Neorodiverse & disorganised mums Christmas solidarity thread!

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Roll up! Frazzled, disorganised people welcome over here!

Every bloody year I promise myself I'll get it done earlier.

But, I still have a mountain of tidying to do before I can even think about decorating or wrapping. The poor tree has been sitting in the garden for 2 days.

Not one room is usable yet.

Hoping to make last posting day tomorrow but that depends on me remembering where I stashed the presents!

But it'll all be alright on the night, won't it?! 5 days is plenty of time to sort out a crazy untidy house finish all my shipping, cards and posting and decorating, right, right?

I'm just hoping the last-minute ADHD panic superpower kicks in soon!

How are you all doing out there? Despite your best intentions, has Christmas snuck up on you again?

Undiagnosed here but reading this just adds to my certainty that I have ADHD.
The good news is that I was in exactly this position yesterday morning, had an insane day of shopping, cooking, cleaning & tidying and was up until about 2am and achieved loads. The bad news is that I meant to do the same again today but am now feeling all smug that I got so much done that there doesn't seem to be any real pressure so have done an excellent job of procrastinating today. It is now too late to do any of the jobs in the garden as it is dark, go to the dump as it is closed etc. Sigh. If only I could be productive for more than one day at a time

Oh, in yesterday's tidying I did find one of the presents I had bought DD last year and the Christmas cards I wrote in 2022

I procrastinated so long about this, the DC came home from school and so I let them choose! (In case anyone's interested, DS chose the reindeer one, and DD chose an entirely different one, a velvet one with her initial).

I've had a day off today. But had overwhelm paralysis and done sweet FA. My tree is up and my gifts are bought but the house is a shit tip! But as always Christmas will come and go.

I put the bins out so that's a win!

Joining you although I have no diagnosis. My children have every diagnosis going between them and the apple doesn't fall far from.the tree as they say.

My eldest jacked in uni more or less as soon as he started which has buggered up our house set up with who has what room so we are unexpected Clearing the dining room to turn into bedroom. I also had something stressful happening with my dd and mh is in the bin right now.

living room has boxes in From the dining room going into storage hopefully tomorrow with a view to bring back one a week to declutter.

No present for one ds.

Nothing wrapped.

Not all food bought.

Freezer already full so no room for Turkey!

I swear every year I will do better. This is my worse year yet I think. Plus its like my ability to adult, which was shaky to start with has disappeared. I'm in such a mess I'm frozen in fear. Done two loads of washing today but not much else

My son has just just dropped out of uni too. I managed to get a turkey in the freezer by throwing out some frozen bananas and spinich that have been there since covid. Let's face it the banana bread wasn't really happening 🙄. But every year I perform some Christmas miracle.

I went into the living room just before to sort the boxes but I just closed the lids and moved them slightly to the sides of the room. Now I'm dicking about on my phone.

I've ditched Christmas because I'm a pagan/druid, and tonight is the solstice! Very exciting!

Tried making a yule log with a piece of oak yesterday and got so upset with it, I threw the bunch of holly and ivy I was trying to attach to the Oak across the room. Not my finest hour.

Christmas is triggering and overwhelming and I just cannot stand it!

I miss having the radio playing because I can't stand that every other song is another tired old Christmas song.

I'm off to do a ritual tomorrow with my fellow druids, then home for the spiced brandy I've made.

I can't wait to see the new sun tomorrow and welcome the lighter days 🙌

I'd love to join you for spiced brandy.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like without ADHD I'm trying to access an assessment at the moment. I've had a therapist - a highly trained psychotherapist who said there is no doubt I have ADHD.

I'm surrounded by stuff, everything is so dis-organised, my procrastination is going to be the end of me.

Me!!! Ha ha

Hi , my ds also quit uni a week after starting , my house is a total tip at the moment , and I’m panicking about food shopping.

I've got 2 rooms full of general clutter as well as Xmas gifts still not wrapped up yet and I'm going away for Xmas day and Boxing day but I'm hosting 2 guests on 27th so those 2 rooms need decluttering and a deep clean before guests can sleep in them. I'll have to take about 30 trips up and down stairs with things to try to squash them into the garage and understairs cupboard. I've still got to clean the oven we hoch is a job I hate so much I'm even trying to persuade DH we need a new one so I won't have to clean it because it is old and one knob is missing. DH has agreed he'll clean the rest kitchen, sitting room and bathroom as well as help with wrapping but he doesn't wrap very well. I did get the turkey crown today though because I am taking it to my adult DS who has ADHD along with other things but he'll do the cooking with his gf. It's no good leaving him to get the Xmas food shopping because he'll forget things and get really stressed so I've made a list and I'm ticking things off as I get them because I'm worried about forgetting things too but DH is quite good at things like that so is organising most of it but I feel frazzled. I'll have to have the house ready for Xmas Eve when I go to DS's. I'm not sure it will be ready. I'm going to start wrapping a few things tonight so I don't get bogged down by having to do loads at once. No idea if MiL will like her gifts either. She'll never just say what she wants. 🤷

One good easy tip my DH taught me is to wrap each DC gifts in different coloured wrapping paper so DD gold, DS1 red and DS2 green. Before this I used to wrap things up and forget what they were and put some in wrong stockings.

Last year I bought some Xmas cards and lost them. Very happy DH found them when he was bringing Xmas decorations down.

Tree up
not decorated
fridge on its last legs
presents bought, but not wrapped
no idea when i will tidy up and do food shopping
we have mince pies and brandy snaps

I've always done this

OMG I've found my people!

Undiagnosed ADHD here I think (late 40's). Bought cards early - and stamps - felt smug and pleased for 3 days, missed the sending deadline, none written!

One win was that I sent international parcels on time with wrapped presents inside. Not labelled and a couple were missing, but hey!

House is a tip - I decided to bloody defrost the freezer, which was epic, but the freezer drawers have been all over the pantry for 3 days needing cleaning (I washed the wet towels though!), still need doing.

I get so focussed on my work I have no bandwidth left for anything else. Meaning last night I only had the energy to serve my 2 (older) DS a tray of chipolata pigs in blankets for dinner yesterday. No veg, no sides, no nothing. However we were running to football training so maybe it was ok?

On the other hand thank you for PP and INCUP! It explains why I LOVE my work! It is high-stakes, high pressure, global, complicated, super niche and quite difficult (think international development/government) and changes with every project. (Probably also why I can cope (and enjoy?) being a single parent of 3DC, it is perpetually challenging.)

On a less fun note, to PP above - my oldest DC has also dropped out of uni, for second time :-(

My strategy is to finish a big report tonight and then do hyper-focused Christmas cleaning. Tree is up and decorated. Cannot cope with crowds anymore so tomorrow is solstice-informed sauna and lake dip.

I am having Christmas solo, bought no food but I have bought myself gifts!

The online chemist seems to supply the m ds without too many problems. They send an email to remind you to order, you just tick meds you want, they send to your GP for signing then they deliver in the post. It saves me so much running around from chemist to chemist trying to find one with meds I need.

All the buying and wrapping and everything like that is done... I find that stuff (planning and buying so holidays, birthdays, christmas) mega easy, I start 5 months in advance too.

House is forever a tip though and I NEED to find the Santa sacks which could be anywhere, need to sort it but Ive been putting it off for 3 days now. Its the 'physically' hard work daily stuff that I'm crap at (too busy procrastinating buy planning the next thing lol).

and i need a hair cut, have to pick up dd tomorrow and meet dm to exchange gifts, she suggested saturday <<hyperventilates>>

This is me to a tee, unless it's a life or death situation or I'm hyperfocased on something I'm useless. Guaranteed I'll be a fucking demon on Christmas eve and god help anyone who gets in my way.

I have never felt as frazzled as I do this year. Waiting patiently for the festive feelings to find me.

I have been into town today for ‘last bits’ which was diabolical, went to M&S for chocolate pine cones and stared at them for about 5 minutes trying to decide if they were worth £15 for 6 and in the end decided they cannot possibly be. Fought my way round B&M for a foot long pot noodle box for DS and they had sold out which is a blessing really as the queue was out the door. Food shop being delivered on Sunday which is making me anxious as I’ve never got it delivered before and am expecting loads of subs. Not wrapped a thing. 3 of DHs presents haven’t even arrived yet despite ordering 2 of them in November. I also have gifts/stocking fillers hidden in various places around the house and I know for a fact I’ll forgot something and find it in April.

I am also hosting which mean I’ll be spending the next few days prepping, baking, making the dessert and I’m tired just thinking about it all.

I’ve got a cleaning list as long as my arm which I have made a dent in today by cleaning DS room, cleaning couch covers and shampooing lounge carpets. I want to have a clean and tidy of the utility room this evening if I have a speck of energy left in me after putting the DC to bed.

Taken a novel approach this year.

DH lobbed Christmas decorations at me from the loft on 1st December so I had no option but to put them up. Decorations ✅

Christmas shopping for the kids was left to him. He bought two giant sacks and has separated their gifts into each bag and has stowed them away safely. Santa gifts ✅

Morrison's order for Christmas food will be collected on 23rd December. Again done by DH. Food shop ✅

That just left gifts for everyone else. Bar my mum, dad and young ones in the family, gifts are vouchers for things they actually enjoy. He got me to write a list (I'm great at list writing just not so good at doing anything with them) so duly gave him the list and he ordered all the vouchers. Gift buying ✅

Now for my jobs.
Gift wrapping (really it's gift bagging, I don't wrap) ❌
Cleaning of house ❌ (I plan to last minute focus clean tomorrow when I actually HAVE to as my dad arrives in the evening)
Posting gifts ❌ I've missed posting all the gifts I was meant to wrap so I'll have to do a last minute drive by with them at some point between now and Christmas when I've wrapped/bagged them.

While it looks like an absolute fail I'm usually only at this point around the 23rd, sometimes the 24th.