How to find time for friendships when you are a busy mummy

As a super busy mummy, it can seem difficult to find time to fit everything into your schedule. With exercise, food shopping, laundry, work, family, friends and even just fitting in some down time can be a struggle. It is important to spend quality time with your children. It is just as important to have some you-time. In order to be the best role model to your children, we should live a good and full life.

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Friendships are an important part of any person’s life; they give us a place to share secrets and joys and to offer receive and support. It’s about having someone to talk to about your problems, share a giggle with and just be there for you when you need them.

Yet, as busy parents, it’s often difficult to prioritise our own friendships. We juggle playdates, parties and trips to the park for our children to ensure they get all the social intersections they need, but this often leads to us leaving our own friendships out of the equation. Here are some tips to help you maintain your friendships and fit in quality time, for even the busiest of mums.

Take advantage of their social time

We spend hours in the stands during a football game or in the seating area at swimming club. Waiting in the car outside ballet class or sitting upstairs the gym watching down during gymnastics. Use this time to your advantage and grab a coffee and a catch up with a pal.

It is also a great opportunity to make friendships with other mums and dads at those activities. These friendships will be beneficial to both you and your children as you can meet up and allow the children to play while you chat.

Multiple family trips

Find activities that you can do with other families so that you can build up friendships between the adults and the children. There are loads you can do that are great for multi-families; amusement parks, water parks, the zoo and even family friendly holiday parks.

Multiple family vacations are great because you get that adult time to chat and relax with others while the children can amuse and play together. You can even leave the dads on babysitting duty while the mums go out for dinner and a glass of wine one evening, then swap the next.

Use childcare wisely

If you have childcare arranged at a nursery or childminder, use the time wisely. If you have it during the day while you’re at work, use your lunch breaks to meet up with friends and have dinner. If you just have them booked into a nursery a few hours a week, refrain from using this time to do chores or shopping or housework. Instead, use this time to organise meeting with your friends.

If you have a friend or family member that looks after your children in the evening, get out of the house and grab dinner. If you use this time for exercise, block off an extra 30 minutes to grab a fruit smoothie after with a pal, using your childcare time wisely with help you to prioritise your time with your friends.

Invite friends over after bedtime

Use the evenings to invite your friends over for dinner when the children go to bed. A nice bottle of wine, the best marzipan chocolate and a good gossip is the perfect recipe for a girl’s night and you don’t even need to leave the house. This is a great option for someone who doesn’t have many people around for childcare or who lives alone with the children.

Being a good friend may present some challenges, but you will reap the rewards in the long run. As your children get older, you will need friends around you because your children will need you less and less. Finding that balance between the time we spend with our children and our adult friends contributes to full and healthy lives.