How on earth do people get everything done in the school holidays? Just the basics like preparing meals, washing up, laundry, hoovering, cleaning loos, emptying rubbish etc? I have been taking DC (2 and 6) out in the mornings to soft play etc but then feel like I need to lie in a dark room for the rest of the afternoon lol. I try and get the jobs done but I feel done in and the kids want my attention (constantly). So today I tried doing all the jobs in the morning but the kids watched TV all morning and then trashed the place while I was cleaning up from lunch and making a slow cooker meal so I have only just finished everything and now it's too late to take them anywhere! I've thought about alternating days in and days out, would that work? Or lower my expectations of what the kids do in the holiday. I could nip them to the park for a bit now. But that's 4 hours of TV, 2 hours of eating and trashing the place another hour of TV and a trip to the park in the freezing cold. It doesn't feel a great day for them? What do others do? I notice on other threads some people say they don't do much household chores but I can't imagine not keeping the loos clean and having no clean clothes for my kids to wear, a sticky floor etc. unless everyone else has cleaners?? I feel shattered this week and my oldest just said she can't wait to go back to school!! I feel a bit sad that she just said that!
AIBU?
To ask how you get all the household jobs done in the school holidays?
Supportingeachother1983 · 18/02/2016 15:32
As silly as it may sound 'a little and often' is really the best way.
Do not accumulate clutter at all. After supper, always put things away.
Have a selection of wicker baskets for smaller children's toys & bung them in of an evening.
Work out what you'd really like in your home , keep those things then discard the rest.
I've moved countries a few times. Having to start over ( a few times) taught me that we really need very little.
My children are 17. 12 & 7 now - those early years are (by far) the most draining and unrelenting.
I get the DCs to do the household jobs. It's good for them 
This morning they have tidied the kitchen, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher. Sorted the clean washing and put it away, brought down the dirty laundry and fed the animals. They're about to go and collect sticks and bring in a couple of barrows of wood for the furnace.
Ive been working faffing about on MN
Childminder here (smiles indulgently at the thread 
)
Some jobs are essentially daily and I'd put cleaning the loo and mopping the floors in that category.
I train all the kids to tidy up after themselves - it's their playroom. Protests of "I didn't do that!" are met with "Neither did I ".
Wipe as we go, tidy as we go and a big splurge in the evening/weekend. Timed. Anything over that time gets left until next time.
I did find Flylady incredibly helpful, by the way. Oh, and I don't iron, for example. Folded as they come off the line or out of the drier. Life is too short!
Shall I collect my halo on the way out? 
In our house during the holidays we make the kids do the cleaning while we are at work. They are teenagers though
I have a 4 and a 2 year old and DC3 here soon, standards are certainly not as high as when I was a single adult !
Main things we do - they have to put toys away/tidy whatever they have been playing with before we have lunch/go out etc (they are pretty good at this).
They always shut the toilet seat and flush after going.
After a meal I will say "ok you go and play now whilst I just tidy up" - quick wipe around table and kitchen and fill dishwasher etc.
At bathtime their toys are put away before they go upstairs and they have to help tidy their bedrooms before bath. The Robotvac is switched on to clean the crumbs I have spent all day sweeping on to the floor !
In the week I only wash things which don't need ironing - socks, underwear and fleeces, towels etc.
I only dust when the sun shines on something and I realise how bad it looks !
The house looks "acceptable"
I have a 4 and a 2 year old and DC3 here soon, standards are certainly not as high as when I was a single adult !
Main things we do - they have to put toys away/tidy whatever they have been playing with before we have lunch/go out etc (they are pretty good at this).
They always shut the toilet seat and flush after going.
After a meal I will say "ok you go and play now whilst I just tidy up" - quick wipe around table and kitchen and fill dishwasher etc.
At bathtime their toys are put away before they go upstairs and they have to help tidy their bedrooms before bath. The Robotvac is switched on to clean the crumbs I have spent all day sweeping on to the floor !
In the week I only wash things which don't need ironing - socks, underwear and fleeces, towels etc.
I only dust when the sun shines on something and I realise how bad it looks !
The house looks "acceptable"
I have a 4 and a 2 year old and DC3 here soon, standards are certainly not as high as when I was a single adult !
Main things we do - they have to put toys away/tidy whatever they have been playing with before we have lunch/go out etc (they are pretty good at this).
They always shut the toilet seat and flush after going.
After a meal I will say "ok you go and play now whilst I just tidy up" - quick wipe around table and kitchen and fill dishwasher etc.
At bathtime their toys are put away before they go upstairs and they have to help tidy their bedrooms before bath. The Robotvac is switched on to clean the crumbs I have spent all day sweeping on to the floor !
In the week I only wash things which don't need ironing - socks, underwear and fleeces, towels etc.
I only dust when the sun shines on something and I realise how bad it looks !
The house looks "acceptable"
What disappointed said, we have three loos and a septic tank, bleaching them daily would be mad, they get done when they need it.
Sure my house is a bit untidy in parts but it's a long way from squalid, I also spend time feeding the heating (fires and it's a bloody big house), shifting ash, shifting fuel, opening flues, closing flues, opening windows as chimney blocked, sweeping said bloody chimney, faffing around again with the coal, but if the dcs were in school the fires wouldn't be lit and I would sit in a coat. Nothing makes dust like an open fire, I would go stark staring bonkers if I worried about a bit of mess.
Anyway that's my excuse
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