How to CEO Mom and Summer (without losing your mind)

As business owners, and moms, we usually find ourselves moving things around for kids, bringing the baby onto the meeting, or working at all odd hours of the day while the kids are asleep or distracted.

There is no “9-5” or “10-2” or anything of the sort when you work from home with your kids.

But there are some hacks we can do so it’s closer to that structured time instead of the burnt out “5am-7, 10-12, 3-4, 5:30-5:40, 9-1am” naptime hustle.

Right now you’re probably waking up and working, then the kids get up and interrupt your work. So you frantically finish what you’re doing while they beg you for snacks and you keep yelling, “no I’m about to make breakfast! Give me a minute!!” Then you try to work while they’re eating, but they need water, and a napkin, then one wants to paint and the others want to go outside, but you’re in the middle of this social media post, and now its 8:30am and you’re DONE with this day.

Here are my best tips for surviving thriving during summer while working with your kids at home. From someone who does it year-round.

First things first. Sit down and figure out how much you realistically need to work each day/week so you can plan around it. We’re going to schedule in your work time, so it’s available and non-negotiable.

Now you’re going to make a loonnnggg list with 2 sections: outings for the kids // outings for the kids that I can work at. Hop on the Google now and find all the things in your area that you can do during the summer for at least an hour outside the house.

Next, whip out that calendar and we’re going to theme our days. Mine, for example, are do what you need to do Monday, outings with friends Tuesday, errands on Wednesday, babysitter Thursday, FUN Friday!! These definitely change some weeks (like this week we have swim everyday of the week in the middle of the week) but having them as a base is really helpful!

Finally we’re going to write a general, base schedule hour by hour for each day. I know this doesn’t work for a lot of brains, but having it written down somewhere, whether you stick to it strictly or not, is extremely helpful when you lose track one day and you’re feeling frazzled. You can just take a deep breath, check the schedule and see where you can dial back in! You’re going to want to write this as you ideal day.

Here’s the schedule that works for me:

Summer Schedule
5am Work and drink my coffee hot
7am Farm chores
*kids usually wake up between 7:30-9am
8am Breakfast *protein and electrolytes
9am Homeschool *the baby usually naps around 9am and 1pm
9:45am Get dressed
10am Gym & Errands *leave the house
12/1pm Back for lunch then all quiet time
10min clean up then focused work time!
3pm park or pool or outside
5pm dinner
7pm outside/ bath
8pm MAX bed time

This works some of the time for my family, and like I said, sometimes we get totally off track then it’s 1pm and nobody is napping and I’m like AH what are we supposed to be doing!? OR we have totally all outside days and that’s cool too!

For example today, while I’m writing this it looked like:

5am-7:30 Work time + farm chores *baby and 5yo woke up at 7:30 8am breakfast (berry crisp with yogurt, baby had a muffin) 2yo woke up at 8:45 and had a bunch of muffins and sausage 8:45 tonie box and unload the dishwasher, earned 1 episode of Spidey while I put the baby down 9:30am baby down for a nap → no phone POOL time!!

11am lunch, while watching tv while I finished my client’s website and the baby rolled around on the floor by me

12:30pm we went for a treasure hunt on the property – looking for blackberries, came back with eggs and flowers.

1pm NAP TIME *homeschooled my 5yo alone for 20 minutes then let her watch TV and I am writing this post!!

Later today we plan to go to the park, the gym, then we have gymnastics at 6pm!

It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to work for you.

Here’s what I do at the beginning of every week and day to help make sure we’re not constantly getting off track.

On Sunday I will look at my client load, check my emails, and figure out what is coming up this week. When I have meetings, what kind of tasks need to be done, and how much time I will realistically need to do them.

Then I text my friends and we plan outings accordingly. Tuesday may end up being a quick (free) park/splash pad date in the morning that will surely end with exhausted kiddos ready for a big lunch and long nap. Or if workload is light that week, we’ll do the Museum all day or head to Waco to meet our Austin friends halfway at the zoo there. Having this outing day built in on Tuesday ensures that our kids (and us) have a fun summer with stories to tell instead of “we watched a lot of tv!”

Then I write out my to do list and my schedule of activities for the whole week so I know exactly what I’m doing, which day, with who, and where!

Some quick tips and permissions to hopefully make you feel better about what you’re doing already!

SCHEDULE IN SOME MOM TIME. Do it with a friend so you HAVE to go, or you’re letting her down too. Every other Thursday my friend and I meet and do random things with no kids while the husbands do bedtime. I understand this is a privilege to have a husband to do this – if you don’t, can you trade with another mom? Every other Thursday she goes to get her nails done and you watch both of y’all’s kids? Sometimes we go out to dinner, sometimes we meet at Starbs to work. One time we went to a park and sat on a bench and read our Kindles silently next to each other. One time we needed diapers and to do an amazon return so we went to UPS Store then walked around Target for an hour. It doesn’t have to be crazy, but it does have to be consistent. For your sanity.

TV time is okay if its sandwiched with outside time. I don’t know about you, but my kids react very strongly (negatively) to tv and it can ruin a day if not done strategically 😅 I always sandwich in between a brain activity and an outside activity. If not… MELTDOWN CITY for the rest of the day and lord help me.

Don’t overthink a craft or educational activity. For littles: let them paint the fence or driveway if you know its going to rain soon, put colored paper around the house and give them matching colors stickers or sticky notes and they have to go find the match, same with letters, numbers, or animals. Put tape on the floor and let them drive their cars on the road. Play UNO for color and number recognition. For biggers: (mine is 5) print out a morning workbook and work through it with them. Put words around the house or sentences with blanks and have them hunt to fill in the blanks, let them paint, free draw, or give them a story to go draw. Do these directed draws for kids on youtube – my 5yo could do these for hours!

Bring your computer to activities this is why we made a list of things you can do with vs without your computer. Be sure to time these accordingly for the workload you have. Yesterday, I brought my laptop to soccer practice, last week I brought it to gymnastics, there’s a play museum cafe down the street that I bring it to while they play. Just like, don’t bring it to a big park because you know… kidnappers watch for that.

Finally, recruit the dang help!! I made it 5.5 years without ever using a babysitter that isn’t family and now I’ve had one for 2 weeks and I’m writing a blog post about it, serious game changer! She only comes once a week for 4 hours but those 4 interrupted hours save my life and I plan my workload (call days, launches, etc) for those hours!

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If you want to listen to me yap about being a CEO Mom some more, check out these two recent podcasts I was on!

Motherhood & Creative Business Q&A with Sydney Walden // Better: The Brand Designer Podcast

Farm Life, Three Kids, and a Thriving Business with Sydney Walden // Behind The Design

If you’re local to Dallas / Fort Worth, learn more about how you can meet up with other local CEO Moms in the SAME boat as you learn more about the Made For Mothers DFW Chapter. Babies, strollers, ambition, always welcome!

If you’re not local, join me in the Made For Mothers Virtual Village!

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If you have more ideas, send me a DM on Instagram so I can share them!!

If you’re curious about how you can get a brand and website that works better for you so that you can focus on doing the work inside your business, and more enjoyably enjoy your family, reach out to learn more about a brand and web design and strategy project!

Your brand and website shouldn’t just elevate your business — they should elevate your everyday life.

When your value is clear and your business looks legit, people don’t question your skills — they reach out ready to book!

Start your project with me!