Working mothers living in Japan manage their time to balance work, household chores and of course children raising. How do they do that? One of the mothers who are popular among the young mothers told us how to survive her busy days.
A lot of Cooking over the Weekend
For instance, I did a preparation of these deep fried prawn last weekend which is my kid’s favorite dish.
If you have an experience of making it before, I’m sure you know that you have to go through quite a lot of process from dipping shrimps into the flour mixture, into the egg, and then into the panko crumbs.
It is hard not to make both your hands and your kitchen messy, and it takes time to clean up.
What I did over the weekend is to put them in a ziploc bag and freeze them. All I need to do is to heat up oil and deep fried them whenever my son requests for dinner.
This way I can save a lot of time and my sons are still in happy mood.
Stock Food is Now Very Popular Among the Japanese Women
I also cook a huge portion of food like curry, beef stew during the weekend and put them in containers of different sizes. The above photo is my homemade tomato and onion stir fry sauce which are great toppings and my kids love it. All I need to do is to heat it up with microwave and put in on top of rice. You can also eat it by itself and surprisingly, it pairs really well with alcohol.
Advanced Technology is also Helpful
One of the best gift I’ve received in my life is the vacuum robot.
I had resisted these gadgets for years, assuming that they wouldn’t be able to really handle the work. My friends gave me as a baby shower gifts (I know, nothing “baby” about it), and I can’t live without it by now.
I turn it on every morning when I leave home for work, then I can come back to the neat and clean room. Of course I can’t turn it on when my curios sons are there trying to press the button to stop the robot. Technology could be hurting for kids depending on the case these days, but if you are a working parent, technology can be so helpful.
An Efficient Way to Wash Clothes
If “washing"," hanging "and" storing" are located at distant places, delivery of clothes from one place to another might be a problem. Also, laundry waiting to be taken, laundry waiting to be folded, hanging clothes waiting to be stored are stocked at places. Therefore, it is recommended to use a moveable cloth hanger rack.
On a fine weather day, there should be more people who wish to dry out the laundry if possible. It is mobile laundry clothes that are active at such times. Watching the weather, for example, move from basin to balcony, from veranda to storage place, with clothes.
Take care frequently on weekdays, and seriously on weekends
Dust and minor dusts are things that occur every day. While you are busy, you might not have the motivation for a serious cleaning., but I am curious. How about using 5 minutes every morning to clean with all the family members, using a “quick wiper” or “korokoro”. If it is flooring, then use a quick wiper. If it is carpet, then use the “korokoro”. These actions are not related to electricity plugs, water is not used, and hands are not getting dirty as well, even children can enjoy the process. Do some easy cleaning every morning, so that you can always have a comfortable home.
I haven't found final solutions to keep the balance between my work and family yet, but I’ve been trying find something that seems to be helping. So far, it has been working well. I think it is important to work out a plan that suits you the best and make you comfortable.
I would love to know what other working mothers do out there. So if you have any tips to share, please let me know below!
Comments