Boxing Day - most stressful day of the year.

[DJA1511]

Every year Boxing Day is completely pants.

My house is a tip, there’s toys everywhere. Laundry to catch up on after missing yesterday. Dishes drying on the rack to put away. My wheely bin and recycling bags are over filling.

I’m googling storage solutions for toys my family have bought the children.

Whilst wondering if we could build an extension t a play room? 🤣🤣

Kids want to go out and spend their Christmas money just to bring more stuff into the house.

Half eaten chocolate all over the kitchen sides!!

Anyone else??

We had Christmas Day on our own, I was pretty chilled out and then yesterday we had my mum and dad over, not much cleaning to do in the morning and then do a load each day!! Although still piles there to get through 😅😅

boxing day is the best. a bit like christmas day but with much less work or expectations....just tv, a walk, leftovers and no cooking

I love Boxing Day! I have a blitz Christmas night before I go to bed (preferably when everyone else is busy, so it's done how I want it...), then drink tea on the sofa in the morning before decamping to my dads at lunchtime for a day of eating cheese, lolling around and reverting to being a teenager. Everyone has presents to play with, and is still full and lazy from the day before.

After hosting Christmas Day, i love being a guest! :-)

.

Christmas day is more pressured I think with all the presents, christmas lunch and time spent together. I like boxing day - no big meal to cook (we had a buffet),. Teenagers stayed in bed longer so I had a nice peaceful couple of hours with coffee and a tidy kitchen (tidied it before bed), I also got out of the house and did a run and we played games

I can only take 2 days of mess - today the cleaner came, all toys put away and I resisted temptation to take the tree down.

I've learned from years of practice to tidy as I go along and I got all my washing done on Christmas Eve and done some yesterday and today. Toys we would find a place for. We have a tween and teen now and a small house so we tidy as we go along otherwise we would be in a mess I hate boxing day and in between as my birthday is today and my husband has had to work our girls had a lie in and I feel like it's a normal day. My husband bought me a bag and cardi I wanted in Asda

Every November we have a big clear out so that we have room for the stuff they get for Christmas. We didn’t do it last year and it was a massive pain as Place was always a mess. My friend has 4 kids and operates a one in one out system to avoid drowning in toys.

I just make peace with doing a load of laundry and some general housework on Christmas Day. It means I can wake up on Boxing Day without feeling irritable and stressed because of the mess (I don't have OCD but I do hate mess).

Boxing day is the best can relax and pig out.
No washing either on boxing day it's a bank holiday and i refuse to do washing on a bank holiday. Today I caught up with the washing.

I love Boxing Day, purely because it means Christmas is over.

I try to do day-to-day stuff, just so I can enjoy the feeling of normal life returning. I can think of nothing worse than slobbing around in pyjamas (which I don't possess) all day with the TV on (I don't possess one of those, either).

The teenagers were so keen to go shopping yesterday that they were all up and out by 9AM.

So There.

I used to love Boxing Day. Lounge around watching films all day in my pyjamas. Until I gave birth on Boxing Day some years ago and now have to give my child a wonderful birthday each year hot on the heels of Christmas Day. I am today, as I'm sure you can imagine, absolutely knackered.

beyondtheshed You win. Never thought about it but a Boxing Day Birthday is possibly the worse of all the Christmas/New Year Birthdays.

Hope yours had a fab one.

Embrace the mess, put your feet up, enjoy a well earned cuppa and pat yourself on the back for organising another great Christmas.

beyondtheshed

I have a DH with a Boxing Day birthday, so I feel your pain.

We did, as is all too often the case, spend Boxing Day with the inlaws yesterday...who hate me, dislike our children because DH had them with me (and they are more like me than him), and worst of all, forget every year that it is DH's birthday (they last gave him a birthday cake when he was 4...)

So please, please keep giving your little boy a wonderful Boxing Day birthday. However hard it is, NOT having your birthday celebrated (especially when your sister, born in January, has the full works every year) is awful.

Boxing Day was lovely. My parents came to visit, we looked through old photos and went out for a leisurely lunch. It is what you make it.

Presumably your kids have enough clean clothes to last the week? Why the heck do you need to wash every day?

I did my tax return! And I’m glad that’s over for another year.

@MintyMabel The OP said upthread that she has children with additional needs, hence extra washing.

@AstonMartini

Which presumably can still be caught up with over the next week bit by bit.

Oh come on, @MintyMabel Don't pretend you have RTFT when you evidently haven't...

The phrase "it'll all come out in the wash in the end" is applicable here ....

I love Boxing Day, we celebrate both Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Today is sales shopping day. No housework done, no laundry for 3 days and its been lovely.

My house is a tip, there’s toys everywhere.

Means your kids are playing and having fun, which is a good thing. Our house is a permenant tip, but I don't care as long as our kids have permenant smiles.

Laundry to catch up on after missing yesterday.

One day won't hurt, I've not done any since the day before Christmas Eve. Make a brew, or pour a glass of wine and take some time to worry about what is really important, not the day to day mechanics of running a house. To paraphrase John Lennon 'Life is what happens while you're busy worrying about all the things that don't really matter'.

Dishes drying on the rack to put away.

Do this while the kettle is boiling.

My wheely bin and recycling bags are over filling.

Gretta Thunberg will be glad you are recycling and your council bin emptying will catch up, I has every other year.

I’m googling storage solutions for toys my family have bought the children.

Sounds like you have a generous family, don't worry about that, celebrate it. So many look inwardly, only at themselves these days. It sounds as though you family are keen to remind your kids how loved they are (and I know spending money isn't the only way to do this, but in most cases I believe, where they can, grandparents and aunts/uncles DO lavish gifts because they love their grandchildren, nieces/nephews.

Whilst wondering if we could build an extension t a play room? 🤣🤣

Wont help, kids are like gasses. They expand to fill their environment.

Kids want to go out and spend their Christmas money just to bring more stuff into the house.

This is good for the economy, so however young they are, your children have a better grasp of economics than any of the major political parties!

Half eaten chocolate all over the kitchen sides!!

I'm sure we've all found much much worse, I know I have!

I don't think you have particular grounds to be stressed. It sounds to me that you have a normal family and wonderful kids. Take time while you can to enjoy them, because the dishes and washing will still be there, but their childhood won't be.

What a sad way to live.
It’s an amazing time to spend having fun with your family, to spend it worrying about washing and tidying is a real waste of precious time.

No laundry back log - it's only one day I didn't do it and even with 3 humans and a bunch of animals we don't generate tons.

Kids are scoffing the choc and playing with new stuff giving me the chance to sit down and watch a movie for once.

I don't care about the washing up! It's clean so it can wait to be put away.

Boxing day is for lounging in my house. I'm a single parent so every day is having to be 2 parents, today is my day off, well not off but seriously not on full service! Usually would blow the cobwebs out with a good long dog walk but he's on bed rest with a bad knee so has spot on the sofa with me :)

Great advice but with the grandparents and aunts it is extremely exhausting and nit sounding ungrateful at all.. both sets of grandparents and aunts are very different, it also takes the enjoyment of Christmas, as it is discussed for weeks, The adults are worse than the children!! Even food what bloody meat to cook and where to shop either ALDI or COOK and which red cabbage is a better brand. If that is loving your grandchildren or Bruce’s and nephews then I must be a very bad parent!! You are so right thismumisaman life is to short and the icing on the cake when all year round you realise you are not being unreasonable😀😀😃

Sorry takes out the enjoyment of Christmas!! 🤣