Endless endless jobs

Definitely hear you, it's bloody exhausting.

God, yes. Here too. My kids are 20 and 16 but the everyday shit takes up ALL of everyday. The smallest thing on top of the usual leads to chaos. In the past 6 weeks I have been rear ended by a lorry when stationary which meant endless additional admin, hassle, whiplash, lost income, tons of appointments etc on top of everything else, plus Christmas prep, plus now my ex mil is dying in hospital v suddenly and I'm trying to support the kids and juggle my teaching around to help keep everything going at work. I'm absolutely wrecked and completely overwhelmed.

I keep thinking wtf is the point of being this headless chicken with such a ridiculous amount of general life admin to sort out. I'm not remotely OCD, the house is a tip because something has had to give, but my God I am TIRED of it all. It's relentless.

It gets better. DS does his own cooking, laundry and cleaning now, for the most part. DH works insane hours so doesnt do as much as I do, but he eats whatever I dish up and does other stuff.
Hang in there.

I am with you. Fuck it all.

On top of work and general everyday life tasks I have endless admin, most of it not for me because I have three people with disabilities in my own family that rely on me to do paperwork, organise appointments etc. Then I am POA for my elderly disabled father. Currently I am also an executor for my late Aunt's estate which is a huge ongoing task.

DH tries his best and does what he can, helps with my Dad too, but isn't really able to organise time wise effectively or do life admin because of his disabilities. The mental load all falls on me. I am beyond exhausted and currently ill with flu due to being burnt out. At this point if Christmas happens it might be a TV dinner.

I could blitz my house and then turn around and there’s piles of laundry again, the kitchen can go from immaculate to needing a full clean up after one meal, someone will go take a shower and the bathroom will be messy again. Not to mention the never ending stuff we need to constantly buy.

Yeah. Fuck it all. Fuck it all to hell.

If you have school age kids- I don't- there really is an endless amount of crap.

What I try to do is batch tasks so they do't spread over the day and take up mental space. I also found Laura Vanderkam's books useful.

I have seen this and it genuinely baffles me but I do have a friend who lives a very simple life with no kids , no drama, parents overseas , no mortgage , no debts , no car , minimal hobbies beyond cooking and socialising - she visits me and looks genuinely agog at all the never ending stream of stuff I have going on!

So far today things added to non existent but never ending 'list'
Email school about a bullying incident
Remind DH about bleeding radiators as heating not working fully
Chase DD Christmas jumper for Friday if not coming need a plan B
Look again for school jumpers as we're out of stock
Pack for trip to London tomorrow
Book ice skating for last day of term for DD

On and on it goes and I sometimes realise I don't even appreciate the nice bits as it's total overwhelm

I agree but I'm not sure you can really include flossing your teeth as a task. 😂 It's a bit like saying you boiled the kettle, had to get the sugar out the cupboard, open the jar, get a spoon out the draw, spoon out some sugar, open the coffee jar, add the coffee, get the milk out the fridge, add the milk, stir the coffee, wash up the spoon, put the milk back in fridge, spoon back in draw, coffee back in its place, etc.

MN always sneers at life admin and posters claim to do it in 5 minutes a day, but I find it takes longer. Repairs, a health check, chasing a credit card that I should have got a month ago...

So glad I don't do Christmas though.

If it helps I take all the old kids stuff to a local kids charity shop. Bigger stuff I put on freecycle so people pick it up from me. I know even doing that takes time though.

At what point did life become a constant stream of never ending jobs. I. My 20s/early 30s I had a full time job and a child under 5. I seemed to have more time for fun and fewer jobs. I'm not sure what happened and when it happened.

We've quit Christmas, currently sitting in a tip, just chilling out

Glad it's not just me but my god isn't it awful !
I often lament that other people seem to be free of all this endless overwhelming burden of stuff to do but I don't know how .

I am lying in bed typing this remembering really important stuff I never get near to doing .. like remortgage , a car repair , a dental appt for kids , help parents with paperwork - all we do is just about keep kids lives running and do laundry and dishwasher constantly .
Argh .. and breathe

And then finally, no more jobs forever

I mean and that's WITHOUT working.

💯 I feel like I’m slowly going mad… I think about my never ending to do list when I go to sleep then it invades my dreams. I can’t get away from the fucker!!

Yes. So much yes.
It's just constant. One job ticked off gets replaced by two more. Just dreary mundane stuff.
The children's clothing is a never ending merry go round. New stuff in next size up to get, I try to buy second hand, so looking out for bargains, searching through posts. Old stuff to sort, pack away, sell, donate. I'm done having babies but I cannot begin to deal with the mammoth task of doing something with the baby clothes. I've sold some BNWT bits but have boxes upon boxes of clothes and equipment I won't throw but equally have no time to find suitable homes for.
Work is so incredibly intense. I have no time to do everything I need to but I also have no time at home to catch up.
Time to exercise or do some sewing which I love is a distant pipe dream!

Tell them to ask Alexa

YES. And when I talk about this IRL, people don’t seem to get it

We have such high expectations of ourselves. If we don't meet them we beat ourselves up.
I took early retirement (poor as a church mouse) and 1 DC (the immaculate one that helped) has their own place now and the younger one aged 28 still lives at home, the messiest person ever.
I still don't get the ideal satisfaction. That's not working.
Some things have got to give.

yup. It’s endless.

I’m making a list of house stuff that I can get an handyman in to do for 2/3 days and knock the jobs out.

At least then I can just concentrate on and do the normal shit

I think this every day when I am unloading the dishwasher or making packed lunches or wiping down the kitchen sides or making my bed or putting another load of washing on or hanging it up or putting it away or feeding/watering the pets or scooping the cat litter or taking the dog for a walk (actually this I don’t mind as it’s by the sea) or seeing a smeary window and cleaning it or sweeping the kitchen floor or picking up teenage detritus or ironing school uniform or making shopping lists or making more bloody dinners or swishing bleach down the toilets or or or any of the other insufferable daily chores. Not to mention my very unchallenging full time job that requires presenteeism. Or my increasingly worrisome parents. At least I have the dog walks, a very charming and helpful when asked teenager and a very very far away ex who leaves us alone now. And I don’t have to feel resentment at someone else not pulling their weight as it’s been just me and the offsprout for a very long time now. But oh boy would I love to win the euromillions and hire a housekeeper and PA.