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Advice for staying sane in lockdown with preschool children?

1 reply

mamadoit · 26/02/2021 19:21

Hi all,

How do you cope in lockdown with a baby and a toddler? None of the usual advice applies, such as read books, meditate, cook (for pleasure, rather than with shaking hands while baby cries and toddler moans), take long walks, etc., because these aren’t things you can do while looking after small children!
I survived my first maternity leave by going to lots of classes and playgroups.

Toddler goes to nursery 3 days a week, which is a lifesaver, but of course I still have the baby on my hands.

DH is well-meaning, but not terribly helpful. Keeps leaving messes everywhere and shrugging off household chores. Of course, he makes the money to feed us, I know. At best, he takes the kids out for a couple of hours, but that’s barely enough to sort through all the laundry that has accumulated for the four of us, let alone to relax.

We have no close friends or family nearby.

And I can’t up my dose of antidepressant because I’m breastfeeding!

OP posts:
BorahT · 27/02/2021 19:33

Hi - I’m sorry I’m not terribly useful as I’m looking for the same answers! I just wanted to let you know you are not alone, I have 3 year old and 17 month old.

I’m fairly sure that I had PND with DS1, which I managed to dig myself out of that hole after getting nil help from the useless HV I had back then, by forcing myself to every class and group going and getting out nearly every day. As you say we don’t have that available to us now, and DS1 is pretty challenging, I’m finding myself at an incredibly low ebb.

Any chance that you could afford a cleaner, so that the time you have when DH takes the children out you can do something you enjoy? I can’t really afford this so I just make sure that I’m doing lots of little bits of housework throughout the day, while the DCs are around, so I get some downtime when they are not there or napping etc. The organised mum method is good for giving you a kickstart with this!

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