in finding the "busy mum" thing ANNOYING

[Nehru]

and " the rare moment I get a minute to myself" and
" i have no time to brush my hair" ( or whatever).

Specially when it is said on here after a good hour or so of titting about!

But busy mums..ARGH

I can't stand the people who stand about gossiping & taking multiple breaks but when help is needed they are really busy. My colleague is like this, it drives me nuts - agree with this; I do voluntary work with other peoples' children - we are always desperate for help, lots of mums (and a few dads) are happy to drop their children off, stand around gossiping and arranging to go out for coffee/a drink/the gym/cinema et in my hearing - yet when I ask for some help, they all say they are 'too busy'. Why not just be honest and say they don't want to help instead of making out how important the rest of their life is. .

Generalisations just never work, one way or another.quickly flees from thread

I actually am a busy person. We both work FT in demanding professional jobs and we have 2 DC. BUT I would never describe myself as a 'busy mum' as it is twee and patronising.

I am a busy woman or busy person, but defined as 'mum' in that context? No thanks! DH is never described as a 'busy Dad' btw

Lebfg has it sussed - busy people just get in with it (not enough time to moan)
The ones who are busy telling you how busy they are seem to be justifying themselves for some reason

I am still envious of those that get to drink a cup of coffee whilst hot. I have a nasty habit of putting it down whilst I just do something and then forgetting where I have put it. It says nothing about how busy I am. Just how crap my memory is.

i had plenty of time to brush my hair today...i just forgot to do it

I think the word "busy" has lost all meaning on this thread by now.

Toddlers aren't all too small to reach the door handle. My DS3 is 2y4mo, and plenty tall enough to reach my door handles. And even when he wasn't, he was perfectly able annoyingly to push his toy box over to the door to open the damn thing whilst I was mid-piss!

Also, some of us genuinely ARE busy, and take 5 mins here and there, to post on MN in quiet moments - like I do when I am on a bus, between one of a myriad of appointments that I have for my 4 DC's, 3 with SN's and disabilities, and the fourth being investigated for epilepsy. Add that to my own appointments as I have epilepsy and arthritis, and you DO get a genuinely 'busy' mum...

My housework ends up being finished at 1am - and yes, I take the time then to post in between jobs. Why not?

I haven't had one week since Christmas where I haven't had at least three important appointments...

My toddler can reach and turn door handles, and has been able to since before he was 2 - he really likes the toilet and no pesky shut door is going to stand in the way.

The fact that some of you think it's desirable to have a closed/locked bathroom door between you and your toddler suggests a fundamental failure of understanding of the ability of my toddler to completely dismantle a room/ find something he shouldn't have (despite a rigorous health and safety contol protocol) and the vital seconds that the closed door and muffling of tiny tell-tale sounds could have on my sanity and his well-being.

I did indeed only sit down and have twenty minutes of uninterrupted warm beverage the day I went back to work.

I'm glad for your sakes that you have the kind of children that makes your complete lack of empathy possible.

I'm more of a procrastinator than a busy mum. Like right now I really should be doing other things that I have put off doing already but I'm sat on my ass surfing the net with gay abandon.

I will then whizz around at 4pm doing everything and complaining how busy I am, having surfed and napped all day.

My 4 year old has now learned how to pick the bathroom lock!

I do agree about the tweeness of the busy mum tag or, even worse, flatmum, mum of 3 and professional blah blah.

HOWEVER, I have 3 dc work full time and I barely have time to go to the toilet when I am not at work. I am really, really busy. I rarely watch tv anymore, rarely have time to read or excercise and am exhausted every night. I am not complaining, just saying that between 3 children, work, homework, housework, laundry, ironing, organising i genuinely have virtually no downtime at the moment (except while MN at work :)).

I think the third child tips the balance, while they are young anyway.

I'm lying on the sofa in my pyjamas while my children go boggle-eyed in front of Cbeebies. Just overwhelmed with everything I have to do today

Well I think most people with children are busy aren't they?

But it's got to a level of competitive busy-ness now.

I have 3 children and a full time job. I also get time to drink coffee, piss about on the Internet and do things I enjoy.

I don't get the...I don't know, point scoring.

I'm so busy I never get to drink a hot drink.
No, I'm so busy I never get to go for a wee
No, I'm so busy that I haven't sat down for 18 months and there is never a second of the day when I am not doing something, cleaning, cooking, looking after the children etc

For the most part we all choose our lives.
And I always find the people that genuinley are amazingly busy, and deals with what life throws at them, like couthy are the ones that do not tend to tell the world how busy they are. They just get on with it.

Ruby it's not a lack of empathy, my two were full on as toddlers and are still that way inclined at 3 and 7, but I made sure that they didn't run rings around me. If they were too small to be safely left while I went to the loo or had a shower or my lunch they went in the playpen.

To the people who say they can't leave their toddler whilst they use the loo because the child will cause so much trouble, how do you do other things then like wash up or cook a meal? Surely if your child can't be trusted whilst you're in the loo, they can't be trusted whilst you're doing other things and just checking on them every few minutes.

The PTA martyrs do my head in. The head of our PTA is all over the school's PTA facebook page with her martyrishness. Her busy job, her busy kids, her busy churchy life, her busy PTA activites. No one else is ever as busy as she is... (the insinuation being that we're all slackers)

sorry only just seen this thread (too busy)
haven't read all the posts (too busy)
only came on here by accident when I fell on my phone doing a busy thing

yes fucks me right off

and I am VERY FUCKING busy too

flatmum

you have 3, nuff said

I relax at work, including MN and DM online , and off for a coffee now

and I am a senior manager hahahahaha

Funny's - hahahahahahaha at 'putting them in a playpen' while you have a shower/do washing up/whatever.

My DS3 has been able to get out if a playpen and over a stairgate since he was 11 months old. He didn't WALK until he was 14 months old. Now at 2y4mo, he can scale a 6 foot bookshelf in under a minute, I have had to remove ALL the units from my living room and screw the TV bracket to the fucking ceiling.

You're having a bloody laugh about a playpen, aren't you?!

As for getting dinner cooked - I prep everything while he is having his (20 minute) nap. I then have him in the kitchen (all my cupboards now have locks with keys like a medicine cupboard does).

I have my kitchen door with a Yale lock like a front door, and I have to lock him IN the kitchen with me.

Yes, some DC's are placid enough to be put in a playpen, DS2 was. But DS3, not a bloody hope.

Walk a mile in someone else's shoes and all that...