Delegating tasks at home is imperative, especially if you want to stay sane and find time to do what is important to you. There is no sense in doing everything by yourself where you can delegate. Your life becomes easier when you share the burden of household chores.
Some women seem to love the fact that their family is dependent on them but it doesn’t serve you or your family well. If you fall sick, it will cause more stress to everyone in your family because they won’t be able to function without you!
Yes I know you would properly do it better, faster and neater but if you keep doing everything by yourself, you are not teaching your children how to be responsible. Children need to know they have duties and responsibilities as part of the family and that mummy isn’t their servant. Also you will be empowering your children to be independent & responsible young adults when they leave home some day.
Assign age appropriate tasks to your children, get your husband involved in helping out as well. Lower your expectation just yet and with practice your family will become better at doing their tasks. Here’s an example of age appropriate tasks for children from Neatlings.com. Some chores may not apply to your children. Also you know your child better. This list simply gives you an idea of chores your children should be doing based on their age.
If you can afford a cleaner, get one! Take a cue from the proverbs 31 woman. She didn’t do it all by herself, she got help.
The good thing is that in Nigeria, domestic help is very affordable. However ensure that you treat your domestic help with respect and not abuse their human rights. Even if you live abroad you can set aside a budget for hiring a cleaner fortnightly or monthly , it will pay off in a long run.
So ask yourself these questions and take the necessary actions based on your honest answers:
What are you doing for your children that they can do for themselves now?
What are you doing for your husband that he can do for himself?
What do you need to let go off when it comes to household chores or organising your family?
What tasks can you delegate today at home so you have more quality time with your family or more time for yourself instead of working on chores constantly?
Next time, we will look at the importance of delegating tasks at work.
Detola Amure is a Productivity and Transformational Mentor. She is the CEO of Super Working Mum. She helps mothers who are overwhelmed maximise their time so they can manifest their God given dreams. She is an Author and International Speaker. She also helps her customers who are stuck with technology get unstuck.
