Does anyone else feel like they never get to sit down in the evening?

[JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff]

Minor moan but also wonder if I am not adulting right!

After we get the DC in bed, around 7.30, apart from actually eating dinner we don't really sit down. The kitchen looks like a bomb has hit it so I sort that whilst DH makes dinner. Then there is laundry to do, ironing school uniform, packing bags for tomorrow, batch cooking, picking up the explosion of Duplo that is the living room, admin tasks, etc.... I finish and it's 11pm and time for bed as I know I'll be up at 5.30.

We even have a cleaner but somehow there is still so much to do!

Is everyone like this or are we just somehow missing some top tip for life????

Currently in the middle of doing this all right now and thinking the same thing!!

How old are your children? If you can cook/clear up just once that saves you a lot of time. We eat at 7.30 and have cleaned up and put kids to bed by 9pm. I don't do any work after that on principle!

Erm, I seem to get home from work and bar going to my gym class or other outing, I’m sat down most of the evening!
Dp tends to cook, I chuck on a load of washing - which let’s face it is hardly scrubbing at clothes with a dolly - and put the load from the dryer away and perform a cursory sweep through the house of things not in the right place, emptying bins etc if the need arises.
Dc pack their own bags and sort their own lunches, I do ds’s as he’s only 7 and not sure I’d trust him not to pack an entire lunchbox of biscuits...
I don’t iron.
Dc pick up after themselves (mostly).
We have a cleaner but this doesn’t really save a huge amount of time other than bathroom cleaning and floor mopping.
We still clean and tidy on a daily basis but it’s not on a grand scale of starting from scratch.
It does get easier as your children get older and they can do more for themselves.

Do you do all this every night ?
Or just Sunday nights ?
I batch cook at weekends,never in the evening though.
Uniforms x 5,washed and dried on Friday evening, hang with underwear,tights etc
Never iron anything.
DC pick up their own Duplo before bed

CakeNinja I will likely do 3-4 loads this evening in between other things! I just cannot understand how we generate so much.

Like, this afternoon DS crawled through a stream and then hugged DD1, so both their clothes need stain treating and washing as part of a normal load. The toddlers' bibs need doing and they actually do need scrubbing by hand as they are caked in dried on oats Then we need to do a delicates/ jumpers load, too.

Feel like it never stops! We do have 3 under 5 though, so am holding out hope!

OP
I would do that sort of must do immediately laundry the minute I got in.
Strip em off, into the bath and clothes in the machine.
Soak the bibs ?
I couldnt bear doing chores of an evening, its all done before dinner.
7.30 Im sat down

🙌me 😩

Eat earlier all together. One set to wash up and and warlier start to the evening helps.

Sock the minute we got in I made dinner, wiped their shoes and stuffed them with newspaper to dry, supervised them not murdering each other during dinner, nipped upstairs to make their beds, wiped the mixture of pork and yoghurt off them, and took them up to bed!

Ah, I'm just moaning really - I know it will pass! And then I'll probably miss it

I have 2 under 3, both DH and I work full time and we run a business from home.

We still manage to sit down 3-4 evenings a week by 8.30. DC in bed by 7-7.30, we eat with them at 6, wash up while one does bedtimes. Washing is just bunging a load of when I remember. Everything is tumble dried, only DH's shirts are ironed, everything else is folded/hung up. Toys take 5-10 minutes to tidy away as we have kallax boxes.

Do you have enough storage for toys?
Why are you hand scrubbing bibs?
Running through a muddy stream? Just put wash on higher temp/spin cycle
Admin - I do one night a fortnight for appointments/insurance/banking etc, takes maybe an hour?
Cook one pot meals/slow cooker to reduce washing up

Don't do it...that's my top tip!

I've been sitting down for the past hour or so...I have a million jobs to do.

Mine are older now at 13, 10 and 7 but I remember this really really well. Now that they’re all in school it is so much easier as I can get most stuff done during the week (I work PT).

I still seem to spend the vast majority of my life cooking, cleaning, doing washing, putting away washing and I’m Tesco though! It’s just the evenings that are a lot better although it’s not going to be long before DC1 wants to stay up later

Get the kids to tidy up while one of you makes dinner and the other sorts washing out. Make the tidying into a game/race to they do it quicker! Sack off ironing school uniform-it’s not like they stay clean anyway. Sort the school bags straight away when they come in from school. Eat at the same time, even if you aren’t eating the same thing you can usually manage to cook it at the same time. I feel like i don’t sit down at all from when they come in til when they go to bed but after bedtime it’s wine telly and crisps time

I try to do no more than 30mins chores in the evening (and often less). Eat with the kids, then there's not two lots of cooking/eating/ washing up. Batch cooking is larger portions of what I was making anyway rather than separate cooking in the evening. DH washes up before the kids go to bed while I play with them. Laundry washed and dried throughout the day. I don't iron, and I fold laundry on the sofa in the evening watching TV. I have never done a delicates load in my life. If the kids crawl in a stream their clothes go in a normal wash and if they stain they stain. Life is too short for always doing laundry We do tidy up time with the kids before bed. They are surprisingly good at it! I have a cleaner once a fortnight, and the rest of the time probably have lower standards then you though!

One thing though
Do you have to iron/ have those clothes washed of an evening or do you feel you should?
If you cant get them done early then wash on a timer overnight and quickly hang in the morning.
You will burn out if you never rest.

I sit down a lot, but my house is a shit tip!

Stop ironing school uniforms, that's a waste of time!

I don't do delicates washes, and it isn't cold enough for jumpers yet (North of England). I do dark, white, towels.

Kids are 7 and 10 and make their own packed lunches.

No need to iron school uniform.
How come you are batch cooking and dh is making dinner ?
You are definitely washing too much stuff, or stuff too often if you are doing 3 loads a night.
Definitely clear up as you go, in the kitchen, so 'clearing up the kitchen' doesn't become a separate job.
DC should also be able to put the duplo away before going up to bed.

All that said, it is hard when you WOTH and have small dc. It gets easier once they are of an age to do a little more themselves.

What time do you go out and what time do you get back ?
Is it not a possibility to all eat together so you aren't doing two separate meals ?

May I ask why your making their beds at 9pm? If they weren’t Made earlier in day don’t bother, or do you mean putting fresh bedding onto them?
Also can you not start the washing in the day time if your home or in an out on timer?

I have ds 11, an feel like once I get home around 5pm, walk 3 dogs, cook tea, supervise homework, general tidy it’s normally 8-8.30.
I time a load of washing to end as I get in from work , so it’s ready to hang up etc.I definitely would struggle with doing x 3 loads every evening.
The toys being tidied , I’d create it as a game at end of play for the evening if you can.
But x3 children under 5 must be a handful, so my biggest advice, be kind to yourself!! Your doing the best you can, maybe set a timer for 1 hr after they have gone to bed to do all you can an then that’s it for the night and sit yourself down?!

Blimey, toddler clothes would be washed together not hand scrubbed in my house! The very worst (ie black with caked on mud) would probably have been binned back in my days of having small ones - this probably happened twice before anyone starts coming after me about the environment). If they were clean and washed they were good enough for me.
I put on one load a day for dp, ds and I. The dds do their own, probably 3 times a week. At the weekends I do a couple per day, bedding and towels etc bump it up.
Anyway, some of it is optional (bed making and bib scrubbing, ironing too depending on your jobs), some of it is essential.
It’s just about priorities for me, i prioritise my down time before looking ironed and pristine. Not to say either is right, but I’m content with my choice and as long as you can manage, carry on doing what you’re doing if it’s important to you.
Mine are now 7, 14 and 15 - as I say, things get easier as they get older!!

Me most nights and I'm very organised, everything has to be done before I sit down and tonight that was 9.30pm, I did make banana muffins for packed lunches though.

Usually manage to sit down by 8.30-9pm.

I don't sit down at all at the moment (except for grabbing a bit of time right now) but I am mid-way through a major DIY project on the house. I have 3 dc including a toddler and really struggling with the lack of 'me' time at the moment. On top of this I am having late nights because of the house project and it is not at all good but will hopefully end in about a month. Regarding washing, I have loads of it, I don't know who produces the most my teen or my toddler but I do several washes including the school uniform at the weekend and then less essential washes throughout the week but the washing machine is on almost every day. Life is just hectic at the moment and one day seems to roll into another without much down time, like you say it will pass but I think a good moan can help us get through it sometimes.

I totally feel like you op. It is exhausting. I really struggle to understand how other working parents have evening schedules of Pilates, reading books or watching tv, when I fall into bed at 11:30 having spent the whole evening on absolutely basic tidying up and preparing for the next day.

Mine are 9 and 12 but the eldest struggles to do much for himself as can’t stay on task (adhd/dcd) - and he generates a LOT of mess and washing.

Don't bother soaking bibs. Just wash them. Even if they still look a but grubby, they're bibs. Same for clothes. Kids have loads of stained clothes they use for nursery /playing out.

I really don't know anyone in ny friend circle who irons unless funerals or weddings etc.

Stop ironing if you can get away with it, or send it out to be ironed. Why are you scrubbing their shoes? Are they that mucky every day they need to be scrubbed? Do all laundry at the weekend and nothing midweek. Kids pick up after themselves before bed. Admin tasks...bare minimum during the week, there arent that many surely every day.
I think you need to not expect so much. Let the house be messy if it means you get to sit down, because resting is a lot more important

That sounds exhausting, wtf are you doing all that?
Cook one meal, don't iron uniform, do half of it some other time or not at all.