Christmas with young kids is shit

[tuttifuckinfruity]

anyone else?

It looks wonderful with kids from maybe age 5 or so......but I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old and my husband and I are tearing our hair out.

3 year old is obviously overexcited, but that has manifested in some pretty naughty / defiant behaviour today. 1 year old doesn't have a clue and, when the 3 year old is behaving nicely and trying to help wrap some last minute presents / lay out snacks for Santa and Rudolph, the 1 year old is ripping up wrapping paper and scattering milk and porridge oats everywhere. Which gets the 3 year old stressed and bad tempered.

I dunno. It's just chaos. But everyday is chaos with them. I'm not really explaining it very well, I know I'm not. I know I'm not the only one, but I'm just putting out there in contrast to all the perfect Facebook posts doing the rounds tonight.

Happy Christmas 🥃

It’s what you make it.
You could change this but you’d rather whinge.
Grow up.

@bloodywhitecat probably would have been a better result compared to my crap cakes

Haha if my husband read this he might think I've wrote it lol.

We have 1yr and 3yr old. It's manic, madness, never get a minute. Totally exhausted and have been arguing last few hrs trying to organises with stuff.

We had just bathed them and put on their new pjs. My husband my trying to tidy up as we got the plate ready for Santa. The one yr old then tops the whole glass of milk all over herself and the carpet as the 3yr had moved it from the dining table I left it on (out of reach of 1yr old). So new pjs lasted 5 mins 🙈

I'm going to be chasing the 1yr old everywhere tomorrow when we visit family and the non baby proof rooms we will be in, hard work!

You'll have lovely photos of them looking cute but yes, it's hard work at that age.
On this subject I also think it must just be me that doesn't have nice photos of mine at Christmas! So many photos on social media of families in matching pyjamas smiling in front of a tree or drinking hot chocolate. Mine don't have matching pyjamas, or Christmas PJs at all actually, and they certainly don't stand still anywhere near long enough for me to get a photo!

I have a 7 year old Dd, and she has been brilliant. She gets so caught up in the magic of Christmas, even though we keep it low key. No elf on the shelf, Christmas eve boxes or any of that stuff. She has left a snack and a note for Santa and has gone off happily to bed, knowing that 'he's been' in the morning. I love it. Definitely gets easier as they get a bit older! 🎅

My dd is 2 on the 27th, and still doesn't have a clue about Christmas, and isn't bothered in the slightest about presents. I'm looking forward to the years she does, though agree that I have nieces and nephews ranging between 3 and 15 and the best ages seem to be between 4 and 10.

@Joeblack066

It’s what you make it. You could change this but you’d rather whinge. Grow up.

How helpful

It will be the lovely fond memories of the past soon enough. Cherish the moment, kids are cutest when they are at that age, though you don't realise it at the time.

It is hard work parenting but I’m loving Christmas this year with my 4.5 yr old and nearly 1.5 yr old. The key for me is to look what I want to do and then scale it back. Having said that my youngest has just had a night terror so I’m trying to get her to back to sleep when I want to be having a drink and eating snacks.

^^Oh god yeah down play it...its a sensory overload otherwise at that age !
Elf on the shelf , xmas eve box , reindeer food , and that's before the big day
We are only just getting into the whole shebang now ds is aged 6 .
Dont put so much pressure on yourself, have a great Christmas x^^

Thank you for this comment I've been sitting here feeling bad for not doing the reindeer snacks and loads of Christmas stuff this evening. My dd is 3 she was tired and just wanted bed.

I think I'm feeling the pressure because her dad will have her next year and what if she enjoys Christmas more there with him?? I know it's daft!! Making a fuss just isn't my personality or hers either so I need to just chill and stop the pressure. So glad I'm off Facebook!! Merry Christmas everyone x

Yep. One-year-old here. And he decided tonight's the night to suddenly have a sleep regression.

Thanks everyone.

Refreshing to hear the truth of it after seeing all the usual "#blessed" Facebook posts.

And also, I am acutely aware that these are the christmases that I (and they) will remember and I know will be the ones I miss when they are grown up. I find that hard to deal with in general though - the contradiction between the nostalgia for these once they are passed and just how bloody hard they actually are at the time.

Ah well, c'est la vie, I suppose.

Have a good one everyone and good luck

It gets better! Mine are 11 and 9 and do get excitable but you can give them jobs to do and they’ll sit down to watch a Christmas movie. Yours will be at that stage in the blink of an eye besides, I think my husband is worse...

@Joeblack066

It’s what you make it. You could change this but you’d rather whinge. Grow up.

Apart from you, you can bore off you old prick

😂

I have a five year old, this is the first year we have done christmas.

I’ve kept it low key, just a christmas tree and no other decorations, no gifts left in view. But today we have had two meltdowns and he was fairly unsettled yesterday. He finally went to bed at 8:45, he normally goes at 7:15, so that won’t help tomorrow as he’ll still wake early.

He ‘only’ has eight things to open, as I know he’ll find presents overwhelming, so my partner and I are opening most of ours tonight and just leaving a handful of bits for tomorrow.

It does get better!
Mine are teenagers and they bake while I play (in my phone)

I have a just turned 5 year old and his a complete nightmare playing up and being silly. I need the schools to reopen 😩

Can I swap you for a teenager and a pre teen who are too cool for Christmas?

I only had one child, but I still didn't do much until he was 4. Make the most of it when they are happy with the little things, save your money and your sanity for when they are older.

Thanks for writing this thread, OP. I was thinking exactly the same earlier after a few solid days of my 15 month old being a terror. This was after he screamed his way through Christmas Day last year.

Coming to the realisation that Christmas is/will not be the relaxing time that it used to be for me and DH and it hurts a little! God knows when the larder of Christmas food will get eaten...!

Still trying to get my 2 year old (3 in spring) to go to bloody sleep, it's relentless! Merry Christmas and good luck all x

Definitely! And I always feel like it's just us who have it like this. The noise, the mess, the chaos, it's all absolutely doing my head in! Not just at because it's Christmas either, all the time. DD is 4 and DS is nearly 2. We can barely go 5 minutes without one if the kids having a total meltdown about something, or me or DH shouting at someone. Hoping they're easier soon and feeling shitty that I'm wishing their childhood away 😭. On the plus side, they went to bed perfectly without a peep at 7 but I'm already dreading the probable 5:30 wake up call. And wanting to kill DH who is a heavy sleeper and is apparently oblivious to anything that happens before 7am

Remembers the time my over excited and " very bright " 7 year old managed to change the time on his alarm clock to 7am
When I was woken up feeling still really tired .... to discover it was 1-40 am

As a mum of 2 teenage boys I would say make life as easy as possible for yourself. They don’t remember when they grow up! When mine were really young, Father Christmas appeared unexpectedly on Christmas Eve a couple of times - meant we had no early mornings!

22 month old here and he's been...difficult (to put it politely) today so now slightly apprehensive for tomorrow 😬 glad it's not just me feeling like this!