All around the globe, whether you are in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the United States, the role that Stay-At-Home moms play is well under valued and often even their own partners do not recognise the stress they come under in running a household. However, as a stay-at-home mom you need to consider your role in the home as a professional position on an equal footing such as a Nanny or housekeeper and treat it in such a way. If you do, you will find it much easier to deal with the challengers and stress of the daily chores.

Strategy 1 - Plan Your Day and Week

If you worked in an office, you boss would expect you to plan the work that you would be doing on a day-to-day basis and in the upcoming week, so why is it any different in the household for Stay-At-Home moms. Well quite simply it is not. As a stay-at-home mom you know the work that has to be done, why not schedule it just like a job.

The best way to do that is to purchase a full size A4 diary from the local newsagency. Make sure the diary has a time schedule in half an hour intervals, next simply write down and allocate a length of time for the tasks you need to get done during the day. This is a great device for Stay-At-Home moms as it really makes you focus on the tasks you need to get done and it also shows you how much you have actually accomplished in the day. Just knowing what you have accomplished will help you with your stress levels.

Make sure though that as you are planning your day and week that you include an appropriate amount of travel time to pickup and drop the kids off. Also make sure you schedule in your day some YOU time, to do things like meet with friends and do some meditation but more about that shortly.

Strategy 2 - Plan Your Meals In Advance

One of the greatest challenges I see stay-at-home moms face is getting the evening meal ready. I often see stay-at-home moms rushing to the shop at about 4 pm in the afternoon trying to get the groceries for the evening meal with the children screaming and yelling in tow. Stop It, Its Crazy!

Plan your meals in advance … do not leave it till the last minute. Whilst planning your day and week, make sure you include a period for planning the daily meals. Make sure you have everything ready to go each day. There are now so many websites where you can get really fantastic recipes that you can use to make your meals interesting and the preparation does not have to take that long.

Also when you are planning your weekly meals, make sure that you document them in your diary each day. This will ensure that you will not forget what meal you allocated to each day and also make sure you allocate enough time to cook the meal. Most modern recipes include information on how long the preparation time takes and how long it will take to cook.

Strategy 3 - Plan Your Outings In Advance

Way too many Stay-At-Home moms do not get out enough. If that is the life you have chosen make sure you plan some outings for the week for both YOU time but also for time with the kids. By planning your next weekly outings, you can use that information to help the children and your partner be encouraged to help get various chores complete and you can using the outing as a reward for being good and helpful.

The sort of outings you might consider is trips to the park, maybe to a restaurant like McDonalds or QUIZNOS. Even a trip to the toy store, is a dream come true for the children plus it can help you work out what they want for Christmas. Hey, now there is another stressful time of year.

Strategy 4 - Make Up A Roster and Delegate Tasks

One of the most important things you can do is to make up a roster for your family. Your role as a parent is to teach your children how to look after themselves, oh by the way, that also means the partners as well. Giving your children and your partner certain responsibilities each week on a Family Roster can help you cut down your work but also teach them how to look after themselves and to keep there own houses tidy when they finally get one.

The sort of tasks you may include on the Family Roster really depends totally on the age of the children. For example the number one task a five year old might be to give the Budgerigar seed each day where as an older child of 16 or more, might have the responsibility of mowing the lawn each week.

When developing a Family Roster, make sure it has two sides, Completed and Not Completed and make sure that they can move either a button or sticker from the Not Completed side to the Completed side. Just like when you complete your tasks in your diary, the ability to show the tasks they have completed on the Family Roster will give you children a sense of achievement and satisfaction. When children feel as though they can achieve, you will find they will be much happier and the household will be less stressed.

Strategy 5 - Meditate Daily

Okay, I can hear it now, "Oh Yeah Hippy, Want Us to Meditate do ya?" Absolutely! Look whilst meditation has certainly been a thing of fringe groups in western society or associated with eastern religions many researchers are now coming to the distinct conclusion that meditation can make a huge difference to our day-to-day lives and helps us to overcome stress.

The core advantage meditation will play in your life is to help you to relax and deal with challenging situations more effectively. The more relaxed you are the more creative you can be in dealing with any issues that arise. I certainly recommend that when you are meditating, that you use baroque music with your meditation as it will help increase the alpha waves which will help lead you to a calm feeling. This is especially useful if you do not have a long period to meditate. I recommend a 20 minute meditation session at least once a day preferably two. You will be really surprised the difference it makes to your day. Just try it out, you have nothing to loose and the rest of your life to gain.

Nobody who has children can deny the challenges and stress stay-at-home moms face but if you undertake these five strategies, it will go along way to decreasing the stress. To finish off, I want to reiterate the five strategies stay-at-home moms should consider using.

Strategy 1 - Plan Your Day and Week
Strategy 2 - Plan You Meals In Advance
Strategy 3 - Plan Your Outings In Advance
Strategy 4 - Make Up A Roster and Delegate Tasks
Strategy 5 - Meditate Daily