How do you get ANYTHING done with a crawling baby?

No reason a lot of that couldn’t be done after 7pm when the second adult is at home. So you could take the view that your “job” during the day is childcare and housework is a shared task outside of that. Of course there are bits you need to do during the day but only those that actually need to be done, so eating and clearing up from that, washing if it’s going on the line etc. Bins don’t usually go from not full to full and needing emptying immediately, bathrooms can wait.

Mine are a bit older but do they still do baby walkers or jumperoos or whatever they’re called? Stick them in that while you need to do housework

Of course they are - the Mumsnet husband always is.

They get used to having the housework done and magically forget how to do it, so their wives/partners end up doing all of the childcare and housework even when they’re back at work. Even better if they can have it so wifey can only work part time and fubar her career in favour of his.

Mine was gone for 5.5 days a week. There were absolutely weeks where very little got done till he got back.

This is what i did^. A box of clothes pegs would give 40 minutes entertainment

Perfect. Thank you 🥰

Showing him who the adult is shows him who he can trust to set the boundaries to keep him safe.

Nothing - they’re safe as they are. You can get some that are covers if you desperately want to.

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What should be used instead?

Don't let the little darling control your day but show him who the adult is in the situation.

Yes because a 6 month old has a perfect understanding of hierarchy rather than just the basic need for attachment to a secure figure. Don’t get me wrong mine have had to cry at times but it wasn’t to “teach them a lesson” or to show I was boss.

Use one kitchen cupboard which he can open and put safe kitchen things there for him (Tupperware, wooden spoon etc ). It might give you enough time to at least do something!

Playpen facing the tv with cocomelon playing to distract them? Jumperoo facing tv? Basically something to restrict and distract. Only to be used for short periods of time ofcourse.

I totally agree. Used one for my children and then grandchildren and it was the safest option. Don't let the little darling control your day but show him who the adult is in the situation. Play with him, entertain him then put him in the playpen while you do your chores or have a coffee or go to the loo. Yes, he'll whinge, but he'll be safe which is what matters.

surely there isn’t that much needing doing on a day to day basis? Where is the child’s father and how much of his time is being spent cleaning?

(mine worked away 5.5 days a week. I did pretty much no housework during that time and we split it between us when he was home. Don’t fall into the trap of doing all of the housework now. It will pay dividends in years to come. Your job is childcare, not housekeeper.)

Because the top pin being pushed in is what makes the sockets live, so they’re perfectly safe as they are. The push in plug covers therefore make the socket live - so if a child is fiddling with them there fiddling with a now live socket.

This is life now until they get to about 2-2.5. Enjoy.

You baby proof a room so they can be unsupervised for short amounts of time. Cables behind furniture, rugs on fireplace, foam protectors on sharp corners etc. Don't need socket covers though as some get clever and use them upside down which is unsafe. Babies can't get their fingers in the holes anyway.

@Ella31 don't buy anything. They're already safe.

You create a ‘yes’ zone- and area that’s baby proofed and baby can go anywhere within that zone. For some people it’s a room, for some it’s buying those huge (as in length) gates and gate out an area of a room.

Im derailing here a bit, but I didn't know that about the pop ins. What should you buy so?

@IdaClair you’ve just given me flashbacks of singing “in and out the dusty bluebells” and weaving through the laundry on the line with DD in the carrier. The neighbours must have thought I lost the plot!

OP, I found it helpful to break jobs down into stages. So rather than “I need to empty the washing machine and hang the laundry” it was 1) put laundry in a big heap 2) sort into tumble/not tumble, 3) let DD pull all the tumble stuff out of the basket whilst I scoop up the other pile and dump it on a table, 4) put tumble stuff in tumble dryer and turn on, 5) during nap time, hang up the pile of wet laundry on the table. I used to get lots of half jobs done and then use nap time to do the bits of jobs that needed both hands and/or full attention, eg chopping food.

How much you get done depends on the child. My eldest would sit in his chair and watch me do chores. For my second he wasn’t as laid back. So got more done when he roamed the floors looking for mischief so baby proofed the main living areas. Even removed lamps so he couldn’t pull it down on top of himself. He would entertain himself with what ever he found. The third was the trickiest would escalate straight away to screaming his head off when put into a chair, playpen. I can ignore moaning and whinging but can’t ignore screaming so got very little done once he was crawling.
Youngest is nearly two now and it’s gotten much easier to get things done. It’s not forever

My boys were both small - we stacked a couple of 'jigsaw' foam mats under their feet for a little boost and it worked perfectly. The same type you might use as floor for the playpen.

I would put them in a carrier and do what I needed to most of the time. If I was in the kitchen or dining room and it was near meal times I’d put them in the high chair that clips to the kitchen units like a crab claw and give them their food to occupy them, obviously that gave me a decent 20 minutes 2-3 times a day as they ate and I could do things. I had one cupboard in each room they could safely empty and explore so they’d do that regularly and I’d sling everything back in after.

But it was nearly always baby or toddler into the carrier or I’m not sure how I’d have cooked, hung the washing out, trimmed the hedges, mown the lawn, swept the leaves, taken the bins out, vaccuumed and mopped, cleaned out the pet cages, walked the dogs, cleaned windows etc, all of which were very much carrier jobs every time until they were old enough to “help” and even then it wasn’t always safe or practical for them to do so.

I didn’t have a playpen or a jumperoo or a baby gate but I did use the TV too and they liked that, no regrets.