How do you get ANYTHING done with a crawling baby?

[Pinkstuffs]

DS is 6 months old and has been crawling a couple of weeks ago. He is into EVERYTHING, he has lots of toys but ignores them all in favour of anything he sees that might be dangerous - doors, fireplaces, furniture, cables etc - so obviously needs constant supervision. He has a playpen but won’t tolerate it long, especially once he realises he can’t get out.

How do you get anything done? Before he could crawl I would put him on a playmat in whichever room I happened to be in and could clean etc as he’s quite an independent little guy and will happily play by himself. But now I obviously can’t do that unless each room is baby proofed which is difficult and even then, just when I think it’s safe he spots something I’ve missed!

So what do you do? Am I missing something obvious? Once he’s in bed I’m shattered and still have to wash bottles etc. He’s up at 6 so can’t get up any earlier to do jobs.

Perfect. Thank you 🥰

DH is out of the house at work from 7am - 7pm, I could leave the cleaning and have already significantly lowered my standards but there’s plenty that still needs to be done like washing, cooking (even just for me and DS), basic tidying, washing bottles etc. I think it’s unrealistic to say no household chores should get done all day.

This is what i did^. A box of clothes pegs would give 40 minutes entertainment

Of course they are - the Mumsnet husband always is.

They get used to having the housework done and magically forget how to do it, so their wives/partners end up doing all of the childcare and housework even when they’re back at work. Even better if they can have it so wifey can only work part time and fubar her career in favour of his.

Mine was gone for 5.5 days a week. There were absolutely weeks where very little got done till he got back.

I’m not sure what the main point is you’re trying to make but I don’t think it’s un reasonable to presume someone with a 9-5 would be out of the house most of the day especially when they have a commute. I’m not trying to do mega cleaning but equally need to do things like washing up, emptying bin, cooking and basic tidying even when I’m just cleaning up after myself? I don’t want to live in a shit heap with it all piling up!

Mine are a bit older but do they still do baby walkers or jumperoos or whatever they’re called? Stick them in that while you need to do housework

No reason a lot of that couldn’t be done after 7pm when the second adult is at home. So you could take the view that your “job” during the day is childcare and housework is a shared task outside of that. Of course there are bits you need to do during the day but only those that actually need to be done, so eating and clearing up from that, washing if it’s going on the line etc. Bins don’t usually go from not full to full and needing emptying immediately, bathrooms can wait.