wheres that superwoman power that was supposed to kick in?

i feel like a terrible mom sometimes... especially on days like today. OK...this is kind of a long story.

About three weeks ago, my babysitter ended up in the hospital with a pretty serious illness. So, as a favor to me, my best friend (who works from home, and has a little boy 3 weeks younger than DDs) has been watching my 3 kids until my babysitter would be able to start again. In return, i have to watch her little boy one day a week so she can go into work.

Today was the day that i had him. Also, ontop of having an extra baby in the house, my oldest DD started back to preschool from easter break, Kaylin is teething and is super crabby, and today is my only day off work this week to get anything done. So i had a very rough day to say the least!! By the time DH got home, both babies were crying hysterically, i am yelling at Kyiah for sledding down the stairs, my house is a COMPLETE disaster <_< , and i didnt get one single thing done today.

So he walks over to the babies and starts playing with them, and they start smiling right away. Its like as soon as he walked into the house, all of the chaos that was going on suddenly stopped. The babies are happily playing on the floor, Ky is watching TV, and DH cant seem to understand why i was stressed out and the house was a mess. Hes like "It only takes like 2 hours to get everything done, its not that bad" HELLO ARE YOU KIDDING!! Am I the only one that cant handle doing it all?? I try to do everything, but i fall behind pretty easily. As a child, i remember my mom always had everything done for me, and our house was always clean. Why wasnt that gene passed on to me? I feel like a complete slacker, even though i run my butt off constantly.

So thanks for coming to my pity party, and if you made it this far...you are one dedicater TSer!!

 

Our house was clean in a sense that there wasn't old food laying around or dirty bathrooms but clutter was something we just had. You are superwoman for looking after all those kids and take a moment, a deep breath and now a pat on the back. We all have our days and we deserve credit for those too.

I am in the midst of packing and organizing and the more I put away the more I seem to have in the way. UGH.

Hope your babysitter gets well soon!

Damiane'

 

Our house was clean in a sense that there wasn't old food laying around or dirty bathrooms but clutter was something we just had.


Yea! thats what i mean. its just like there is stuff EVERYWHERE and there is no order!

 

As pp said - take a FEW deep breaths, recognize that dealing with twins, another baby and an older child is an INSANE amount of work!

As for the house - I have to say, I really think that you have to have some kind of special gene to not have a house with twinfants be cluttered. I know that it is, a whole year later, still a CONSTANT source of stress between me and DH.

I did find one thing that has helped a bit; I bought a few extra laundry baskets (because I didn't want to spend the $$ for nice looking baskets) and at the end of the day I at least CONSOLIDATE the toys and stuff so the space doesn't FEEL so cluttered. I used to try and get some laundry folded while they were still little by doing it 'with' them, but- of course, i could never put their away because the only real 'down time' i had was while they were sleeping and i sure as heck was NOT going into the nursery to put away clothes if they were actually napping at the same time (which they hardly did!)

I always quote my favorite Blondie cartoon: one day Dagwood comes home and the house looks like a tornado hit it, a true disaster zone. He, aghast, looks at Blondie and cries out "What Happened??!!"
She looks at him and says "You know how you're always asking me what I do all day? Well, today I didn't do it!"

It's really really challenging. Perhaps a discussion with DH about some chores that can be HIS responsibility??? I swear, MOST men who work outside the home where the wife/partner stays home simply do NOT get what it's like dealing with infants/toddlers all day!

Hang in there, you are SO not a slacker or loser!

 

QUOTE(Jordari @ Apr 1 2008, 03:53 AM) [snapback]698161[/snapback]
I always quote my favorite Blondie cartoon: one day Dagwood comes home and the house looks like a tornado hit it, a true disaster zone. He, aghast, looks at Blondie and cries out "What Happened??!!"
She looks at him and says "You know how you're always asking me what I do all day? Well, today I didn't do it!"


That is hilarious! I printed that out to post on my refridgerator and read it to my husband--lol! I feel the same way some times especially when the sink is full of dishes from two days of lazy weekend syndrome (the only real time hubby and I get and family time) and I have to start Monday's out in a mad rush to clean things up.

Lindsay084 - I know exactly how you feel! I am there at least once a week. I have 3 of my kids that live with me and I am a full time babysitter for a lady and so I am watching two more on top of mine. I also am attending college full time (by computer 3 to 5 time per week), I have enough laundry to house a football team once a week that needs to be washed, and I attend church 3 to 5 time per week. My week gets pretty ragged too.

The one thing that I can tell you is that when my kids are sleeping I clean! When my kids are playing I put away all of that horendous laundry. When I make lunches for the kids, I make mine too and eat with them. And when I have a free moment I will breath and shower--lol. You are going through a time that I almost miss right now. Your little ones are still probably not moving around right now (mine are crawling--hehe)and they can't really get in your way unless they track you down like a deer in a walker. Mine do this too! You have the perfect opportunity to recruit the older child to help you on the days that you have him. You can find little things that will attract his attention like sweeping the floor with a broom or stomping on that spider to protect the babies--lol. Something that makes him feel useful. Make a game out of it for him.

When I know that my girls are ready to play and I need to do the dishes, I bring them into the kitchen and they play on the floor while I do the dishes. They like to help hold the dishwasher door open--hehe. Most of the time they are in their walkers when I have to clean up. And man oh man do they like to play in my dirt piles when I am sweeping up our floors (we have hard wood lamenant throughout our entire house). I am just glad that we don't have carpet! When I need to get a bath I will put them in their beds to chat or nap or play so I can clean myself up. They rarely stay away long when I put them in there--lol.

You really have to set aside the time the night or the week before. I schedule one month ahead for a lot of things because I have so much going on at one time or another. I will take and set out for my kids the night before and my clothes too. I make the formula the night before. I clean all of the toys the night before while they are in bed. I run the last load of dishes, laundry, and clean up the living room before I go to bed. This usually takes about one hour and if I am lucky enough I get to go to sleep before 11pm. Tonight I am just playing around on here--lol. Free night!

If you have any questions or just want to talk, PM me!
Lots of love!
Meshell

 

*hugs* It seems to work that way....chaos all day, hubby comes home..peace and quite. Sorry to hear your day did not go good. You are not a bad mom, we can all only do so much.

Dianna

 

I mentioned the same thing to my mom the other day wondering how she always had everything so perfect in our house when we were growing up and she laughed at me and basically said that I wasn't able to remember what the house looked like before I was of "remembering age."