It’s not uncommon for new parents to experience stress and anxiety when work starts to pile up because they were too busy admiring their perfect little miracle! Yes, all new parents want to spend every waking minute adoring their baby and attending to his or her every need. In all of this, however, household chores tend to take a backseat until you tear yourself away from the crib and realize the utter mess that is your home!
Now, as new parents, your teamwork skills are going to be tested to its limits. So pay close attention to the advice we’re about to give you to distribute the work equally and avoid those stress and anxiety attacks.
Big Chores – Four Hands are Better than Two
Housework becomes more tiring and time-consuming (not to mention dreadful) when you’re doing it alone. So when it comes to the big jobs like vacuuming and mopping a room, one of you can do the former while your partner does the latter. Of course, the two of you can switch jobs next time around; for example, if you mopped the last time, it would be fair for both of you if you vacuumed this time. The same way, both of you can dust furniture by dividing the room in to two halves.
Dishes – From ‘Whose Turn’ to ‘Our Turn’!
In most homes (particularly ones without a dishwasher), household members share the burden of doing dirty dishes by taking turns. Well, for new parents, we suggest you abolish the “I did it the last time” argument altogether and simply do dishes together! This means while you scrub, your better half can keep busy by tidying up in the kitchen before switching places with you to rinse off the dishes. Again, you and your partner can switch jobs (scrubbing and rinsing) each time.
Laundry – Divide and Conquer!
With a newborn in the house, you’ll probably have a lot more dirty laundry lying around. Before it gets to an overwhelming pile, take turns to put a load in and share the post-laundry work equally. This means working as a team to hang laundry to dry, fold them up, and put them back where they belong. Laundry won’t feel like such a drag when you’ve got a partner to help speed things up.
Bathroom – Clean Up after Yourselves
It’s simple; keep a bathroom brush near the door or in a corner so that you can clean any dirty marks left on the floor before you walk out. If both of you did this, your bathroom floor wouldn’t need a thorough scrubbing for days on end! Similarly, after every shower, it helps to rinse the floor and squeegee the water in to the drain to keep the floor clean.
Bathroom – What About the Rest of it?
Where the sink is concerned, cleaning twice a day ensures that it is germ-free and spotless for the most part. One of you can clean during the day, while the other can give it a quick scrub after brushing their teeth before bed. For the toilet bowl, the only way around this is to take turns or compromise; for example, “I’ll clean the toilet bowl if you change the next three nappies” generally seems like a fair deal!
But, of course, for busy parents, there’s always the option of hiring a professional cleaner to oversee your household chores for you, so you can focus on spending quality time with your kids.