If, like me, your average day includes plenty of boring tasks, you may benefit from finding some ways to inject a little fun into them. Or, if this isn’t possible, at least a way to get through them without feeling a sense of dread and resentment.

Motherhood is made up of many components. One of them, unfortunately, is boring and mundane tasks. By far my least favourite daily task is clearing up after my children’s breakfast, lunch and dinner. I spend far too much of my time picking food up, wiping the floor,  vacuuming, doing dishes, wiping the high chair, wiping food of the walls… I’m sure you know the drill.

I began to really resent the time I spent on this seemingly pointless task. Like a hamster on a wheel I knew I’d be right back in the same place, crouched on the floor picking up squished peas, next dinner time.

Then I decided I needed to find a way to use this dead time to my advantage. If there’s one thing I’m short of, its time. Aren’t we all? It made sense to try and use this huge chunk of time I spent clearing up children’s food every day in a more positive way. And making it fun would be an additional bonus.

I started to find ways to make more boring tasks more enjoyable. From laundry to boring work tasks there is a way to enjoy every boring chore and improve the hours you spend on them significantly:

Use Your Ears

One thing I really miss from my pre-motherhood days, is the ability to spend hours curled up with a good book. Since I became a mum, reading has become a rare treat.

However, while I’m scraping food off the floor, ironing or carrying out many boring household tasks I may not have the benefit of a spare pair of hands but my ears are still free. I can listen to podcasts on topics I find interesting or even listen to an audio book. It’s not quite the same as reading, but beggars choosers and all that.

Somedays I may listen to a TED talk while sorting laundry and others I may crank up some dodgy 90s tunes. Either way, there’s always some way I can use my sense of hearing to make a boring task more enjoyable.

Work In Short Bursts

If you have a short concentration span, as I do, breaking a task into manageable chunks with breaks in between is hugely beneficial.

I found this when I was studying and it applies equally to any time I’m chained to my desk or housework. Working for 30 minutes and then having a break to do something enjoyable, makes boring tasks much more bearable.

Taking a five or ten minute break every 30 minutes or so gives me the momentum to keep going. No one wants to be chained to a desk or an iron for too long – a sure fire way to decrease productivity and produce a resentful mind-set.

Look Forward

Keep reminding yourself how good you’ll feel when you’ve finished. I always try and harness some of the feelings of relief and satisfaction I know I’ll have when I’m done with a boring task and project it onto the here and now.

I also try and constantly remind myself why I’m carrying out the boring task. Sure, peeling bits of trodden on cheese off the kitchen floor is boring, yet think how clean the kitchen will be when I’m done (for an hour or so at least).

There is a reason behind every boring task. If there wasn’t a goal in sight, you wouldn’t be putting yourself through it. Focus on the goal. And remember once you’ve finished the boring job you can move forward onto something more fun.

Have A Reward

It doesn’t need to be anything major (though it can be if you wish) but having a reward lined up for when you’ve finished your boring task will help your keep going.

It can be something as small as a bar of your favourite chocolate or a glass of wine, but just having something to work towards will make the boring task much more palatable.

In the evenings, when I have boring admin work to do, I often reward myself with a favourite TV programme. The knowledge that the sooner I finish, the sooner I can watch it helps me power on through.

Have a Perspective Check

Right before I start a boring task, I find a little perspective check necessary. So I have to spend the next hour cleaning or entering data into a boring spreadsheet? At least I’m not living in a war torn country or walking for three days to fetch some water from a well.

A little perspective and gratitude for the comfortable, peaceful and abundant life I lead in comparison to so many others is a sure-fire way to help me enjoy a boring task. I try to remember how lucky I am to have the life I have. There are people around the world who would swap lives with me in an instant, squishy peas on the floor and all.

I hope this has given you some inspiration and will help make your everyday boring tasks a little more bearable, if not slightly fun.

Let us know if you have any other suggestions!

(This post was contributed by Michal Johnson).

I’m working on a new incentive system. A rewards programme if you like, such as the one AMEX has. It is called the Parenting Incentive Plan, people will call it “PIP”, and it will be amazing.

It starts in pregnancy where you enter into a contract with the expected child. You will be the rewards receiver and they will be the rewarder. The deal is signed and comes into effect immediately upon birth. (Can you tell I’m a lawyer – I’ve thought this through).

There can be no cancellation of the contract.

As the parent you will accrue points which you can then collect for rewards once the child attains the age of 18 years if age.

How to Accrue Points

You will accrue 1 point for each of the following:

• each hour you are awake between 4am and 7am
• each hour you’re woken up for a chat, question or debate between 12 midnight and 4am
• avoiding embarrassing your child in public (child must be over 10 years of age for this credit to accrue)
• carrying your child and his/her scooter home or up hill for a distance exceeding 50m and additional point for every 20m thereafter
• every children’s book you’ve read more than 10 times
• a tantrum in a public place
• any injury to your body that draws blood or requires a time-out except where it results in scarring
• having an audience whilst you’re on the loo
• every night you go to bed with one of your kids’ songs, nursery rhyme or the like in your head

Five points will be credited in the following circumstances:

• being vomitted on in public
• every time you stand on a piece of Lego
• two children simultaneously throwing a tantrum in public
• being injured to the extent that you scar
• irreparable harm being done to any of your favourite pieces of clothing (maximum of three incidences a year)
• traveling anywhere, in or on any form of transport, for more than 90 minutes (every 2 hours thereafter will accrue another 5 points)
• every time you replace a new item of clothing or equipment which was lost
• every vaccination (it hurts you more than it hurts them)
• your child tells a relative stranger one of your intimate personal details or theirs that only you and your family / spouse know.

There will be days when you get double or triple points:

• Double points for Mother’s Day and 29 February; and
• Triple points for your birthday.

But there will also be exclusionary days when you can’t earn any points – child’s birthday and 5pm from Christmas Eve until 5pm on Christmas Day (these are high need days when you cannot be accommodated, I’m sorry it’s just the way it is – I didn’t make the rules).

Rewards 

The rewards are as follows (and for the cost of the child)

10 000 Points

• 10 000 will earn you a night off

50 000 Points

• 50 000 will earn you your choice of embarrassing photos of them to be used in public at their 21st birthday party or on social media
• 50 000 will earn you a new zimmerframe
• 50 000 will earn you the right to be their friend or follower on social media, all access

100 000 Points

• 100 000 will earn you the right to set them up on a single blind date with one of your friends children or someone you met at the supermarket
• 100 000 will earn you a over-55s residence upgrade
• 100 000 will earn you an automated stair-lift

1 0000 000 Points

• 1 000 000 and their first born shall be named after you.

Terms and Conditions

* Like any good reward / incentive scheme the whole point accrual and reward system will change every year when you will get new cards and a new pin 🙂 at this point make sure to cash in your accumulated points by writing it on a till slip and sticking it to the fridge – that way it’ll never get lost.

* The contract terminates on the 21st birthday so from then on no further points can accrue, it’ll just be a labour of love from then on out.

About Michal Johnson

Having studied law for years and practiced as a lawyer in South Africa I now litigate against my children and negotiate with my husband. Having realised that I can research and write moderately well I now use those skills blogging when I’m not child wrangling. Read more of my posts on my blog.

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There’s too much comparison in parenting. Way too much judgement. And not enough acknowledgement of the fact that sometimes we all have it hard.

This morning, as I was brushing my daughter’s hair before school, I spotted a wriggly little companion embedded within. Every parent of school aged children dreads such a discovery. I sighed as I contemplated brushing my daughter’s thick, curly tresses with that tiny comb, rang the school to say she was going to be late and reached for the head lice treatment (always a spare bottle in the cupboard).

An hour later she was treated, showered and ready to be delivered to school. The whole episode got me thinking – what if I had needed to go to work this morning? What if I had an important meeting or a non-negotiable deadline? Would I have sent my daughter to school and spent the day at work envisioning her scratching her head, while feeling acutely guilty about it? Or would I kill the lice and be late for work – having to deal with the wrath of my boss and the extra strain placed on the day by my tardiness? A head lice crisis is just one of the two million unexpected disasters working parents have to juggle with their jobs.

So today I felt lucky. Lucky to be at home and able to deal swiftly with the little blighters in my kid’s hair. And, as I so often do, I felt a deep surge of respect for working mums.

In fact, I was doubly lucky today. My husband, who works shifts, was off and able to entertain our toddler while I deloused his sister. Having my husband on hand to deal with a poonami, prevent my son from trying to lick the splashes of oily head lice treatment off the floor and keep him from throwing toy soldiers at my daughter’s sodden head was a real bonus.

Today I didn’t have it hard at all.

But sometimes my husband’s shift work is hard. Like when he has to work on Christmas Day. Or when one of the kids falls ill in the middle of the night while he’s on shift and I don’t know what to do.

Sometimes I find being a stay at home mum hard. Sometimes the monotony and isolation can be depressing. Some days I long for adult conversation and the career I almost had. I crave to be more than I am- to be valued, to contribute financially. Granted, I don’t always feel that way. Most days, I love my role.

But sometimes it’s hard.

Assumption circulates us all like vultures. You may look at me and my family and think I have it all. Indeed I am very blessed, but things haven’t always been easy. You wouldn’t know how I started my parenting journey as a single parent. Or that I should actually have three children in my arms, but there is one missing because she only lived for a day.

It saddens me when I see working mums and stay at home mums pitch against each other. Or when I hear breast feeders and formula feeders clash. Our parenting journeys – be they paved with our choices, our necessities or both – are unique to each one of us. These tapestries can only be fully understood by the people weaving them. At times we feel invincible. And sometimes we feel failure, guilt and shame. However rosy things may look from the outside, it always comes down to that.

Sometimes we all have it hard. When we glance sideways at another parent, all we really  need to know is that sometimes they struggle too.  Anything more is assumption, which in turn can lead to comparison and unfair judgement.

I, for one, am done with all that.