Question for all you working parents out there

Take your kids for a walk after dinner. They need exercise too. A family walk to the park or bike ride? Take them for a swim. The dishes can darn well wait. What can't wait is for you to get healthy to enjoy your kids and live a long and healthy life to see them grow up. Set a good example for them by making your health a priority. ' k lecture over.

I say this because I've just gotten around to it in the past couple of years. My kids are 15 and 12 and, yes it's so much easier now, but they have been wanting my husband and I to play soccer with them for years. To go on bike rides. To play road hockey. We lost a lot of time with them because we were too tired or too sedentary to take advantage of that special time. Thankfully they still like to be around us and are thrilled when Dad comes out to play hockey with the neighbourhood kids. They are cheering me on to reach my goal so that I can join a soccer team and they can come out to my games for a change.

I would take advantage to move your body during your lunch hours/breaks. Even if it's just finding some stairs to go up and down. Just get that body moving. The more you exercise, the better you'll sleep (even with 2 year old) and the less exhausted you'll be.

Best of luck.

I agree completely. My kids are now 13 and 10, so it is SO much easier. But you have to get out and get active with them at an early age. The more active you are with them, the more you'll start feeling better. You'll sleep so much better. Yes, you will be stiff after the first few times, but make it a habit to do something active, even something small, every evening for at least 30 minutes. Get your blood flowing. Since I started exercising, I really don't have as much time as I used to. Instead of staying up late watching movies, reading, or playing silly games on my phone, I've started getting in bed earlier. (Which getting an adequate amount of sleep not only helps fight lethargy, but does wonders for weight loss and health.) Good luck to you!

Maybe if you can squeeze it in, take the baby for a stroller ride and get a 20-30 min walk in. Then when you get back, the husband can give the baby her bath while you take care of finishing up homework, dishes, etc.

Its super hard, but you've got to make some time for yourself. On the days my husband works late, I take my 6 year old to the track when I go walk and bring his scooter or his hand held game, and he either sits in the grass and plays his game, or he rides his scooter around the track while I walk.

I've had to start putting myself as a priority. Its hard, but If I plan on being around for him when he gets older, it has to be done.

I highly recommend the FitBit. It is such a cool little gadget and I think especially helpful for a working parent's schedule. Even if you can't fit in a proper workout, you can fit in little bursts of extra steps and this device let's you see graphically how that leads to extra calorie burn. It really adds up. It helps to have the motivation to take the stairs (because it is counting them for you!) or jog in place while you are loading the dishwasher, or dance with your kids for a few minutes (my kids love silly dancing). It really adds up and lets you compare a regular day without the extra effort to a day on the same schedule/routine, but with little bursts of steps whenever possible.

There is no easy answer though. It is just plain hard. However, seeing other working parents doing it gives me a little glimmer of hope that I can do it too. You will find lots of us going through your same struggle. Good luck on your journey! I hope you find a suggestion on here that will work for you!! You can do it!!!

You sound like me!!! And the thought of getting up at 4:30am, quite honestly, turns my stomach!!! I work 7am - 4pm, have a 9 and 8 year old and a 19 mth old. The toddler is in daycare, so he stays there til about 5:30pm, we have found he does much better that way. He doesn't like to leave when his "friends" are all there - go figure! My daughters are both in gymnastics, 3 days a week from 4 - 6:30pm, then its home, speed eat, homework, showers, etc and bed (with any luck) by 8:45pm. I'm also in school full time, so then its time for my homework. I have done this.

From 4:30 - 5:15pm (give or take a few min) is MY time to exercise. I do this usually Mon - Thurs. Fri, Sat and Sun is all family time. We usually go for a family walk Sat. morning, so that's a little help. My husband and I used to do Insanity after the lil one went to bed and the girls either did it with us or found something else to do. I have a stressful job, so on days I can't work out, I'm in a horrible mood, so for the sanity of all of us, we work together in this.

And for the record, cleaning takes the back seat to everything. Our house is "lived in", its not a show house, but not a disaster either. I don't cook every night, and ya know what, that's the way it goes! We can't do EVERYTHING!!!

Good Luck to you

Laura

I just bought body revolution. 30 mins a day as opposed to 60-70 minutes a day. It works, its intense and I feel good. For me, I just want it. I took my "before picture" and I was disgusted. I no longer want to be fat! I have to try something to better my life. I feel so much better, I sleep better, I feel more energized (even when my 2 year old decides to wake up in the middle of the night). And really once you get in the routine, you WANT to do it. Best of luck to you

Five years ago, I was an avid gym goer (2 hour workouts 4-5x/week). Now, I have 3 kids under 3 (one of whom is 7 months old and still getting up 2-3x/night) and work (and travel) full time as does my husband. I agree with what a lot of others have said: 1) Only spot cleaning during the week, 2) Try to prep/plan meals on the weekend. It doesn't always happen as planned but my husband and I try to cook a couple of dishes on Sunday and re-heat through the week, 3) Keep a routine. My husband and I made a commitment to complete Insanity (a 60 day program, 6 days a week). We work out every night after the kids go to bed (around 8 or 830) and sometimes do double work outs on the weekend to make up for any missed days. Unfortunately, we end up eating around 930pm but at least it keeps us from getting up at 430 to work out! 4) Forget about the gym. You can do so many little things throughout the day as others have said (the stairs, a quick set of jumping jacks, a quick set of push ups)--it all adds up!

Good luck and thanks for posting this thread. I've gotten a lot of good ideas out of it already.

First of all, it's hard. I hear you. I have three kids age 7 and under and both my husband and I work full time. First, I would work very hard to get your husband on board. Believe me, the benefits will be well worth it to him in the long run!

Just a few ideas (and everyone is different, so it's finding what works for YOU). Can your husband load the dishwasher or help out around the house? I know - I just heard wives everywhere crack up. But seriously, is there one thing he could help do that would lessen your load? How old are the kids? Can the oldest help out? I taught my 7 year old how to unload the dishwasher - it's one less thing I have to do.

Seriously consider the early morning workouts. Yeah, it's early, but then you're done for the rest of the day. I do a 5:30 am bootcamp, and it's awesome. I don't really have to interact (because early mornings are difficult for me), but by the end of the workout I'm good. I get to do new exercises all the time, someone else is planning them out for me, and they will call me if I'm not there. It's great accountability.

Find someone that you can workout with for the accountability. A running buddy/zumba partner...whatever. Having that accountability is going to be a great asset to you. Consider signing up for a class/race/etc. You'll want to work hard to meet that deadline, and will give you extra motivation. Otherwise, it's very easy to put things on the back burner.

You might already do this, but I firmly believe in crock pots and freezer meals. God bless them.

And honestly, do what you can. Don't beat yourself up over what you didn't do - focus on the postives. Of course, the harder you work the more/faster results you'll see...but that is up to you.

I feel your pain. I have found that I truely love working out in the mornings, it is the only time that I can guarantee myself. Some mornings it is only a 30 minute Wii Zumba, other mornings it is Zombie gym (20 minute elliptical trainer and 20-40 minutes on the BowFlex). I have a soon to be 2 year old, 13 year old and 16 year old. My husband does the majority of the cooking (I lucked out there!) and I make the teenagers do some chores (let's them pay for their cell phones and sports). We have the big kids sports in the evening so evening time workouts would never work for me. I have done the lunch time workouts too.
Maybe starting to incorporate some light working out into your morning and then working up to where you want to be. don't forget to stretch! I find my day goes better and my stress level stays pretty low on the days that i wake up to working out.
Hope your lil one starts to sleep through the night soon. I know mine wakes up on occasion and it can change a whole sleeping night!
Good luck girl!!! If you have to mix it up a little to get some time in, so be it.

I will walk at lunch for at least 30 minutes a few times a week, walk my dogs for a couple miles on weekends (I have 2 big dogs and walk them separately!). What has really saved me and kept me motivated is the gym I found. Our family membership includes for my kids: (1) rock climbing (2) karate (3) gymnastics and (4) childcare room. My 6 year old takes karate twice a week. Once a week, my kids do rock climbing, and once at least every other weekend I take advantage of the childcare room.

When my oldest was about 1 1/2, I tried to do Taebo at home (yeah, remember that?!), he thought I was dancing and somehow managed to climb out of his playpen and run towards me to join in just as I was doing a side kick - hitting him and flying him clear across the room - I vowed I would never exercise at home again!

I love this thread. Pages of solid advice. No coddling. People are saying "yeah, it's hard. Here's what I do." To me, this is a shining example of motivation and support.

OP, you just gotta make the time. You fit it in. You make it work. What do you do when your kid is sick? You figure it out. I'm not necessarily arguing that your exercise is more urgent than a sick child, but my point is that we figure out a way to make things work when something is important. (and I could argue why your exercise and self-care should be #1, but that's a different conversation)

With kids, it's easy. Of course they are a priority. But what about the other stuff? You have to evaluate your priorities and sometimes make some tough choices. You say you aren't going for a walk when there are dishes to be done, dinner to make and children to love and care for. Why not? Can you remove one of those things and still get a walk in? What about doing the dishes later and walking now?

You say you are too stiff when you first wake up to exercise. OK, what about exercising in the evening and saving some of your other responsibilities for the morning? As others have suggested, get the kids involved. Take the 2yo with you on a walk. That can be a great outing for the kid and good exercise for you. Stick to the 3 days/week commitments. Fit it in. Make it work.

My wife and I both work. We have two girls, 10 and 7. I am the president of the PTO at the girls school, my wife serves on the board. We volunteer. I carpool mornings, she carpools afternoons. We spend time with our kids. We are exhausted much of the time. But we make time to exercise. We feel like we have to - that exercise is part of our happiness. We make it a priority.

We can't afford a full-time maid, but we do have someone come clean the house every other week. That helped a lot. Budget things like that if you can. It might mean giving something else up. It's worth it to us to pay for that service to give us more time to do other things.

You're not alone. And you're not without choices.

Instead of taking a lunch hour, I work out during lunch and eat lunch at my desk!

Me too!

4 days a week I take my son to a local bike trail and he rides his bike while I run along side him. Nice way for us to get our exercise in and spend time together.

It is difficult, but you have to first make yourself a priority. Your health is more important. My doctor told me that taking 30 minutes out of my morning/night to focus on me was not selfish. I bet a lot of mothers feel guilty for taking time away from their children, but you have to find a way. If you aren't healthy in the long run, who is it hurting more? I'm sure your kids don't want to have a dead mother before they are in middle school because you didn't take care of yourself. That's how I look at it so I don't feel bad about working out after I get off.

I joined the YMCA so there are programs for my little one while I work out. No other gym in this area offered any sort of child care/child activity so I went with them. Right now I'm on a late shift so don't get off until 6. We eat dinner around 7:30 and the crock pot saves time. Seriously, put that stuff together in the morning and it's ready to go for dinner.

Also on non gym days, we go for walks on the trail or at the local high school track. So I'm teaching her to be active and eat right while taking care of myself.

My Suzy Homemaker skills have been sadly lacking since I started working out for an hour 5 days a week. It’s amazing how much stuff I apparently used to get done in that hour. I have gotten to the point where I have to just straighten up during the week and actually clean on the weekends. I realized that things don't have to be perfect all of the time.

Ditto

Basically, I squeeze in a workout whenever I can. Some nights, I'm up until 11pm doing weights or running. If I happen to go to bed by 10pm then I'm up at 5ish for a run. I actually have the best workouts first thing in the morning and it really wakes me up. A "workout" can mean different things for different people at different points in their lives. You can just wake up 30 minutes earlier than usual and go for a brisk walk around the neighborhood. One thing that keeps me going is that no matter what I do, I REQUIRE myself to workout 3 times a week. Some weeks, that means that I run on Thursday and Friday then do weights on Saturday because I've slacked off the beginning of the week. But that's fine, just give yourself a minimum number of sessions per week and you'll stick to it.

I do agree with some other folks that other things have slipped since I've started working out routinely. We might have laundry sitting for a week or dishes don't get washed every night but that's life. My health is more important, I choose to prioritize me. Nothing bad will happen if my kids don't have a pair of socks one day or all the dishes are in the sink.

BTW - my kids are 6 and 4, many nights at least one of them ends up in my bed. I don't think that sleeping through the night will go away soon, although hopefully by the time they're teenagers.