How are we meant to fit it all in?

[Lindah1]

I just want a moan really.feeling bloody knackered. Back to work after maternity leave a couple of months. One dc 16 months. Both parents work full time. Dh and I get up 6:10. Get ready breakfast then get dd up and dressed. She has breakfast at nursery. All leave 7:30, I work until 4, Dh til 4:30 officially. I usually come home and either start doing organised mum method for house ( which is amazing) or start dinner if cooking. Meals from freezer 3 nights a week, cooked when off as work tt only, but dd usually home while trying to do. DH and DD come home about 530, few minutes playing, tidying stuff away etc etc. Dinner served about 630 or 7. DD bedtime starts 730, bed for 8, then I have shower most nights. So knackered then we're usually off to bed not long after. I would like another child but cannot fathom how I would have time or energy. Please tell me it gets better but I fear it will get worse with school. Feeling pretty crap, thanks for listening. Any suggestions welcome.

Don't apologise anyone, I know we are lucky in some ways, and I don't know how people on their own or single parents do it, I take my hat off to you.
I say DH finishes 4:30, it's often much later and I have dd all evening.
In work without outing I do a team leader/co-ordination role so very difficult to do part time and staggering hours not an option sadly.

I second getting DC fed at childcare. Better quality time once you’re home (and it means that DH and I can alternate working later and arrive back for bath time).

And outsource if you can afford it.

Believe it it not the little savage has her tea at 4 and a full supper again later!

Having a second won’t make it harder, it will enrich things though (should I mention that DH and I with teenagers have spent our wednesday evening 6.30 - 9.30 doing various complicated lengthy round trips to drop off at sports/Brownies/see his Mum). I do think it works better if one of you is part time or you both have some flexibility like working from home sometimes. You kind of have that with early finsihes and tt only I guess.

Heartened to hear that a second might not make things doubly hard!

Another one here saying it sounds pretty normal. DTD's are 5 and in reception and I work 4 days a week. I finish work at 4.30pm so that I can be back to pick them up from after school club at 6pm (long commute). They have tea at asc but it's more of a glorified snack so are hungry when we get in at 6.10pm. They normally have cereal as its not yet occurred to them that they could ask for a proper meal
As mentioned above outsource if you can - DTD's do their reading at asc, we have a cleaner and the only things we iron are DH's shirts and DTD's school shirts which we get done at the local dry cleaners.

Can I just say, let's not race to the bottom here. There will be people who have it worse than op, and some who have it better. She wasn't moaning Exactly, it's always the same on these types of threads.

I dunno; it all sounds utterly horrendous to me. I feel very sorry for you. It does and I agree.

Why are you getting up so early if you don't leave until 730. Surely an hour is more than enough if your child has breakfast st nursery.

It's got worse since school became a thing in this house, sorry OP! I'm self employed and by the time I've ferried dc to school and nursery I'm left with bugger all time for actually earning a living. Mine have always had an earlier bedtime though, would your dc tolerate going down a bit earlier? As soon as we're home in the evening my focus is on getting them off to bed and quickly asleep so by 7.30pm I can get back to work. That makes it sound like I'm trying to get rid of them, but we do have a lovely time playing and cuddling, honest!
Is dh genuinely pulling his weight domestically? If he's not feeling as thinly spread as you, it might be time for a chat about sharing more of the grunt work.

Sorry, just read dd won't go down earlier. You have a big chunk of time between dd getting home/eating /bedtime, could this be when you dissappear off and have some time to yourself, or dh gets on with sorting the house while you hang with dd?