Trapped Toddler Parents: Surviving the summer

[Motherofmonsters]

Hi,

New thread for toddler support, ideas and general rants!

Ah @Stayingstrongish , that must feel good now to have a firm diagnosis. I hope you are getting some support?
That's excellent about living so close to the park, my boys also don't like wearing coats much even when it's cold. It drives me bonkers.

@squishymamma yes snacks its so hard when you like something so much. I eat too many crisps. I lasted 2 days giving them up for lent.

@prettygirlincrimsonrose hello 👋 again! Glad to have you back.

We've been OK really with the clock change, we always are more affected by the October one. My outlook calendar however has not coped and shifted all my Teams video meetings on an hour.

We are having decorating done at the moment, long overdue but hate having someone in the house when you want to go for a wee, have a cuppa etc!

Hope tonight is a decent night everyone. I'm going to have a bubble bath and do some puzzles!!

@squishymamma I am now salivating over chocolate covered hazelnuts!

I have a very sit down job too. I stay off the snacks by drinking constant cups of tea - not sure how much healthier that is!

@Chocolatetrifle with the NHS in crisis, sadly the timeline for getting support is slow. Have been told to expect a follow up report with signposts for places to access help sometime in the next six months (have just had phone call so far).

@Chocolatetrifle enjoy the bubble bath and puzzles, sounds lush! The decorating will all be worth it when it’s done and you have the house back to yourself 😊 What colours have you gone for?

@squishymamma I managed to completely forget about the clocks changing! Didnt seem so bad with DC but was happily doing stuff with DS on Sunday and suddenly realised we had an hour less than I thought to get out the house.

How is everyone today?

We’re ok - apart from me very much wanting chocolate covered hazelnuts and not having any to hand!

The clock change didn’t seem to make a huge difference to us luckily, though she didn’t nap Sunday or Monday but has done today so this will be the test!

Childminder was closed yesterday as a total one off, DD wasn’t in last week as she was ill and next week is Easter hols so I feel like it’s been constant scrabbling around for childcare or else one of us (me) not getting much work done or having to work in the evenings. Despite this, had a conversation with boss today who was saying how much they love me and can I please do more hours and take on some other projects. Which is lovely feedback, and I was hoping to increase my hours once DD gets a school nursery place in Sept, but they need it sooner (either me to increase hours or to recruit elsewhere) - I’ll have to say yes then just muddle through for a bit I guess.

DD still responding to not getting her own way with trying to smack us, which is getting very old now. Also everything is bum bum or poo poo 🙄

@AliasGrape that's good news about the job opportunity, don't let it pass, if you try to muddle through in the meantime I think you will be glad come September! Good for you and well done!

I've had a funny day. We had a power cut at 3 30 am which woke me up like I had some weird sixth sense, then boys slept on to 7.15 luckily the power was back on by 6 .30 am, they never sleep on till that time so must be the hour change. Ds2 has a chest infection but luckily got antibiotics for him today. I broke a casserole bowl into a million pieces when it fell out of a low cupboard and I set fire to a pan lid on the hob! Ds2 also projectile vomited all over me, luckily I caught it with my jumper held out like a bucket. So I've done what any normal person would do, I've eaten an Easter egg intended for someone else.

How is everyone else?

Morning all,

@Chocolatetrifle wow what a day. You definitely deserved that Easter egg!

@AliasGrape i agree if you can muddle through to September I’d do it! So nice they appreciate you. Also sorry about the hazelnuts, hope you find some soon - I’ve finished all mine and am trying not to buy more…

Anyway not much exciting going on, DH had to be out of the house by 7am today and wow did I notice it, finally collapsed at work at 9am to then receive an email from my lovely neighbour to say I left my keys in the door so she’s taken them in. I’m just a hot mess this morning!

Soon Easter, anyone have any good suggestions for crafts a 1 and 3 year old can do together without murdering each other??

Always enjoy reading this thread although it is the reason I have just eaten a peter rabbit chocolate figurine, thanks for the inspiration to raid the easter stash @Chocolatetrifle 😂. I have a 4yr old and a 2yr old now, crazy as my ds was just a tiny baby when I started reading here! V hard to do most crafts with a 1 yr old I think @squishymamma ! But for easter we have done an easter wreath each, basically just cut out a wreath shape from coloured cardboard (I drew round a large plate and a small one), ds just stuck stickers on his, dd cut some animals from a magazine to glue on and drew some also. We will probs do some cherry blossom branches with scrunched up bits of pink tissue paper, both mine love that. I have a cheap paint your own eggs set for next week, worth looking out for?. If you have some split pins you can also do a hatching egg type card like this that they can decorate according to their abilities?

@Lostthetastefordahlias hello 👋! Hoe you are ok and I love your hatching egg craft by the way!

We made easter bonnets last night, just cheap £1 bonnets we got from Asda with the usual yellow chick's on and tissue paper yor nests and easter stickers.

We have been going to a class called artventurers once a week which eases my guilt over the fact I don’t do a fraction of the craft or messy play stuff I had imagined we would be doing.

They did cute little bunny footprint Easter cards this week, have attached a picture (the giant egg took a few weeks). Other nice ideas there were using potato mashers and paint to print egg shapes, drawing a branch and then letting them finger print pink blossom on, and putting an egg outline in a tray, adding plastic eggs or balls with some paint and then rolling them all over.

DD is really into making cards at the moment so we just keep doing that either drawing or sticking bits on - my
mother in law has endless supplies of bits and bobs for sticking as she has made cards for decades, so we now have more ‘Easter’ cards than people to give them too! We will probably do Easter nest cakes at some point.

Last year I remember doing paper plate bunnies, and also cutting out a sheep outline and letting her stick cotton wool all
over it.

@AliasGrape ah fantastic Easter crafts too!

Here's an example of our at home easter crafts, we name some chick's yesterday but I'm thinking the one on the right is more Angry Birds 😂.

So, day 1 of the easter hols and my dh has been in charge whilst I worked. Back to ne for the rest of the week. Tomorrow I'm taking the boys into town.

I'm working on spending more time with dh in the evening after the boys go to bed, rather than disappearing to bed immediately.

Fabulous crafts @Chocolatetrifle

Easter hols here too, although childminder was meant to open for 2 days extra today and tomorrow (and same next week) but hasn’t been able to due to illness.

She’s never had to close before she and then last week she did and again this week, plus with DD being ill herself previous week; it’s been a long time since we’ve had a normal week and I’m so behind with work. m

DH really doesn’t seem to get that it’s always me scrabbling around and trying to fit in what I can, where I can. He did say that he might be able to ‘help out’ tomorrow 🙄. Although he was swiftly made to feel the error of his ways for that phrasing, it’s clear that the default is its my issue to deal with even though it’s a working day for both of us.

Got through today with help of my lovely sister who doesn’t work Mondays. God knows how tomorrow will go - I’ve got quite a few meetings I need to be in, not sure how it’s going to work.

Love all the Easter crafts.

@Chocolatetrifle I do that too - disappear off upstairs because I just feel tired once kids are in bed (although I've taken over tv this evening to watch a bit of White Lotus).

Haven't really been up to much. Took DD to a 2nd birthday at a friend's house, had a trip to children's library and a game shop at the weekend, and lots of tv/pottering/trying to stop kids randomly winding each other up. Working today while DH has been looking after them, although DD was sick this afternoon and ended up napping on me after work - bless her 😞.

@prettygirlincrimsonrose oh no hope your dd is feeling better today?

Day 2 of the holidays and I'm shattered already, my boys are absolutely exhausting, talking , running, eating, fighting, shouting mummy. crying. I'm so glad its bedtime soon. Can't see me doing much with dH, I think I'll just go to bed!

@AliasGrape did you get your meetings done OK?

I had a couple of Teams calls to do at tea time, looked so bedraggled after today I definitely didn't put my camera on!

Hi Everyone,

Loving the Easter craft ideas, I need to do some with mine. It's meant to pour down with rain tomorrow so that might be a plan.

We've had house viewings the past couple of days so I've been cleaning like a crazy person. All ready on Monday thinking I wouldn't have to do much today and somehow it took like 1 1/2 hours to do it again. How can it get like that in less than a day!

Thanks @Chocolatetrifle - I got through the essentials/ meetings yesterday with the help of screen time but not much work done in between - will have to catch up on Friday and over the weekend when DH off and grateful at least to have the opportunity to do that.

Hope yours went to bed quickly and you got a decent rest!

It was really sunny yesterday, one thing I tried was filling the tuff tray in the garden with coloured crazy foam soap, sugar sprinkles/ edible glitter, scoops and little pots for DD to play ice cream shop which should have ticked every possible box for her. For some reason though she couldn’t have been less interested! Sort of poked it a few times then asked to go inside.

Back to rain today and I’m feeling rubbish so had a very lazy morning (SO MUCH SCREENTIME AT THE MOMENT - have to try harder). Have come to the supermarket now and promised DD we can do some baking after. She’s currently asleep in the back of the car so we’re just hanging out in the car park - she seems to have brought naps back after having dropped them for months. Clearly needs it, though I can only give her 30 minutes otherwise bedtime will be murder.

Hope your DD is better now @prettygirlincrimsonrose

The viewings/ constant cleaning sound stressful @Motherofmonsters - fingers crossed for an offer soon! I’m sure you’ve said sorry, but do you know where you are moving to?

Oh god that sounds like a lot of work @Motherofmonsters ! My house just gets progressively worse through the day until it takes me full 2 hrs of the evening to clean it sometimes! So ridiculous but I can’t face getting them to do it!
Thanks @Chocolatetriflethat wasn't actually a pic of our easter crafts just a similar one from the internet - ours is basically a gluey mess 😂Love your chicks they are so cute! Bet the boys enjoyed that.
Hope you are keeping your head above water @AliasGrape with the work and the illnesses and the Easter hols. I am in the same sitch where because I am part time its always me that seems to have to take time off & organise holiday cover, I am so fed up with it, but not sure how to change it really as DH job more inflexible. Am on annual leave for a fortnight now though so just trying to make it a bit restful as well as fun - hence me having a lunchtime cuppa while they watch bluey!!

@AliasGrape @Lostthetastefordahlias I think that assumption that one person deals with sick days, snow days etc can be really frustrating. DH does get that we need to split unexpected days off, holidays etc but I still have to push a bit on reminding him to book leave, talk to his boss etc.

Dd was still poorly yesterday but seems fine today. They're at a museum while I'm working (once DS accepted he needed to actually get dressed and wasn't going to be doing nothing).

@Motherofmonsters hate how hard it is to keep on top of things. Sometimes I do a bit better when wfh but often means I'm not getting enough actual work done. And we still have far too much stuff.

Enjoyed reading all your updates, made me feel less alone!

I’ve had the kids for the first part of the Easter holidays, before handing them over to my ex for a couple of days. We had some lovely weather and got out to a playground and then the beach, had a little bit of play then my eldest declared the beach “boring”! Was still a good day though.

Having recently moved, the house is a complete state still with clutter I need to put away somewhere but between working full-time and looking after the kids on days off there is hardly any time to do anything! I’ll try and do something while they are here, only to find that in the moments I’ve been out of the room they have made another huge mess! I’m sure you can relate. My toddler just loves randomly pouring water in places to “clean” things, aargh!

@Lostthetastefordahlias That's it here too. DH's job really is more inflexible, but that doesn't make mine optional! I know what you mean about the frustration. DH absolutely says the right things, accepts that it's equally his responsibility in theory, but always thinks we can just kind of wing it between us which then ends up equating to me dealing with it because 'something came up' for him. He has said that the next time it happens it is absolutely on him to deal with, so we shall see ...

@Stayingstrongish oh god the pouring water to clean! All the time, it's so bloody frustrating. Good luck on getting the house straight, are you liking where you've moved to?

Hello all, happy Good Friday!

Have read and caught up, always nice to hear what’s going on in your lives. Glad to hear your DD is feeling better @prettygirlincrimsonrose.

Thanks also for all the Easter craft ideas, we won’t be doing any of them! As we have ended up coming to my PIL’s cabin and they have zero craft supplies, not even paper. Very obvious they haven’t had young DGC for a while (there’s a 10 year gap between DH and his siblings)

It’s not been great here to be perfectly honest, DC have been fairly whiny but DS2 has been the absolute worst. He refuses to be with anyone but me and wants milk 24/7. Screams blue murder if he doesn’t get his way. I’m frazzled. And obviously this isn’t our house and my PIL are here so we can’t really relax like usual, and there’s several feet of snow outside which the kids enjoy for a little time but then quickly retreat inside…so lots and lots of screen time for us too.

Ahh well, we travel home Sunday then we can get back to normal. I’ve told DH I’m not doing this again, though I distinctly remember saying that last time…!

Have a good night everyone :)

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you got home OK @squishymamma.

I've been my usual bad tempered self because Mil came for tea, remember the awful Christmas day episode? Not as bad but for it always brings out my worst side, not helping because my own mym is facing heart surgery soon and im stressed about it. I'm premenstrual and sick of two getting up early every sodding day and generally not feeling like a nice person at the moment and just wanting to leave everyone and check into a hotel by myself even for two nights, yes I think that would sort it or perhaps a convent or a cave. Ugh, somedays are just too much and other people are too much. Looking forward to routine commencing after this week.