Work life balance is one of those phrases that sounds neat and tidy and rarely feels that way in practice. Most weeks it is not a balance so much as a constant juggle between work deadlines, school pick-ups, meals and everyone’s mental load. And for a lot of families now, that juggle plays out at the kitchen table rather than in an office, with more mums than ever working from home some or all of the week.
These 25 tips come from our own experience running a family business alongside parenting, plus real suggestions from Newy with Kids readers who are in the thick of it too. None of it is about doing more. It is about carrying the load in a way that leaves a bit more energy at the end of the day.
Managing the Mental Load at Work
The mental load, the constant background tracking of appointments, permission slips, what is for dinner and who needs new shoes, is often heavier than the physical tasks themselves. A few ways to lighten it on the work side:
Work part-time or job-share where it is an option. Not every workplace or role allows it, but it is worth asking before assuming the answer is no.
Look at working from home for part of the week, or shifting some hours to the evening. One reader blocks out a single night a week for focused work instead of stretching herself thin every day: “One night a week is reserved for late night work, that way I can leave every other day to pick up kids by four and have one night to keep on top of the professional hours.”
Protect the start and end of your day. Block your calendar so meetings cannot get booked in around school drop-off and pick-up. It removes one daily source of stress.
Line up emergency childcare before you need it, not during a crisis. Have a backup plan for sick days and know who else is authorised to collect your kids if you cannot get there in time.
Making Hybrid and Work-From-Home Days Actually Work
More mums than ever are working from home for at least part of the week, and it brings its own version of the juggle. No commute does not mean no chaos, especially when a toddler decides your video call is the perfect moment for a meltdown.
Set up a spot that is yours, even if it is just a corner of the dining table with a “closed for business” sign the kids understand. A dedicated space, even a small one, makes it easier to switch into work mode and just as easy to switch out of it at the end of the day.
Block your focus time around the school run rather than fighting it. Save calls and deep work for the hours the kids are at school or daycare, and keep the edges of the day looser for pick-ups and the afterschool scramble.
Screen time during back-to-back meetings is not something to feel guilty about. An hour of a show while you are on a call is a fair trade for getting through a work day without losing your patience by 3pm.
Use school holiday care or vacation care programs to cover the days working from home will not stretch to. Trying to run a full work day with the kids home for six weeks straight rarely ends well for anyone.
If the walls start closing in, a local co-working space can be worth the cost of admission for a change of scenery and actual quiet.
Getting Organised So Mornings Run Smoother
A lot of the daily stress in juggling work and family comes down to logistics rather than time itself. Sort as much as possible the night, or even the week, before.
Lay out clean, ironed clothes for the week on a Sunday. Keep a spare outfit for yourself and the kids in the house and in the car, along with a spare toothbrush and hairbrush, for the inevitable mess.
Pack the car the night before with anything you need for the next day like daycare bags, school folders, laptop, gym gear.
Use a shared family calendar everyone can see, whether it lives on the fridge or online. Put every appointment, birthday party, work trip and school event on it, and get in the habit of checking it daily.
One reader keeps her admin on autopilot: “Online grocery shopping, having a cleaner, paying bills on automatic fortnightly payments so bills are always in credit are just a few things to make life easier and more simple.”
A shared task app such as Cozi or Google Keep can sit alongside the calendar for the smaller running lists, school notes to reply to, forms to sign, birthday presents to buy, so nothing depends on one person remembering everything.
Meal Planning That Actually Saves Time
Deciding what is for dinner every single night is its own drain on the mental load. A simple weekly plan removes that decision fatigue.
Plan meals for the week ahead and do as much prep as you can in advance. Several readers swear by batch cooking on a day off and freezing meals in portions, or using a slow cooker on weekends to build up a freezer stash.
Keep a stocked pantry for the nights nothing goes to plan. Pasta, canned salmon, and something quick to throw together will save you more than once.
Online grocery shopping is one of the easiest changes to make if you have not already. Ordering the weekly shop from your phone during a lunch break, rather than wrangling kids around a supermarket after work, buys back a genuine chunk of the week. A meal kit delivery service is worth trying too if the planning itself is the part that wears you down, since the thinking is done for you and the box turns up with exactly what you need.
Have a backup takeaway or delivery app sorted for the nights that need it. There is no prize for cooking from scratch every night of the week.
Sharing the Housework Load
Housework tends to expand to fill however much time you give it, so a rough system helps more than trying to do it all at once.
Set a loose schedule rather than letting it pile up, whether that is a bit each day or one blitz session on the weekend. One reader turns it into a game: “We have started a lucky dip chore game. All the jobs that need doing on a Saturday or Sunday get popped into a bowl, all scrunched up. Each child picks out a job and gets to work.”
Get kids involved with age-appropriate tasks like emptying the dishwasher, setting the table or watering plants. It teaches responsibility and takes something off your plate.
Reduce the volume of stuff in the house. Less clutter genuinely means less to clean, and it is worth being deliberate about what comes into the house in the first place.
And on the days it does not happen, let it go. A messy house is not a sign you are failing, it is a sign you have kids.
Staying on Top of Laundry
Laundry is the chore that never actually finishes, so little and often beats letting it build into a mountain.
Try to run a load a day if you can manage it, and put it away as soon as it is dry rather than letting clean baskets pile up. One reader has her rhythm down: “Do your washing in the evenings so it is ready to hang out that night. In summer it will be dry by 10am, and in winter if you put it on the airer inside, you can easily move it outside during the day.”
Another reader incorporates her child into the chores. “I sit on the ground & fold washing while my two year old plays close by. That way I can still sit & interact at his level while doing some needed housework” – Sally M
Making Time for Yourself and Your Relationships
This is the part that slips first when things get busy, and it is usually the part that matters most for actually coping.
Carve out time that is just for you, even in small doses. A coffee with a friend, a yoga class, a quiet dinner out. It does not need to be elaborate to count.
Ask for help before you are at breaking point. Trade babysitting with another family, lean on relatives, and accept help when it is offered rather than insisting on doing it all yourself.
Protect time with your partner too. It does not have to be a big night out. A quick coffee catch-up, a walk along the foreshore, or even brunch at home with the kids in front of a show for half an hour can be enough to reconnect.
Finally, know when to say no. Cut back on activities and commitments when life is already full, and do not feel obligated to attend every event you are invited to. Protecting some breathing room in the week is not a luxury, it is what makes the rest of it sustainable.
The mental load is the invisible, ongoing task of remembering and organising everything a household needs, from appointments to school forms to what is for dinner. Sharing it starts with making it visible, a shared calendar and a clear division of who owns which tasks both help.
There is no single right number. It depends on your industry, your support network and your family’s needs. Part-time or flexible arrangements work well for many families, but full-time can work too with the right systems around childcare and household admin.
Mum guilt is common and rarely reflects reality. Kids generally do well with a mix of quality time and consistency, not constant presence. Focusing on the time you do have together, rather than the hours you are apart, tends to help more than trying to eliminate the guilt outright.
Pick one area first rather than overhauling everything at once. A shared family calendar or a basic weekly meal plan are usually the fastest wins because they remove daily decision-making.
A dedicated workspace, focus time blocked around school or child care hours, and a backup plan for the days it will not work, such as school holiday care, are the three things that make the biggest difference. Screen time during meetings is a reasonable trade-off, not a failure.
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