Working moms need help too….After spending the weekend cleaning bathrooms, scrubbing floors, doing laundry and grocery shopping needless to say I found myself exausted and left with little energy to spend time with those most important to me in life, MY FAMILY.  How did this happen?  I had to imagine that I wasn’t the only Working Mom out there that feels this way, or am I?  

To clear my head I found this great article and source that let me know I wasn’t alone and neither are you.  Check out this great piece on the advantages of hiring someone to help with the less important things in life to make time for the more important things in life.

Do The Math – Then do less, make more and spend more quality time with your family.  By Dr. Debra Condren   

Here’s what I often hear from working moms:

“I love my career. That said, it demands a ton of hours. At home, I manage kids’ schedules, laundry, plus most nights I field the question, “What should we do for dinner?”

“I’m overwhelmed. Basically, I need another me. How can I stop being stretched too thin?”

Sound familiar?

Do you have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, doing everything yourself so it’ll be done right, or to “save” money? (If you’re a woman, you’re 110% percent more likely to answer yes than are the guys in your life.) Have you ever calculated how much this is costing you? I’m guessing not.

Time to do the math.

First, figure out the real price tag for hiring someone to lighten your load.

Let’s say you clear $100,000 a year operating a small consulting firm; that breaks down to $48 per hour. Now let’s say you spend six hours a week running errands that anyone with a car and a sense of direction could do. Plus six hours a week doing household chores. That comes out to $576 (12 hours x $48/hour). You could hire a competent person to do the same work for $18 per hour ($216). So you’re losing $360 a week by doing the work yourself.

Right about now you may be thinking, “That’s easy to say for someone who makes $100,000; I can’t afford it, though.” Okay. Let’s do the math with $75K. That breaks down to $36 per hour. Now let’s say you spend six hours a week running errands that anyone with a car and a sense of direction could do. Plus six hours doing household chores. That comes out to $432 (12 hours x $36/hour). So you’re still come out ahead.

Every hour you needlessly burn up by failing to delegate is time you could be investing in your career, taking on exciting new project opportunities, positioning yourself for advancement, networking with colleagues, potential clients, and movers and shakers, and freeing up more time for yourself and for quality time with your family—and it’s one of the key ways women self-sabotage.

I’ve worked with hundreds of women who have trouble rationalizing outsourcing—and it doesn’t matter how much they earn. If you crunch the numbers, however, you’ll have objective figures that prove it makes sense to free up your time for what really counts.

Ask around and find yourself a good cleaning person, a part-time or full-time executive assistant, a computer whiz, and other support people that can complete tasks for a fraction of the time or money it would take you to do it yourself.

Stop wasting time thinking “I need another me” and spend the money for a “mini-me”. You’ll end up a lot richer—at home, and at work.

Dr. Debra Condren is the author of, amBITCHous (Broadway Books), a woman’s guide to earning her worth and achieving her dreams—with integrity. Ask Debra any question now at: Debra@AmbitionIsNotADirtyWord.com.

About the Author: Debra Condren, Ph.D., interviewed 500 women for her book, amBITCHous, a woman’s guide to redefining ambition as a virtue, not a dirty word.

Still don’t think you can afford to hire someone to help – Try these quick Trendy Mom Tips. 

Thirty seconds is longer than you think. In the time it takes to prep a bowl of cereal for the kids, you can:

1.    Prevent soap scum buildup in your shower with a few quick squirts of daily shower spray.

2.    Swipe the bathroom counter with a disinfectant wipe, clearing it of hairspray, toothpaste and soap scum.

If you have two minutes, you can:

1.    Gather stray clutter into a laundry basket. (Just be sure to put everything away later — after all, you can only hide so many filled laundry baskets in your hallway closet!)

2.    Sweep high-traffic areas, like the entryway or bathroom floor.

3.    Vacuum tops of ceiling fan blades and reduce the amount of dust swirling through the room.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Technorati Tags: doing laundry, grocery shopping, household chores, quality time, sense of responsibility, working mom