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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

How do people manage with multiple children?

81 replies

Hungrychocolate · 16/02/2025 10:10

I feel I am very stressed over this weekend. I have a 4 months old baby and a 3 year old DS. The toddler goes to preschool 5 days a week using the funded 30 hours and I am on maternity leave.

H works from home all the days and I am doing looking after for DC after preschool and holidays. His preschool is term time only. I feel constantly stressed over the weekends when everyone is home. Toddler doesn't seems to listen to what we ask of him, things like wear your trousers, wear your socks, eat your food. It's hit and miss. H starts yelling as he gets annoyed why DS is not listening. Then DS starts to cry and it's a constant loop I am stuck in. Toddler has also been going through some viral infections and baby has got cold as well, not sleeping well recently. I am tired and exhausted of this constant loop of toddler not listening and following, H yelling and toddler crying. It's a nightmare.
On top of this there are so many household chores which H does picks things like laundry and loading dishwasher etc. Baby is breastfed so she's mostly with me, there's no me-time for now until I go back to work. I dread to think about how will I cope with all this when I go back to work. Is there anything anyone can suggest which I can do to improve our lives.

OP posts:
LG71 · 16/02/2025 13:47

Like a pp the thing that really stands out to me is your husbands lack of patience and the yelling. I also agree that he needs to read up about parenting children this age.
There's some amazing accounts on TikTok that give you great tips and real examples. I find that is just about all I have time for as it gets the info to you really quickly and I like having examples.
Being calm is the absolute key.
You can't expect a child to do something that you cannot do. So if your husband is not able to stay calm or manage his emotions then how on earth does he expect a 3 year old to? He has a lot of learning to do very quickly. I'm not saying that from a place of judgement at all. It's SO hard, but I promise you that is where success lies

Hungrychocolate · 16/02/2025 14:15

I agree he has a lot of learning to do. He needs to improve.

OP posts:
Btowngirl · 16/02/2025 15:11

Hi OP, I have a 4 month old DD and a 3 year old DD so snap on that!

We’ve found it so helpful to spend 1 day on a weekend where we take a kid each for the morning, meet at home for lunch together and swap children and then go out in the afternoon with the other. 1 feels easy compared to 2 plus it means our 3 year old gets some good quality one to one time. Our baby will feel the benefit as she is older, but currently it’s a good opportunity for whoever is with her to get some personal bits done.

I am BF but express too for stuff like this. It’s really done wonders for our family, and then we have a family day together too unless my DP has weekend work to do!

Notgivenuphope · 16/02/2025 15:13

Hungrychocolate · 16/02/2025 10:11

I will need to go back to work as it's a good role and I want to earn money and there's a good career path ahead.

This is the very best thing you can do! Well done OP.

Your husband needs to grow up and use his words to communicate rather than volume. You need firm discipline for your toddler and consequences consequences consequences.

Drylogsonly · 16/02/2025 21:01

It gets easier as they get older and two kids can play together etc when bigger which means YOU aren’t constantly trying to entertain them…

LilacLilias · 16/02/2025 21:14

The book I mentioned is called The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read: (And Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did)
by Philippa Perry. It is on Audible, I listened to it on there

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