Mums of 4 or more, please give me some tips

[rickman]

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[Lonelymum]

No it is very difficult TBH although mine are a bit older than yours I think. (How old are yours?) My trouble is my youngest who is 2 and likes to walk everywhere but doesn't walk very quickly or have any sense of the dangers around him. If I wait for him or get distracted by him, the next thing I know the others have all wandered off! Often, on the way to or from school, I don't see the other three at all! Makes me wonder why I still accompany them!

So yes I have noticed I don't tend to take them out together as much as I would with only two say. Dh and I share them out between us at the weekends!

[rickman]

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[lisalisa]

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[Lonelymum]

OMG lisalisa, shoe shopping with all four! I have to do that too but it is not my idea of something I find easy to do with four children. Mine always end up rolling on the floor and squirming under the seats, and that is the 8 and 7 year old!

Agree that you have to take them places where they are safe even if you are not watching them all the time. Now mine are older (ie now the youngest is old enough to do things fairly independently) I find going to the park works OK. The older ones can do their own thing and I can concentrate more on the younger two.

[toomanypushchairs]

I have 4 too. dd 10, ds 7, and dt's both boys 2.2yrs. I don't go anywhere with them all if I can help it. tbh I don't go anywhere with the two youngest either. I can't watch them both. How do you go anywhere where they want to do different things and go in different directions? The big 2 are capable of looking after themselves when we go out, but they have no road sense and dawdle without looking where they are going. As fo shoe shopping with 4, NO WAY! the big 2 wind the little 2 up and they go mad. am sure dd is just trying to help!

[rickman]

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[morningmayhem]

Hi I've given up shopping with all 4 of mine Its just not fun for anyone. Mine are 6,4,2 and 1. I do my food shopping over the net, go out in the evenings to do my shopping (shops close at ten) and I take two out at a weekend if I need to buy them shoes. I just can't cope with all the stress, but I do know not everyone can do this. I do take all of them out for fun things like the park,softplay and farms etc I have to say I find it easier then staying in all day when we do stay in we all get cabin fever and the children really play up

[tallulah]

No I never took all of mine out at once- too much hassle! I used to do the weekly shopping while they were at playgroup or later Sunday School (!) because I couldn't manage more than 1 of them with me. Anything else we tended to either split them or DH had them while I went out (I know that isn't an option for you rickman- why these many name changes?!)

I can't remember attempting to take them out on my own until they were quite a bit older. Sorry this isn't what you want to hear, is it.

(Just a cheery thought that in 10 years time they'll be out on their own & you won't see them!)