If you live in Ballwin and Mom lives across the county or in the city, your schedule is not really set by how many visits you want to make. It is set by how many round trips fit inside your week, and that depends on the roads between you. A visit that looks like one hour on the calendar can take most of an afternoon once the drive is counted. Size the week to the route first, and the schedule will follow.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
Step one: map each trip as a block
For every regular trip, write the start point, the end point, and the round trip, not the one-way trip. A visit to Mom is two drives, and the second one is the one people forget. Write each trip as a block with a start time and an end time. The blocks are what you are actually spending, and they should replace the vague idea of 'going over.'
Step two: mark the rush windows
Mark the weekday hours when the highways that link the county to the city run slow. Mark any regular events near Mom's home that tie up parking or traffic. Then move your visit blocks, where you can, into the hours that give you the most reliable drive. A visit that runs predictably is worth more to Mom than a visit that is rushed or late.
Step three: count the blocks your week can hold
Look at your own job, your own kids, and your own sleep, and count how many round trips fit. Be honest about the count. If the answer is two, the plan is two. If the answer is three on most weeks and two on hard ones, write both numbers down. A schedule built on the good week is the schedule that falls apart in the bad one.
Step four: name the backup driver for every block
For each regular block, name who drives if you cannot. The backup should know the address, the parking, the door, and the route, and should have done the drive at least once. If nobody can cover a block, write that down as an open line. An open line is a real finding about the plan, not a failure of the person who found it.
Step five: decide what happens when a block gets cancelled
Blocks get cancelled. Weather changes, work runs late, and a child gets sick. Decide ahead of time who makes up a missed block, whether a missed block carries over, and who tells Mom. Writing these rules down takes five minutes and saves a day of group messages.
Where to start locally
If the route plan shows a gap you cannot fill with family, look at the options listed on Local help before you add another round trip to your own week.