Is your family home chaotic? Big family + pets?

[Lavender081517]

If you have a big family and pets also does it feel chaotic and unorganized...or are you regimented with routines, organised and mostly clean and tidy?

Just wondering as people always say my home is chaotic etc but i truly don't think it is or perhaps I am just immune to it ?

I said to my mother last week about how do people cope with 6 kids and dogs cats rabbits in the garden etc and housework and she said she reckons they are either all completely army style regimented and organised right down to the last pencil and everyone chips in to help....
Or they are just permanently a hot mess and pure chaos.

IRL I do Not know anyone with more than 3 children or lots of pets so I have no idea?

Hmm, one child here, 4 big dogs, a few horses, some sheep on loan and several feral cats. I work in a professional career role, with much travel- minimum commute two hours, maximum abroad. Average daily commute 6 he round trip.

Our house isn’t very big, but we have many outbuildings and barns, so it’s fairly organised. I don’t feed animals in the house, dogs eat in kennels, even if they live in the house.
The kitchen and family room can be messy, I don’t own S dishwasher and you have to move the clothes airer off the aga to make tea.

No animals past that point though, so my house in the main is clean and tidy. No piles of crap and beds always made.

So you can have both, even within the same family and house!

lydia That's exactly why I feel quite offended when people keep saying this...
I've had mum's from school pop round and all comment on how nice and tidy it is etc...
Today for example the house was cleaned top to bottom especially kitchen and bathrooms toilets bedding etc
Ok I admit still a neat pile of laundry or two haha but that's a never ending battle!

We have never to this day in 7 years of nursery and school runs etc ever had a single late Mark.
Dinner always at 5pm
Bedtimes are strict routine (or all shit goes out the window)
So I truly wouldn't say it's a chaotic environment and I always conjure up similar images to what you described when I hear those words...
It makes me feel like people think I'm not coping.

Sorry I probably making a mountain out of a molehill but I'm recovering from a very very serious bout of PND after nearly losing my life in labour last year.
I feel over sensitive maybe to people saying things

I would put it out of your head, OP. You sound like you have your shit together and everyone is well cared for and happy and that is all that matters.

Doesn't really matter what other people think.

Plus it's all relative. I have 1DC who is a mid aged teenager. He is quiet and spends time in his room outside of meal times (as do i), we have two cats but mostly ours is an extremely quiet house.

If I go to anyone's house with even one young child, it feels chaotic to me.

Looking after animals tends to make things more organized rather than more chaotic. I have horses, they need a lot of care and do well on routine. Also everything around them needs to be clean and tidy for safety reasons.

3 generations - grandparent who works from home. Parents running a business from home. 3 home educated kids. 1 dog, 3 cats, fish, rats, chickens etc.

I guess to an outsider it seems chaotic at times but we love it.

Our house is a bit chaotic; we have twins aged three and twins aged two, a new baby on the way and a little dog. We've outgrown the house, really, but wanted to take another year to save before moving, so we're all a bit on top of each other and there are toys everywhere right up until bedtime, when they are little sweethearts and all do their bit to restore the house to a reasonable level of normality so that it can be cleaned before the chaos starts again the next day!

We're never late for anything though, the children are incredibly good and easy children (hence we chose to have so many of them!), and we have a superb dog walker who manages the furry girl and takes some of the pressure off. And I think we have a lot of fun!