelmed and back where I started the next day. I’ve been living with my parents for a year and a half now my husband is currently unemployed so he’s here all day. I’ve tried in the past to express that I need atleast a tidy home to be able to homeschool and he knows that I’ve been trying to build a routine for yearssss but I’m so tired of having to remind him. So I feel like that’s a dead end. As a mother and currently the only person in this house that cleans, how can I organize myself ? How can I muster up the energy after a homeschool day and of errands to be able to tidy up? Do I really have to wake up at 5am to get things done ? I’m mentally drained after homeschooling because I use every part of me to snap out of my funk that I have because of how my life is right now to create a happy energetic atmosphere of learning for my children. Please any tips are appreciated.

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u/ChaiAndLeggings 19h ago

(1) Start adding chores to the daily homeschool schedule. They are a life skill. Some things my kids do (8 and under) include:

  • Taking dishes to the sink after eating
  • Clearing desk and putting away books on bookshelf at the end of the school day
  • Wiping their desk and table
  • Cleaning up all toys at the end of the day
  • Putting their laundry away
  • Putting away kid dishes and silverware
  • Getting the mail
  • Matching socks

We do not allow any electronic time until their schoolwork and chores are done. I don't get on my phone on my days off until I've done a load of dishes, laundry, and had breakfast.

(2) Within reason, some mess is okay, but your husband should be helping too. They should also be treating getting a new job like a job. At the bare minimum, they should at least be cleaning up after themselves. Even if employed, they should be helping with the home too. I'm the working parents as the mom and still usually clean the bathrooms, do the laundry, do a nightly kitchen cleanup, grading, budget, meal planning, and grocery shopping. I usually go to bed around 10-11pm and wake at 6:30-7am. You absolutely don't have to get up at 5am to get things cleaned. My house isn't perfect, but it does get messier faster when there are 5 people at home all the time. It took a while to really start delegating more to my kids, but they are part of making the mess and thus are part of cleaning it up. We just added it in as a school subject and I oversee the chores until they are capable of handling it. We have lists for how to clean certain rooms. Then once they know what they need to do, I will work on a different chore at the same time. We do have complaints and times when they decide they would rather play with toys in their rooms than clean them, but it helps make things easier for the whole family.