A Day in The Life of a WHF Freelance Writer/Blogger and Mum

My excellent friend Jayne at Girl Tweets World recently wrote this hilarious look at a day in the life of a non-travelling travel blogger. I absolutely love peeks into people’s lives, especially when they are as funny as Jayne is.

While Jayne and my jobs are fairly similar (we are both WFH writers/bloggers), thinking about how different a child makes the schedule inspired me to write my own day-in-the-life post.

On Mondays and Tuesdays I am with Cheese all day, and there is zero work time, so this is our schedule Wed, Thur and Fri, which are the days she is in preschool. Some times I have a fabulously exciting media event to attend, or a high tea to review, but this is what the majority of my days look like.

7am: Woken up. Usually by a tiny arm thrown around my neck in a gleeful hug, followed by mushy face kisses. If it’s after 7am I’m thrilled. If it’s before 7am I might throw her a yoghurt pouch and turn on Octonauts and try to catch a few more ZZZs.

7:15am: Pull myself out of bed, stumble towards kitchen and turn on kettle to boil the first strong black tea of the day. Imperative for getting anything done.

7:30am: Get Cheese ready for school. I make her lunch the night before so all I have to do is put the lunch boxes and water bottle in her backpack, and double check I packed her hat and spare outfit.

8am: Try and convince Cheese to stop playing, eat her breakfast, and get dressed for school.

8:20am: Remember I need to shower as well and duck in while Alec gets Cheese to brush her teeth and put her shoes on.

8:30am: Out the door to take Cheese to school. It’s about a half hour drive to get there.

9:30am: Home from the school run and ready to start my day. I spend about 30 mins to an hour answering emails, checking in on social media, posting blog posts or images and a bit of faffing around before I start the real work.

10:30-12pm: Solid work time, where I usually complete freelance writing pieces for clients. This might be copywriting for a business website, or writing an article for a travel or parenting website.

12pm-12:30pm: Lunch time. Once a week or so I might meet up with a friend but I have such limited work time that I don’t do it as often as I’d like. Alec and I both work from home so you’d think we would have lunch together more, but we just can’t find the time. I usually make smashed avocado on sourdough with roasted tomatoes and eggs.

12:30-2pm: I finish off any remaining work I might have, but more often than not I spend the time chasing information I need for work, following up on pitches, replying to new emails or sending out new work pitches. If it’s a particularly slow work week I might spend an hour working on a blog post.

2pm: I finish work for the day and take myself for a walk. I like to listen to podcasts while I work, particularly Being Boss.

2:30pm: I drive to pick up Cheese from school and wonder how the time went so quickly.

3pm: Pick up Cheese right on time. If I’m late she gets upset, so I have to make sure I’m there when the door opens. I’ve also seen her try and bolt out the door so it’s always good to be early so she doesn’t escape.

3:05pm: Catch up with Cheese’s teacher – hopefully get a good report for the day, while Cheese whines about how hungry she is. I ask her if she ate her lunch and she always says “No!”. Gee, what a shocker.

3:30-4:30pm: I like to organise play dates for Cheese with her school buddies at nearby playgrounds to let the kids burn off even more energy and so I can catch up with friends at the same time. When we don’t have a play date we will grab blueberry bagels with cream cheese and either do grocery shopping or head to a playground just the two of us.

4:30pm: I drive us home around this time as it’s getting dark and the traffic gets terrible if I wait any longer.

5:30-6:30pm: I play a bit with Cheese, clean out her lunch boxes, make new lunch for the following day, chat with her about what she got up to and who she played with, and make her dinner which she may or may not eat.

6:30-7:45pm: Bath and books time for Cheese. Alec and I take turns reading to her or sitting with her while she falls asleep. I often do the reading so Alec can spend more quality time with her (AKA doing the bedtime sleep battle).

7:45-8:30pm: I make dinner, clean up after Cheese’s dinner and tidy up her toys and general mess while waiting for Alec to emerge victorious from putting the Cheese to sleep.

8:30-9pm: Alec and I eat dinner together. Some days we chat about what we’ve been doing, or what feedback I had from Cheese’s teacher that day. Some days we are too tired to talk and watch TV instead.

9-10:30pm: I work on my blog, edit images, reply to more emails, post pics to Instagram and watch TV. I love mindless TV shows like The Bachelor as I can write at the same time and not miss the plot.

10:30-11pm: Bed time! I read a few pages of a book and fall asleep pretty quickly, absolutely shattered. If I’m lucky I won’t wake again until 7am, but often little Cheese will come in and wake us up wanting milk, more food or a cuddle.

Get more tips on becoming a digital nomad with kids here.