Please tell me how you managed 3 under 5

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I have 3 children one dd 5 and twins 11 months. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed atm as I'm constantly doing something for one of them. I get absolutely no time to myself even through the night the twins are still waking a lot. Getting out takes a good half hour that's just getting shoes and coats on and in pram. I'm sat down now as bf them but already have a great list of things to do which I'm behind on. I don't even want time for myself I just want to be able to get the daily jobs done! How did you all manage it?

Well DS was 5 so he was in school and the other two were a year apart.

I guess I coped by keeping things as simple as possible. Trips out were to the park or playgroups where I could keep an eye on them easily and I made sure that I organised around nap times so that I could whizz around the major house stuff whilst they were kipping.

It's hard though, right? I'd just suggest that you don't try to be superhuman. There'll be days when you look like you went through a hedge backwards and nothing of any merit gets done bar feeding, changing and sleeping and then there'll be days when you're all over it

Don't forget that they're tiny people and they're incredibly bright. I did things like have the hangers for their coats down low and their boots etc in their own space so they can 'help' from an early age. This also helped post school as DS would get his kit on the pegs whilst I unzipped the small biters.

I also used reins as well as the buggy when out and about so that there could be closely supervised toddling when the chair got a bit much.

DS used to love to help too though-he was chief nappy fetcher and baby chair bouncer and played peek-a-boo far longer than I had the stomach for

Easy dinners like shepherds pie, spag bol, fishfingers carrot and peas, omelette, 'light' curry/chilli & rice, casserole etc and eating with them all made a huge difference as they all ate much better and sat better. The biters loved garlic mash so emergency tea was always mash & something. Frozen peas are definitely your friend!

I did bath and bedtime for small biters and then bedtime for bigger DS. All usually down by 7.30.

The returning them gently to bed after tuck in method worked with all of mine as regards bedtime. We started that at just gone 12 months when they were in proper beds (admittedly I wasn't doing two at once though!).

Over all I'd say take each day as it comes and give yourself room to breathe. Trust me when I say that no-one is perfect and even the most together looking, immaculately dressed, shiny, shiny children in tow Mum has an off day or 6

At the stage you are currently in, the 5 year old liked doing things to help with the babies, so I gave him little jobs to do. The 3 year old had (not yet diagnosed) ASD and really needed to know exactly what was happening next, so we had quite a strict routine, which the babies took well to. Even with high levels of organisation and setting up systems to make things as easy as possible, it was still really hard until the twins started preschool.

I feel for you. I had three aged 4 and under and the 4yo wasn't yet at school (although did do half days at preschool).

1. Try to keep on top of important hygiene (kitchen, bathroom) and don't beat yourself up about piles of clutter like I did. Waste of energy.
2. Aim to be ready to go out 15 mins before you actually need to, allowing for nappy incidents etc.
3. Do a wash every day (even if small) as otherwise there seems to be four loads!!
4. I don't know if you have a partner, but if you do, could they help in the evenings? DH used to have to go into childcare and housework mode when he got home a bit! I was still doing stuff too of course, but we shared the load as we both felt I'd been working all day too!
5. PLEASE do this as I didn't - get the children to do any small tasks that they can manage, even just hanging their coats up or putting their shoes away. I always did everything myself "because it was quicker" 🙄 and am suffering the consequences now. Mine are 12, 10 and 8 and because I have always done too much for them, they don't do much themselves! Working on it but it's my own fault.