A Realistic Stay At Home Mom Schedule (for kids under 6)

Stay At Home Mom Daily Schedule Template

I’m going to be completely honest with you- I used to scoff at SAHM’s who made schedules. Like, really? You need a schedule to stay home with kids?

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Uhm.

YES.

SO BADLY.

It all started when I wanted to pay more attention to my anger triggers. Turns out, being asked for food constantly, running back and forth from the kitchen to get food and then having to clean it up ALL day made me super angry!

Who knew?

So, we implemented structured snack and eating times. It was pure heaven. And honestly, my kids seemed to enjoy it more too. They liked having designated snack times and having more structure to the day- then there’s time for all the fun toddler activities and momma’s work out!

Because this went so well, we thought What the hell! Let’s schedule the whole damn day!

This is a work in progress. It’s not perfect. And we are definitely very flexible- we change freeplay with exercise sometimes depending on our moods or the weather or nap times come earlier than expected.

There are so many benefits to your kids having a daily routine. You can read more about that here.

How Do Stay At Home Moms Make A Schedule?

I think this depends a lot on what your day to day life consists of. Do you have more than one child? Is there quite an age gap? Do you have very small children close together in age?

You may want to be more rigid or more relaxed than we wanted to be. 

Stay At Home Mom Schedule Example:

7-9 WAKE UP/BREAKFAST/FREE PLAY

When we wake up, my two older kids usually play together while I get breakfast together. 

Is making beds a big thing in your house? Include that here if it is. 

You might want to make this time for quiet coloring or easy age appropriate chores. 

I try to get some work done while my kids are eating and having free play in the morning.

9-10:30 WALK OR YOGA/LEARNING

A walk if it’s nice, yoga if it’s raining. The point is some exercise! Could be a bike ride, going to the park or some other form of physical activity. 

(Cosmic Kids on YouTube is AMAZING for kids yoga and it’s totally free 🙂 )

We included learning at this time too because with kids under 6 you never really know how long they’ll be into something.

 An hour and a half is a lot of time to fill so sometimes if the walk or park only lasts half an hour we will switch to something educational. 

To me, educational can mean many things. It could be working in an actual work book, watching a kid friendly educational Youtube video, playing with money and talking about what each coin is worth- so many things are educational! They just need to be interested.

*update- I do my exercise during this time while my kids are doing yoga. What a great start to the day for ALL of us!

10:30 SNACKTIME!

We try to focus on healthy snacks like fruit or cut up veggies. Whole wheat toast with peanut butter, avocado toast, etc.

Full disclosure- we do not always eat healthy snacks. Sometimes it’s a granola bar and half a fruit roll up. Whatever works!

11-12 LEARNING/CRAFT

I gave up on trying to do complicated crafts. It can be simple- way more simple than you’d expect.

And really, this is more for my 6 year old. 

Today, for instance, we did a pyramid craft with cut up paper and glue. I expected my 4 year to be excited- nope. Not today! He absolutely refused and I let him watch a show so I could help my 6 year old.

And during the craft, my 1.5 wreaked complete havoc trying to grab glue, scissors and ripping up paper and throwing it on the floor.

I’m just sayin’- sometimes I look at these stay at home mom schedules and laugh my ass off cause things aren’t that simple!

BUT-

It is nice to have some sort of guideline to follow even if it doesn’t go completely as planned.

12-1 LUNCHTIME/CLEANUP

Another thing I’ve learned- lunch doesn’t have to be complicated. My kids are just as happy or happier with a peanut butter banana sandwich than a hot cooked meal.

Keep lunch simple! 

I try to clean up after lunch and have my kids bring their dishes to the sink but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. (more often than not it doesn’t happen)

1-3 FREE PLAY/NAP TIMES

This is usually when my 1.5 year old takes a nap- sometimes my 4 year old does too but that’s pretty much at an end. So my two older kids play while I put my youngest to sleep.

Sometimes I let them watch a show if they seem like they’re going to kill each other and I need them to be quiet.

I DO NOT feel guilty about letting my kids watch TV. Some days, they watch a shitload of TV. Others, it’s barely on. 

This is also time for me to get some work done.

3:00 SNACKTIME!

Same as before 🙂

3:30-5:30 FREE PLAY UNTIL SUPPER

Again, this changes all the time. Free play could mean they’re playing dress up, coloring, playing dolls or magformers. Or it could mean my older two are playing Nintendo DS’s while my husband or I are making supper.

Do what works for your family and go with the flow of what your children need. Sometimes kids NEED some downtime to NOT play with each other- that’s okay! Be in tune to what their moods are.

Click the image to download your free SAHM schedule 🙂

More Stay At Home Mom Resources:

• 7 Reasons To Be A Stay At Home Mom (plus 7 reasons NOT to)
• How To Work From Home With Kids (11 tips to be productive as a WAHM)
• Ways To Beat Mom Burn Out
• To The Mom Who Is Overwhelmed
• How To Be A Calmer Parent
• 17 Tips For Becoming A Calm Mom

STAY AT HOME MOM SCHEDULE