To fantasise about a night/day off?

[coldestsummer]

Things are so intense at the moment. We have a teething 12 month old and a three year old who is full of zest for life which is lovely but exhausting. DH and I are not young parents (!)

We are like ships passing in the night, just trying to survive. And we do a good job and we love one another and our children but oh for a Saturday night where we stay up late with a takeaway and a film and then a lazy Sunday morning when we don’t have to get out of bed first thing and just take it easy.

I know it will happen one day but it feels light years away at the moment.

Hold on in there OP, it will come, mine are 6 and 8 now but i could have written this post a while ago. Can you treat yourself to a days AL when they are both in nursery one day? Just to chill together or even on your own while you partner is at work - i did it rarely but it was a godsend for me,

The time passes quicker than you think, although i remember it being so intense when I was where you are.

One note of encouragement, if it helps, the time we put in as you are now, when they were 12m & 3 onwards have made them easier children as they’ve grown up - polite, kind, helpful respectful etc which makes the parenting easier and less intense as time goes on.

You haven’t asked for advice so i might be over stepping, but i did wish i had encourage more independence in my LO earlier, i sort of got into a rut getting her dressed and helping with the teeth clean etc long after she really needed me too i think i was just on auto pilot! i would have made these intense younger phase pass quicker and be less physically hands on if I’d worked a bit differently. I think even now i see her as so much smaller than my older one and leap in to help!

In a few years you will blink and wonder where the time has gone. … and even miss bits of it. I know you can’t imagine that today :-)

Yes, I have a 9 and 7 year old and don't miss those days! Definitely book leave sometimes if your dc are at nursery. Either a day for you or you and dh to spend time together. Absolutely not a waste of leave!