I'll try to be brief. I work part time, but do school hours Monday to Friday so I do all the school drop offs and pick ups for DCs who are 8, 6 and 4. DH works away on a fairly regular basis and often has to leave very early or gets back late when he's not working away. I do all the cooking and cleaning, most of the laundry, take the children to various after school activities, listen to them read, and basically arrange everything to do with DCs' social and school lives.
I have recently struggled to keep on top of the cleaning, I feel like all I ever do is rush around and once the DCs are in bed on an evening I'm exhausted. I do try to do some housework after school pick up when they're not at an activity but often find I have to break off for them, or to make them dinner and also I feel guilty for not spending time with them. Weekends are often busy with more extra curricular activities which take up all of Saturday morning so it feels like we don't spend much time together as a family at all. I have recently decided to enquire about hiring a cleaning company to come in once a week.
I made the mistake of mentioning it to a few people who have been quite negative about it. One friend actually said "Well I've never needed a cleaner and I have three DCs". It has made me wonder why I can't seem to keep on top of everything and other people can? DH isn't against the idea but he's not exactly supportive. I always said I'd only get a cleaner if I worked full time again. Oh dear, that wasn't brief at all! AIBU?