Have you ever secretly wondered how other parents seem to be doing so much in just a day? Do they have superpowers? Are they even sleeping? Are they just very efficient? Do they have help? Do they have a secret routine? Sometimes I would love to be a fly on the wall and see how they are managing their time.

That's why I wanted to launch this serie called "A Day in the Life" where I will ask parents to tell us what they did on a typical day. I hope this will give you some ideas that you can implement in your day-to-day life. Or maybe just reassure you that you are doing it right!

Before asking someone else to do this exercise I decided to do it myself. So for this first article, I will tell you about a day in my life.

We are in June 2023, I am Aurelie, the mom of a 5-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. My daughter goes to Transitional Kindergarten (TK) in our assigned public school and my son goes to a Montessori preschool a few miles away. My husband is a software engineer and I am a stay-at-home mom currently working on launching Easy Happy Nest. We have been living in the South Bay for 8 years and are originally from France.

• 7 am
  My alarm is set up for 7 am, but this morning I woke up before it at 6:30, which is quite unusual. For once the kids didn’t get up during the night so this probably explains it. My son joined us in our bedroom at 6:45, I thought he just wanted his daily dose of morning cuddles but he fell right back to sleep. Nearly every night he joins us in our bed when he wakes up, we thought it will be a temporary thing but it has been going on for far longer than we anticipated. I prepare breakfast for myself and the kids. My daughter wakes up by herself soon after that and joins me. Then I try to wake up my son. He is very grumpy in the morning so it always takes some time. After our breakfast, I prepare the kids’ lunchboxes. I prepare as much as possible the night before and usually they will eat leftovers from our dinner but I still need to cut fruits in pieces and warm up the food for my daughter’s thermos. Today they will have beef patties with pasta and carrots, apple slices, and yogurt. I help the kids dress themselves, brush their teeth and clean their faces. Sometimes my husband takes care of this or we split the task depending on our respective schedules and the level of cooperation of the kids.
• 8:30 am
  My husband leaves for work and drops off our son at his preschool on his way. My daughter starts at 9 am so I have time for a quick shower before dropping her off. Her school is in our street so basically just next door.
• 9 am
  I start cleaning the house. The weekend before we went camping so there is a lot to sort and clean. I like to listen to podcasts while doing housework so this feels less like an unpleasant chore. Today I listened to an episode of Kletsheads, a podcast about bilingual children that I really like.
• 11 am
  I start working on my project, my goal for today is to contact 3 friends to see if they would be willing to do interviews with me and then I need to prepare the interviews.
• 12:45 pm
  I have lunch, I microwave some Thai chicken pasta that I cooked and froze a couple of months ago. Once a week I have lunch with two friends but I usually eat by myself at home. I love eating good food and I feel that when I am with the kids I am not able to enjoy my meal because there is always chaos and because I have to plan “kid-friendly” meals. Yes, I can enjoy fish sticks from time to time but this is definitely not my favorite kind of food! So I really do enjoy my quiet lunch, eating what I want.
• 1:30 pm
  I resume working.
• 3 pm
  I pick up my daughter from school. We have about 1h - 1h15 just the two of us before picking up my son. We usually use this time to practice some French by reading books or doing workbooks. Sometimes we go to the library or go grocery shopping. Today we just received in the mail a French magazine for which we have a monthly subscription so she asks me to read it to her.  
• 4:30 pm
  We pick up my son from daycare and go to the park next to it. On Mondays and Tuesdays, the kids have extracurricular activities, lil ninja for my son, dance lessons for my daughter, and swim lessons for both of them, but the rest of the time we usually meet friends at the park, so the children can play together and the moms (and sometimes dads) can chat. Going to the park was not always easy when they were younger, especially with my son who was always running away or doing something dangerous. He still is doing some of that but I can relax more now and have real conversations with the other adults at the park. So everyone is happy to go to the park.  
• 6 pm
  We are back at our house, like always it was a struggle to make them leave the park but I did it. They play together while I prepare the dinner, or maybe I should say they shout and run everywhere, this would be more accurate. My son ends up banging his head against my daughter’s nose while jumping, they are both upset but remain calmer after that. I continue cooking, tonight I have decided to make cod with rice and green beans. My daughter only likes fish sticks so far so I know I am taking a risk but I am still hoping she will try and love it someday.
• 6:45 pm
  I give the children a shower. My daughter is cooperative but my son isn’t, I try to keep my calm but it is not easy. I text my husband to make sure he doesn’t forget to come home from work. He tends to forget the time when he is working.  
• 7:30 pm
  My husband is back and we have dinner. As anticipated my daughter doesn’t want to try the fish, we settle together on her having one bite. She says it is not too bad and has a second one but that’s all, today is not the day she will love fish. After dinner, my husband and I clean the table and the kitchen and I prepare the lunchbox for tomorrow.
• 8 pm
  We help the kids brush their teeth and prepare for bed. Usually, we divide ourselves so that each child spends some one on one time with one of us and we take turns every day. Tonight I read a French magazine and a book to our son while my husband is with our daughter. We try to read as much as possible in French to our children because it’s important to us that they speak French well but we incorporate English books as well if they ask us.
• 8:30 pm
  Our daughter usually falls asleep as soon as we leave her bedroom but our son has a very hard time going down. He is probably in the difficult phase where is still needs to nap but not as much. He often leaves his room every five minutes asking us to stay with him. For the last two weeks, we have allowed him to use his Lunii, a little audiobook player, to help him stay calm in his bed longer. He still comes out of bed twice this evening but I just have to stay with him 5 minutes each time and he fell asleep around 9:30 pm, so not too bad.
• 9:30 pm
  As much as we love spending time with our kids, our alone time is very important for my husband and me. Most of the time we just watch TV together but tonight I have to start a photo album for a friend. I work on it for about an hour and then I knit while watching Workin’ Moms. I am late to the game but my friends were all fans of this show so I decided to give it a try. I am a beginner knitter, I often just do one project per year because it takes me a very long time. Knitting soothes me, but it can also make me crazy, go figure. At midnight I look at the time on my phone. It is way too late to go to sleep but each night it’s the same, I plan to go to sleep earlier but don’t really manage/want to.

Aurélie’s favorites

Favorite kids stores

• Clothes: Target, Carter's, Outrageous Outgrown second-hand bi-annual sale
• Books: Recycle Bookstore in Campbell
• Toys: Automobuild toys store in Los Gatos, Cheeky Monkey Toys (previously called Adventure Toys & Teachers' Supplies) in Los Altos

Family favorite places to eat

• We often order food because going out to eat with the kids was usually not a very nice experience. But they are growing up and are able to sit and draw color books quietly now so we are starting to go out more frequently. So far we liked La Pizzeria and SomiSomi in Cupertino.

Favorite places to have fun

• Happy Hollow
• Seven Seas park
• Blackberry Farm and pool
• Santa Cruz beaches
• Oakland Zoo and SF Zoo

Favorite places to learn

• California Academy of sciences
• Hiller Aviation Museum
• Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose
• Walt Disney Family Museum

Favorite family-oriented online resources

• Peds Doc Talk
• Busy Toddler
• Emily Oster
• Mommy Labor Nurse