I’m a mum to 3 kids. They are aged 8, 11, 13. I thought everything would be so, so easy by now as they were tricky babies and toddlers (bad sleepers-years of chronic sleep deprivation, extremely active etc). I don’t know why I’m finding it difficult but it just is for me 🤷♀️ They are very full on , loud kids . They eat a lot and due to being very physical , they do a lot of activities so we do have to drive around quite a bit , we car pool etc . They are also fab kids who will happily play outside with friends etc but still back in and out of the house.
We are lucky to live in a country which has beautiful, hot summers but the holidays are very long, 3 months off school… yup.
Work-load has also hugely increased since they have gotten older , laundry is 10 times what it was when they were small, they are constantly hungry. We do our best with chores , getting them to help but honestly it’s another job. One of my children is particularly challenging and has a slight LD. My husband and and I have the most unsupportive families known to man and we are both from very challenging backgrounds. I won’t go into it but absolutely no practical help in anyway.
We both work very hard with cost of living really affecting us despite decent careers .
In 13 years we’ve have zero help, absolutely nothing, I had to pay people when I went into labour to mind my other kids.
Our house is lovely and in a great location particularly for our kids as it’s near beautiful beaches , great schools -older child can cycle everywhere. The house is a bit too small but lovely . We had to save and save for a deposit and did the entire renovation ourselves (again we have had/will have no financial help ever from family and no practical help when renovating and when we had small kids-fine, that’s life).
The kids do activities, get invited to playdates etc -we do have good friends but they all have solid family support etc.
I am/was very into art (print-making) and as I’m a teacher I’m off all summer but I simply can’t get back into it even though I want to . I just saw a friends social media and she has 2 kids and produces loads of work , really beautiful stuff and I honestly don’t understand how she can do this. I will say she has a studio and I don’t . I can’t afford one yet.
My husband is great but has to work full time over the summer , he does take the kids out when he can but even when they are out I can’t seem to do anything, I’m just exhausted and unmotivated and there’s always so much housework . I can’t understand how other parents can do this. I feel like such a failure today after seeing all that woman’s beautiful work. I know how short life is but I literally don’t know how to carve out time or even if I have it how to get into the right headspace … I know it would make me happier but I can’t understand how others can do it , my youngest is just 8 so it isn’t like they can be left to their own devices all day . I just can’t get my head around when another parent could do this. I’m an organized person too 🤷♀️