Dear Mumsnet please could we have a 'Larger Families' section?

Kittywise,the Mercedes traveliner you have?

I have a Mercedes V Class with 6 seats (takes 7 tho) so might be similar to yours? Like the A Team van?

I am a CM so looking for something bigger,how does yours do for gas etc? And is it easy to drive?

I'd best add to the list.

I have 5 (which includes my 2 wee weapons of mass destruction)

DS1 (15)
DD1 (13)
DD2 (9)
DT1 (4)
DT2 (4)

The wee weapons are g/b.

They each have their jobs to do. Sometimes they do them willingly, sometimes they don't. The key is that they do them!

All mine have to help tidy the house, well, not the 2 babies obviously!!
After I've cooked they tidy the kitchen, wash surfaces, load/empty the dishwasher sweep the floor.
I have a star chart in the kitchen and playroom and every time I see someone tidying well they get a star. Once they get 6 starts they get a little treat.

I'm buggered if I'm going to do all the work, they make the mess they tidy it up.As far as I'm concerned we function as a unit and help each other.
They also have room inspection charts in their bedrooms with a list of 'rules'.
We have 'inspection' once a day, that way things don't get out of hand, if I left it weekly they wouldn't be able to cope!

As far as laundry goes each child has their basket and once that is full of clean/ironed clothes it gets put away in their room. They also have a kit box of out of school clothes, cubs, gym, footy etc so once those items are washed and dried they go in to their box ad they know exactly where to find it come next week's activity.

Now socks..... I have an enormous basket into which get chucked all the socks that come out of the drier then once a week i or the kids pair them up and discover that there are at least 100 socks without any 'friends' where the hell do they go ?

Oh dear I sound like tyrant don't I ?

Hey i could join too

Ds1 16.6
Ds2 12.6
Dd1 3.6
dd2 1.6

Won't be having anymore sadly as we decided after dd2 we couldn't afford another. Part of me is soooo regretting Dh having the snip

But i am enjoying motherhood more and more(most of the time)

o.....he was the WORST.!!!!

where did last come from????

DS1 has a coat phobia ATM.......I may have cured it tho......

he refused a coat for school this week, and then he was the first to come down with the sicky bug, and has also been the last. I told him it was becuase of the lack of coat......he has apologized and for now is determined to wear a coat all the time.

I am very lucky with my teen and pre-teen so far. they are so fussy with smelling good anad with making sure their hair is not greasy I have no issues on keeping them clean.

shoes tho.......I despair. maybe if I got them to polish them tho, we wouldn;t have this issue.....but then......polish and 5 kiddies is a recipe for disaster!!!

easter eggs - we have over 20 all piled in tower fashion on top of the fridge

clothes - have 3 dd's so do the hand me downs but find only the better quality stuff lasts through to DD3....M&S, Gap, Debenhams, Next etc. DS (4mths) has got a ton of stuff as the family were excited we had a boy after 3 girls and went OTT. The girls mostly wear a mixture of hand me downs and new outfits as I am lucky to have a mum who has a bit of a shopping habit!

ttc - ahh, not sure, would love to go for #5...but finances/ space and sanity might prevent us

oh mine are still all dress nicely and trendily paula, just not expensively!

I got 4 fab outfits for DS1 about 3yrs ago from Gap, and all items were just £1 each.

still looking fab and going strong, altho am thinking he may just have grown out of them this year, as I got them baggy as he like them and now he is grown more they will lose the baggyish look. DS2 will get them tho and won;t care that they are ever so slightly faded. well, the T's are, the shorts look still as good as new.

undies are bought from tesco/H&M/M&S/new look (for DD1 & 2), adams and Gap.

asda fall apart after a couple of times in the tumbler, as do primark.

No I mean dd1 dd4 is only 4!!!

I always get the Kids uncles and aunties to buy them clothes from Next and Gap for their birthdays

And Dd4 is into Jane Norman which is ok coz I love the clothes too so we share!

I always get the Kids uncles and aunties to buy them clothes from Next and Gap for their birthdays

have had 4 'big' eggs (not big, but still boxed IYGWIM), and 30 little bits which include haribo sweets in plastic eggs and kinder eggs etc.

plus a new book and a new outfit each (altho tis a sumer outfit so far too cold to actually wear it yet!)

wahay for another mum who uses babywipes for dusting.

tis a better way too, as it gathers the dust rather than flick it about.

Just 1 egg and one lindl choc bunny each here.

I feel quite proud of that.....

Neversaynever sorry about your friend x

So how many easter eggs in your house at the moment??

We have 30

Well actually we have about 25 left
The kids have aunts and uncles who always get them eggs and then granparents too. But they share with us too

We have at least 2 sock gremlins I'm sure, far too many go missing for just 1

Dd1 is lucky enough to fit into my clothes and a friend of mine passes all her named stuff down to her, mostly with tags still attatched
The twins get some hand me downs but mostly new but thats because dh's mum is alwasys buying them stuff. Same with dd4. Ds1 is the only boy so he gets new but lots from Ebay and some from my friend

I am the one who goes without

Housework!!! Well, Dd1 walks the dogs often, makes great cakes, hoovers, and wants to learn how to iron!!!!!
The twins take turns emptying the dishwasher and doing the packed lunch boxes in the morning (I make the sarnies they do the rest)
They also clean up the kitchen on a sunday morning after dh makes breakfast
Dd4 is 4 so doesn't do a ot but tidies toys and uses a baby wipe to dust

good luck then LTH.....hope he agrees.

if all else fails, get him drunk, (but not too drunk IYGWIM), and then do the deed without protection and then be all "oops, forgot with the lust and all"

The oldest 2 hve to keep their rooms tidy which ds1 is like asking him to cut his own head off (ie impossible), the boy is a hoarder of extreme measures. They also have to put their own washing away, well i do teh hanging stuff they do the folded.
Ds3 kind of helps(he's 4.5) but I don't make him do his bits....in time I will though .

I've just had to scream at them to tidy the front room because while I was in the shower they've been playing in teh Wii and eating easter eggs so its looks like bloody shitpit!

Think I might bring up the subject of No# 5 tonight. We (thats me, SIL and BIl) all had words with him yesterday about how rubbish he is showing me that he apprciates everything I do (another thread, but has been well documented on MN over the yrs) so he should a bit more attentive ATM.
Strike while its hot as they say

.....tip sharing already!!!!

Thats a great idea, will have to try that, as they always think that they have the raw end of the deal! see thats why we need our own bit so we can pick up tips like that! thanks

damn that sock gremlin.....they must breed just for the families with many....

mine don;t get any 'set' jobs, but on 'housework day' I do a list of what needs doing and they all get to choose a job (or two) and tick it off and it all soon gets done with them feeling happy to be able to 'choose'

I try to get mine to help but theyre all little still really but start as you mean to go on I say! but sometimes its easier without them, as I can chuck anything broken.
and we have the same sock gremlin! perhaps they send them home from the hospital after the 3rd child
my eldest gets new stuff as hes really hard to buy for, (tall but very very skinny) and my youngest two as I too gave almost everything away after the first 3, luckily my mum know loads of people that pass down clothes for the older ones that are in great condition, but I am a bargin hunter too and find as much in the sales as I can.

neversaynever....my sympathies.

clothes wise, for mine they have a mixture of hand-me-downs, new clothes re- birthdays and xmas and easter (new outfit each today), sale stuff (I find some fab bargains at times), and primark!!!!!!

the only really new stuff that they get that is almost always full price (well, for DD1 it is) is their undies. once they get to school I don;t do hand-me-downs for pants etc as they are all rather too worn and baggy by then! and then with the older two now needing bra's , then they get them new, and full price as they like the matchy matchy look (my fault there).

socks are normally in the sale tho, as they go thro so many (what with the stealing sock gremlin we seem to have aquired), so I get packs of them whenever I see them reduced. sorting the sock pile out tho is a chore and a half, and normally used for punishment as pocket money bribe!!!!!!!!!

SO, out of interest, do you get yours to help with jobs around the house???

a friend of mine reckons childhood is for fun and freedom, not for helping. I get mine to muck in but wonder sometimes if I am being mean???

I had to start from scratch clothes-wise with ds3. | didn't think I would have anymore so had given everything away. Luckily I've got great donations from friends who've been stashing clothes away in their lofts

liahgen, we've got a traveliner. 9 seater, it's great!!