I am a mom working full time returning to school... I need help!

First thing I'll ask is what type of job do you have? Are you constantly busy or is there downtime? I used to work 3 jobs (1 full time and 2 part-time) while going to school full time with a kid at home. The first thing was my husband became the primary caregiver because I was rarely home.

I went to school All day M-Th and worked as a lab assistant at the University 15hrs/wk. Then I worked three 12hr shifts F-Su at my primary employment. In the evenings during the week, I worked 7-1am in a call center at work for overtime whenever I could.

I didn't have to worry about exercise because my job was manual, I got lots of walking done on campus and I rarely had time to eat. As for studying, I would make flash cards and keep them in my pockets for downtime at work. I would study/sleep in the bathroom on breaks. I was able to use my lab assistant hours to complete my research projects. I would make recordings quizzing myself and listen to them in the car. Ask a question....pause.....answer it. That will give you time to answer it when listening, then validate your answer. You could do the same while doing cardio on a treadmill or exercise bike. Or listen to recorded lectures.

My home stayed a wreck. I had to rely on my husband to take care of our son for the most part. He would bring me dinner on the nights I would work evenings and so I could see my son for a few minutes at least. Needless to say, I burned the candle at both ends as I'm sure you will as well. But I graduated Summa Cum Laude. You will get through this season of life and come out stronger.

Start a family calendar and get everyone involved in keeping it. Cozi.com has a really good one and it's free. It has a meal planner and to-do lists tied in with it. Cozi was my brain while I was going to school and I just got my bachelor's degree in June. I had a couple of to-do lists going at all times: one for school assignments, one for shopping, another for general things I needed to do. I learned that I needed to put anything I knew I needed to do on a list as soon as it popped into my head and check those lists every day or I'd forget things.

Decide which are the most important things that need to be done. Work, important. Schoolwork, important. Family time, important. Dusting the living room, not so important. Cooking every meal from scratch, not so important. You get the idea. Make sure the important things get done, try to farm out some of the smaller tasks and let everything else get taken care of when there's time or not at all. My house was rarely clean, and no one complained, although I did spring for a cleaning service every 6 months or so just to take the edge off.

Give your kids and your husband a few chores and make sure they are fully aware of their responsibilities. You should not be responsible for doing everything or making sure it gets done. Make up a public chart, if need be, with everyone's daily or weekly chores outlined. Do not stress out or freak out at your family if things don't happen but you could make an allowance tied to finishing all chores and if they don't all get done, no allowance. No fuss. Even little kids can have some simple chores and psychologists will tell you that it's good for them to have something they are responsible for doing that's within their capabilities.

While I was going to school my husband and I split up the responsibility for making dinner. That helped me out because I could come home, start homework, eat dinner when he got home and made it and then go back to homework until bedtime. On my cooking nights, if I just had too much to do I would pick up pizza or something on the way home.