Every mom knows the day actually starts the night before with the prep, research and multiple wake ups. So going to plan my day from there, from after the kids have been put in their beds, for theoretical bedtime.
19h00 – 20h00 Repeatedly tell the kids to go to bed and cook dinner for adults. Try clean up toys and Lego from the floor so husband doesn’t feel like he lives in a Creche.
20h00 – 21h00 Ask 3 year old to go to bed, in between reheating dinner and trying to eat it.
21h00 – 22h00 Try watch some form of adult TV while replying to all messages and emails from the day and catching up with your spouse on what’s happening in his life. Fold washing and put it away.
22h00 – 22h30 Unpack / pack dishwasher wash bottles, sterlise bottles and dummies and make up bottles for the night. Feed baby for the last nighttime feed, in the hope it’s the last feed of the day.
22h30 – 23h00 Remember all the things you wanted to tell your husband, keep waking him up in order to do so while researching what to do tomorrow to keep the children entertained.
23h00 – 4h45 Wake up repeatedly to try get 3 year old to sleep in his own bed / baby not to have milk and prevent one child from wake the other.
4h45 – 7h00 Keep baby quiet / get her to go back to sleep so she doesn’t wake the whole house because it is not actually a suitable time to be awake.
7h00 – 9h00 Try keep baby awake because she is now exhausted. Offer breakfast, have breakfast refused, get the 3 year old to eat breakfast, keep baby from eating 3 year olds breakfast or stealing his toys while he eats, keep him focused on eating. Try feed baby in high chair, try feed baby while she toddlers around. Make a cup of tea, forget the cup of tea, reheat cup of tea, put cup of tea somewhere you won’t find it.
9h00 – 10h30 Try get baby to go to sleep. Keep 3 year old quiet so baby sleeps. Stand on Lego and silently scream so as not to wake baby. Pack / unpack dishwasher, load / unload washing machine and try to remember to hang washing up. Clothe yourself, maybe get a shower and hair brush in too. Re-research what to do because everything has changed due to children’s temperament, weather or bad night.
10h30 – 11h10 Try leave the house for preplanned activity.
11h10 – 13h00 Child friendly activity where you try wear children out and cram lunch in. Wear yourself out more than the children. Fight with them to leave the activity and go back to the car, half way there stop and soothe them because the car is too far away and they need to go home right now. Get to the car and beg your child to get into the car so that you can leave.
13h00 – 15h00 Implore children not to fall asleep in the car on the way home. Children fall asleep in the car. Carry children from car to beds hoping to keep them asleep. Daytime sleep. Quickly rush around the house trying to clean it up. Plan dinner, take everything out that you need for dinner. Eat a chocolate bar for lunch. Communicate with husband so he knows everyone is alive.
15h00 – 15h40 Try leave the house for preplanned activity / grocery shopping / errand.
15h40 – 17h30 Child friendly activity or unfriendly activity like grocery shopping which is actually a ploy created by adults to ruin their children’s lives, apparently…
17h30 – 18h00 Convince children to eat dinner as it will not kill them. Negotiate, debate and eventually threaten. Dinner gets eaten. Woohoo.
18h00 – 18h30 Chase children around the house while trying to clean the bath, clean bath, locate children, bath children.
18h30 – 19h00 Chase naked children around the house. Stop children from jumping on the bed. Get pjs on and evening bottles made. Discuss why they can only have 1 story, read 1 story, feed milk, tuck them in and hope they go to sleep.
**SIDE BAR: My husband helps as soon as he is home from work, thank goodness!
*** ADDITIONAL SIDEBAR: This excludes days when I blog, run out of petrol and take the children for the dreaded vaccinations or anything equally dreadful.
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