How do you fit everything in? Can't even keep up with the washing :(

[Tatat]

Things just too manic! I work 34 hours a week over 4 days (8.30 til 5.30 with a half hour lunch). How do you manage to keep on top of things- not necessarily housework as I've got past the stage of caring with that but other things that should be done, eg going to the gym or having a life

Up at 6.30... leave house at 7.30... drop DS (2) off at nursery at 8... dash to work (normally 10-15 mins late!)... work through lunch most days so don't even get a chance to pop to shops to get bread/milk /other essentials... mad dash through traffic to get to DS by 6... home by 6.45... ds in bed by 7.30... tidy away his toys unload dishwasher from last night... tidy away breakfast things that have lain there since the morning... prepare dinner eat dinner (prob about 9 oclock)... tidy away dinner things... put on dishwasher

By this time its about 9.30 and I can't rouse myself to do anything else, so although the bare essentials (food) are covered, the things that fall outside this category (eg having the aforementioned life) just don't get a look in.
I only see my precious little man for about 2.5 hours a day and most of that is hardly quality time as we are in the car, and at the end of a long day at nursery he's a tired (but happy) chappy so I would feel cruel and selfish to keep him awake for longer just so I can feel like a better mum.

The remaining 3 days a week are spent trying desperately to be a good wife & mum, clean the house/get food shopping done/ remind DH that I exist /attack washing mountain in bedroom that is so large and heavy it now has a gravitational pull all of its own and draws any clean clothing in the house towards it, just so that I can start all over again on Monday morning

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

Surely there's got to be more to life than this? (please please tell me there is!)

Did I mention that I am about to star in my own dvd.That is something I do in my spare time....

Lots of useful advice in this thread - but so far everyone seems to have children who wake at a reasonable hour and therefore if you want to get up early to exercise you can.

My children wake up at 5am. And have done now for 3 years. Occassionally we'll get a lie in until 6. woohoo. The only good thing about it is that I get to clean the kitchen and put laundry on every morning when most people are still sleeping. But exercise - ha, bloody ha.

My DH and i do take turns to get up with them and the other one sleeps until 7 except on weekends when it's a monumental 8am!!

The other good thing, I work from home, so no commute. Can the OP not talk to work about working from home a few days a week to cut down commute time?

Well, I work 8 days a week, I have 14 children, of which 2 are twins & 3 triplets. I breast fed all of them. I worked through all my pregnancies, took the minimum time off & got stuck straight back as in as soon as it was possible, while continuing to express breastmilk for the nanny to give them.
I have learnt to live without sleep so that I can work extra hard and make sure the nanny, cleaner, housekeeper, gardener & aupair know exactly what they should be doing.
I am extremely efficient & organised & I assure you that NO ONE else can possibly work as hard as me, be as good a mum as me, earn as much as me, have such successful children as me.
I am also Monty Python in my spare time!

lol

I'm on maternity leave now but I also have a cleaner - does a major blitz once a week on a Friday which is fab. I have cut down on food shopping and takeaways in order to fund it and am generally just more thoughtful when I think I might buy something. I don't smoke, hardly go out, don't have loads of clothes/shoes or general luxuries but I think it is an essential if you can find a way to fund it. Its part of the reason I work too (3 days pw usually).

I shop online, try to keep on top of washing/putting away and ironing.

i try to cook two meals a day so I can have a day off the next or put one in the freezer.

My husband takes the kids to his mums on a Saturday morning and now I have a cleaner I catch up on paperwork and do 'spring clean' sort of jobs that I wouldn't have time to do otherwise.

This is my main source of relaxation/leisure though I read a lot too in the evenings.

No need to have a go at xenia - we all have choices

Who is having a go at Xenia?
Not me.
I think she's great!

my life revolutionised when I gave up ironing! I make sure I'm there when the washing ends everything that can go on hangers does and it hangs on my dining room curtain rail (or on the washing line) until it dries. I no longer buy things that need ironing! Best of luck in finding a few things to make life easier!

monologue was

Do you mean my monologue chocolatekimmy? I was just picking up on Moondog's Monty Python idea!

Nooo, you are bugsy2.

Monologue said "Xenia, you really are a pompous arse. Go start a thread called "Having it all and bragging about it" and then spend some time with your children".

Sorry, I did go a bit serious when this thread was getting funny (as in ha ha)

I gave my kids Netto pasta tonight..

So, SallyStrawberry, the house gets cleaned and you have lovely friends round?? This is the way we should all live.

Not that I'm paranoid chocolatekimmy!!
The lynchmob are on there way Moondog. I sincerely hope you are ironing & making home baked cookies in between posts!

I am making a costume for St David's day.
Extra Brownie points I hope!

Sal,my tv doesn't seem get all the Ch. 4 and 5 and S4C stuff so have given up.I don't mind normally as I never watch it but I bloody love Shameless so 'tis a pisser.

When the twins were little we were members of a gym. I used to go once a week on Sat pm when their father was working. I'd put them in the crech for 2 hours, have a sauna and then sleep on a bed for the rest of the time. It was the catching up on the sleep which did me so much more good than 2 hours of exercise.

We've been asked to make a sandwich for St David's Day...

Good idea X.I'd worry that I wouldn't wake up thpugh...

sandwich???
Que??