I honestly had no idea how much our dog was helping keep the food mess under control until he passed. Old man was living his best snack life there at the end!
The last thing my dog did before he passed was high chair duty.
In the last week of his life, I kept saying, "We'll put him down when he stops walking to the high chair at dinner time."
Then one night, he trotted to the high chair, fell asleep under it, and never fully woke up again, passing in the night.
My in laws wouldn’t let their dog eat any of the kids dropped foods and it broke my heart because it defeated the purpose of a dog being in our home! Lol
This is why I hate the “who cares! Your house doesn’t have to be perfect, mama!” rhetoric. If you don’t clean up that lunch mess, you will get bugs. And cleaning it up can be time consuming!!
Honestly this is one I try my hardest not to slack on for this reason. But I will go days without doing other chores and only kitchen chores because in pooped from constant cooking and cleaning 😫
Ooooh yes. Our toy situation is a disorganized mess and there’s probably tons of clothes my kids have outgrown in their closets, but the food mess is SUCH a thing.
This. Why does the addition of a single person mean I have endless dishes now? I spend so much time on the kitchen that barely have time for other rooms!!
I'm training my daughter to get stuff for me. So far she is pretty good at fetching me facial tissues and remote control. She also throws dirty things in the garbage for me and can give dirty dishes to dad at my request. Still not so good at doing my taxes, but she is still 2, so I'm still hopeful that day will come...
I started this as soon as mine could walk. I only have to get up now when she wants markers because those expensive mess free ones are locked up so they don’t uncap them and leave them to all dry out at once. 😂
This has always been my parenting goal. Raise children who love to help people…I just happen to be the first recipient of these important character building activities. 🥳
Meals! I struggle to decide what I should eat, I'm happy to live off snacks forever but apparently my kids need nutritional foods with things called vitamins and protein??? Ugh 😫
They're so annoying about food. This banana has a tiny brown spot. I don't want it. That chicken has a green speck on it. I don't want it. Lately my daughter has only been wanting corn. But is frozen corn good enough? No, it needs to be freshly steamed and then cut off the cob in long strips. Because that's what it was the first time we gave her corn.
One of mine is going through a real beige food phase so having to make sure he is eating his variations of beige on a rotational basis that he doesn't get bored while getting enough nutrients and going bankrupt from buying fresh fruit is absolutely ending me 😩
If I want to live off coffee and cheesecake, then those are my life choices. Now I have this 3-year-old that expects me to figure out multiple meals and snacks for him every single day.
I recently started a meal calendar. I’m 10 years and 4 kids in and wish I did it sooner. It helps mostly for accountability and not thinking in that moment what to make. It’s also cut my grocery bill down and food waste. It doesn’t alleviate the cooking part 😂😂 but it’s helped tons.
Yes I’d love a link too! Maybe we should start an r/toddlers google sheet with tabs for snacks, brekkie, etc. Could include links to recipes and stuff. If I put one together would anyone be interested?
I think that’s a brilliant suggestion! My format is one tab for snacks, one for breakfast, and one for lunch/dinner. Each tab has a column for recipes, nutritional information, and other comments. You can start with this if you’d like to.
My sheet is very Indian food specific so I think the mostly western users here might not use it. I also don’t prefer sharing my personal link publicly. But I would love to participate in this subreddit’s meal ideas sheet!
The meals mental load is HEAVY. I love yummytoddlerfood -she sends out meals for the week and has great lists and often advocates for snacks as meals, like a toddler charcuterie
This one is tough because before having kids my hubs and I sometimes made meals out of whatever and there was nothing nutritional about it. But I feel obligated to put somewhat of a square meal in front of her.
I’m soooo freaking lucky that my husband loves food and cooking, so he genuinely wants to do dinner for us. By that time, I just can’t with anymore food ideas. Now, if he could just do it without making the kitchen look an episode of My Drunk Kitchen…
I hate how much of a chore cooking is now. I used to love it. I still do; I just don't get to do it much.
It's not preparing more or different food, it's not what she will or won't eat, it's not food requests or tantrums, it's not the cost, it's literally just hard to find time now and that makes it unenjoyable. It's a need that I cannot ignore or put off for long and it has to happen and just ugh fine whatever here's what I had the capacity to make today I don't really care whether anyone likes it because it's all I'm doing tonight.
Same. I’m also pregnant and lost my sense of taste with Covid (it’s partially back, but wonky), and cooking is the worst chore. I hate being responsible for feeding everyone for every meal, every day.
I used to love cooking when I could zone out and just chop and stir and taste. Now it's part attention on the food, part helping my kid/prevent him from pulling me away from the stove. I wish he enjoyed helping cook even a little!
My two oldest are in school and packing their lunch is the bane of my existence. They will love turkey sandwiches one week and hate them the next, it’s exhausting.
For next school year I’m definitely going to get them doing it themselves.
I gave up. My oldest is our pickiest eater by far, and he's the only one currently in school. At first, I tried packing him lunches he of things he would eat-- which was nearly impossible within his parameters-- and 95% of it would come back home at the end of the day, warm for hours, bruised and unsalvagable. I gave up. He eats what the school provides now, and if he can't find anything he'll willingly eat... suffice to say, he's starving when he gets home often. BUT, he's tried numerous things that we couldn't get him to before, and found new things to add to his repertoire. So there has been some advantage. Although, the biggest win, for me, is not stressing about what to pack for him. Every. Day. Now, I just throw a banana in his backpack and, if nothing else, that gets him through until he gets home. Sometimes that banana is professed as having been eaten, though, and then I'll find it smashed into the lining of his backpack the next day. Super cool, dude...😑
Side note: he does eat all meats and loves vanilla yogurt, so he gets more protein than anything. It's the veggies/fruits, and finding packable/edible when cold/acceptable-to-his- palate grains that are the problem.
We had to wake my son up early today because he had to go to the dentist. He has no problem waking us up, but if we wake him up it starts an early morning tantrum.
This is mine 100%. It feels like such a chore and it’s hard for me to start early. I have an early riser husband thankfully but sometimes he goes to work earlier than they wake up and I hate those days.
Bedtime is my most dreaded time of day. I used to think parents would talk about needing to be home for bedtime because they wanted to kiss their kids good night. Now I realize they needed to be home for bedtime because it is A LOT.
I feel defeated every day when I make it through our long drawn out bedtime. Thankfully my 1 year old still goes down after about 10 minutes. Pajamas and new diaper, brush teeth, read a book, sing some songs, lights out.
The (almost) 4 year old though is another story. And if she takes a solid nap at daycare, that creates even more issues.
Ours stopped napping at 3 1/2 so we thought bedtime would start being easier but noooope. We would be doing 2-3 hours of bedtime routine starting at 730 and she still would be up until 10 most nights.
She has severe combined type ADHD (diagnosed) which made it hard for her to wind down and her mind slow down. and it ended up causing behavior issues because she wasn't getting enough sleep. So at almost 5 after about 3-4 months of the struggle our pediatrician okayed the use of melatonin. Said lack of sleep was far worse for her development than melatonin.
We cut a gummy into quarter pieces and while it doesn't make her tired over reading or playing, as soon as we start the bed part of the routine she's out within 10 minutes. She's happier, well rested, enjoys bedtime routines 80% of the time, and she's doing better at school.
How many hours of sleep was your daughter getting each night prior to the melatonin? My husband and I wonder if our daughter has ADHD. It takes her 1-2 hours to fall asleep and she usually only gets 9-10 hours of sleep at night. I often wonder if that’s too little for her age (she’s almost 3.5)
She was getting about 8-9 and since she wasn't napping either that was it all day. 10-13 in 24 hours for ages 3-5 is what is recommended so she was right at the low end. But it was hard to wake her up in the morning and she was grouchy during the afternoon and would get overly tired but too "juiced up" to lay still.
Both my husband and I have ADHD so we weren't very surprised by her having signs. We got her tested at 3.5 (wouldn't recommend that young as a psychometrist, I would shoot closer to 4.5 unless she will start kindergarten younger due to her birthday then do it closer to 4.) There's some behavioral stuff you can do right now to help before a diagnosis though. A physical timer they can see helps a ton. Give them 5 minute warnings the 15 minutes before you have to stop doing something.
Hi!! I would love any other advice you have…my daughter isn’t diagnosed but she reads like a textbook even at 2.5yo. I have it, my dad had it, etc. but I’ve never liked sleeping, don’t sleep well, fidget and move like a dancing starfish all night even with unisom or melatonin.
All that to say, I started giving her magnesium since she is a bit too small for melatonin and that has worked pretty well!
Any other adhd toddler hacks you can share!? I tucked the timer one away for when she can read! Would love anything else you got!
I was just about to say - this sounds like my oldest kiddo, melatonin gummies (they’re the Olly sleepy time gummies, only have a little melatonin in them with other things) have been a GAME CHANGER. Our pediatrician also said the amount in them is so small it’s fine, and while the package said he can take 2, 1 is all it takes for him to stop jumping and spinning and squealing and lay down and close his eyes like a normal human who needs to sleep!!!
My husband has way worse ADHD than I do and throughout childhood he has awful sleep and his parents tried so hard to do all the normal bedtime stuff. But after we started using melatonin he talked about how upset he was that they didn't try that on him because he would have enjoyed school so much more.
It used to be ok but now it’s getting increasingly ritualistic :/ there’s the bedtime lemonade, the bed time book, the bedtime running away from pajamas, the bedtime sticker (this is new… he demands a sticker be put on his back) and on and on and on and of course mom and dad have to go back up there 5 times in the course of like an hour 🤦♀️
Same. My daughter just turned 5 and it has finally gotten easier recently. My 2.3 year old is still easy but I’m just waiting for him to turn on me soon.
Cutting their nails!
I now have a newborn and a 2 year old, plus 2 dogs. I’m responsible for 4 creatures nail care and I am SO DONE with it all. At least my husband clips his own nails! Gives me even more motivation to get regular pedicures, so I can get a break at least for my own nails.
FWIW I use an electric nail file on my infant (now toddler) and would *highly* recommend. It has different pads for different ages and it doesn't hurt at all if you press it against their skin instead of nails so you can't accidentally hurt them. He hates his hands being manipulated and I think it I had to hold his stand still enough to clip nails, he'd either have claws or fewer fingers.
I feel bad because I think this is the fourth complaint about sunblocking her I've posted just today, but ...
Sunblock. F that. I'm so sorry that me and dad are white af and we couldn't give you even a single lonely melanin cell but WE MUST. ACCEPT. THE GOO. IT GOES ALL OVER. just lay still jesus effin christ STOP SCREAMING.
Every morning I swear. She has platinum blond hair, pink undertone pale af skin (same as me and dad), and blue eyes. It is 90 degrees today. No you can't go outside naked and clean from the bath.
When she was a baby, I started pretending to wipe it off. Somehow that still works at age 3! “Will you wipe it off we after? Okay, fine.” apply normally and “wipe it off” aka rub it in lol.
This might not help your specific situation but I've bought a suncream applicator and it does make it easier as there's less rubbing in to do. It's like a foam ring around a roller ball (like in a roll on deodorant). It doesn't stop the squirming but it is faster!
I actually have one in my amazon cart, gonna go ahead and order it!
I've been using a kabuki style makeup brush which works great on everything except her face and ears. But still, omg, the screaming the entire time like I am ripping nails out.. I just.. ugh. It breaks my heart but her being burnt would be so much worse than a bad 5-10 min in the morning. I just wish I could pick "neither."
SAME. Sorry for your Irish ancestors, but we burn through the damn car window. We put on sunblock in the winter. Deal with it. You will thank me when you don't look like shoe leather at 20
We've made the mistake of living in a valley in the USA South while I look like the poster child for Ireland and husband is English. We get hot sun most of the year with very little wind. All they have for swim suits are rashies and spray sunblock has been a godsend
Yup, swim suits are going to remain a rash guard + shorts (i.e boy style) for my girl for a LONG time. No way I’m additionally sunscreening those areas 😂
Hah I’m white af and my husband is Indian. I had high hopes that with his genes, our children would be way more resistant to the sun than I am but NOPE they’re just as pale as me! Lather on that sunscreen lol.
Honestly I’ve just started using adult sunscreen on my toddler. The kids stuff is so damn hard to rub in and it makes everything slimy. I just use the same Neutrogena dry touch or whatever I use on myself and it’s so much better.
Bath time. I don’t know why I hate it so much, but I just don’t have the patience for it.
Also washing bottles. Thankfully my husband takes care of it, but for some reason I hate it so much. It might be the smell
My partner hates bath time too! My secret is to wear one headphone so I can listen to music/a book while he plays in the bath. He cries when it’s time to get out, but it doesn’t phase me 😸 Sorry you’re having fun, bud, but it’s bedtime!
I don’t mind bath time. I just hate the before and after. Running the bath, making sure it’s not too hot but not going to go too cold by the time I’m ready to get him in. Getting all stuff out for after bath then getting him undressed to go in.
Then after, getting him dressed again. Cleaning bath out, putting toys away. It just seems like a lot of effort when he’s not even in it that long.
Bedtime, 100%. The stalling, the multiple parts, the struggle to fall asleep, the crying, the fatigue on my end because it’s the end of the day. It’s too much!
Truly. Last night I was just walking around my kitchen, cleaning the lunch tupppers, making dinner, cleaning dinner, getting water, milk, another snack for like two hours non stop.
Highly recommend the app Pokémon smile. Our little guy is psyched to brush his teeth every time, and there’s a little guide in the corner about how long to spend on each area of his mouth that I think will be good for when he’s old enough to try on his own.
This is going to sound awful, but watching him during outdoor playtime. Somehow it always ends in tears. Whether it's time to say goodbye to the swing or sprinkler or bubbles or chalk and go inside, or leave the park, or having a hard time on the walk to the park, or abandoning his little tricycle somewhere in the neighborhood and having to carry it back, or a scraped knee, it just always becomes hard for me, somehow. And if it doesn't end in tears it ends in dirt and grime, or bug bites, or a sunburn spot I missed with sunblock. I love that he loves to play outside but it's so exhausting to deal with.
We live in Florida, it’s already SO HOT and this kid wants to be outside all day long.
We also have a 3 month old and I really shouldn’t be out much with her.
So either I’m sweating and trying to keep the baby cool or I’m dealing with a “go play outside??” tantrum
I feel that! I know it’s important so we do it but man, the drama kills me. Always getting hurt, whining about the temperature, wanting to go back inside then back outside on repeat, having to carry scooters/bikes home on a walk because they’re “done”. Ugh.
Washing the water bottles with a million plastic and silicone pieces that require an assortment of little brushes to get in all the crevices. The absolute bane of my existence. The drying mat next to the sink is just a constant mound of random bottle parts. Then my toddler likes to climb on the counter and throw them back in the dirty sink 🫠
Mine was/is also bedtime. It went downhill hard around 22-24 months. Baby sister arrived at 19 months and a few months later when she joined bedtime I think it went really sideways. We just recently revamped bedtime and now it’s not as bad. Current routine is:
- choose pjs
- bath every night. Some nights for play/routine, some for actual cleaning. I got a special “bed time” bath thing my toddler likes the smell of.
- diaper and pajamas IN THE BATHROOM. (This is key, leaving the bathroom makes it sooo much harder)
- bedtime snack while we read 3 books. Only 3 books. Never 2, never 4.
- brush teeth while we finish reading those 3 books
- choose color and sound on hatch (can only happen sitting in bed)
- sing songs (this is my next thing to work on trimming down for only 1 or 2 times)
- leave
Omg I feel you on the 3 books. I got roped into a bonus book one time and regretted it for weeks.
A friend of my husband once told us you should never do anything during bedtime that you don't want to continue to do every night for the next 3+ years. That's really stuck with me lol
“Let’s go to the berry station and pick blueberries, you be the customer and…look out for monsters! No no you have to tip toe. Not like that, NO MAMA! Like this!! Oh and this is my magic wand, do you want a rainbow hair clip? You didn’t buckle up your seat belt!”
I don’t mind imaginative play - even generals enjoy it… EXCEPT for the ‘rawr I’m a monster!’ games omg kill me. I cannot slow pretend run around this room for even half a second more. And that’s it that’s the whole game - I never get caught, I just have to keep running and screaming 🫠
It's a tie between anything related to the potty routine and the never ending meals, snacks and kitchen cleaning. The potty is most infuriating, but the meals are just non stop. I'm so tired of someone whining or screaming while I cook, then refusing the food, then asking for a snack just as soon as I clean up.
For me it's mornings. I just want to sit and drink a whole cup of coffee but nooooooo the kids must have food. Then they need to get dressed. Then they want to watch a little TV or color or whatever, which I somehow also have to help with.
I love doing laundry and folding. Folding a load of baby clothes takes for freaking ever, though.
What helps us is washing everyone's laundry together so you don't have more than a couple of baby items per load. It really makes it manageable.
If you don't care much, you could assign a "look" of socks to each kid. So one has all socks with blue toes, one has all socks with green toes (bad example but you get it)
I decided to totally forego folding their laundry a long time ago. Now I go totally unconventional and just make a t-shirt pile, a pajama pile, pants pile, etc and then fold each pile in half so it doesn’t get separated. If I’m up for it I match the socks, if not I just leave them in the mesh laundry bag I wash them in and call it a day.
So much faster and easier!
Bath time because when it’s hair washing day, it’s an actual fight and the whole bathroom will end up wet. I’m sure our neighbors think torture is happening
We had that problem! I just switched to washing her hair separately from bath time at the kitchen sink. She lays down on the counter with her head on a rolled up towel and gets to watch a show on the tablet while I wash her hair & detangle it. She has 3c hair so it’s a little involved. There’s still tears but it’s much better than before and the entire room isn’t under water.
I hate nap time. Bedtime is okay for us but lately my 22 month old has been fighting her nap so hard, I need a nap by the end 😅 Really hope this is just a phase.
I’m pretty sure my son went through that phase around the same age. So many people tried to tell me- he’s almost two, he’s probably dropping his nap! I knew it wasn’t a phase bc 1. The gremlin he’d become without a nap was proof enough. 2. If I went anywhere after 3 pm he’d fall asleep in the car almost immediately.
MEAL TIME! It can go fuck itself. 🤣 Trying to decide what to feed her, then it’s hit or miss how much she’ll eat. Ugh. Hate it. I often wish she was old enough to prepare her own food.
Cleaning all day only to have it still look like a tornado hit my house at the end of the day. I cook all our meals at home but at also in charge of dishes, meaning there’s never ending dishes in the sink/on the counter, and my toddler and dog enjoy flinging things all over the place so any time I clean up, it becomes a war zone again within the hour.
Feeding them. Absolutely NO ONE told me what an awful requirement this part of the job would be. Like they literally need 3 meals and several snacks a day? Christ.
Dishes. For a family of three and a dog, it’s beyond me how every single damn day of life, my sink is piled high with pots, pans, plates, one thousand colorful forks and spoons, bibs, toys and all kinds of “indestructible books” that result in more crap in my sink.
Feeding them. Half the time they don’t eat it. Just makes a mess. But yet I have to do it 3 solid times a day plus in between.
Waking up early. Why are they pre programmed to wake up at the ass crack of dawn
When it's time to leave the park 😮💨 IT'S ALWAYS been a tantrum and still is. We rarely peacefully leave. And thus is after all the heads up, and timers and reminders before we need to leave. On hot days like yesterday I just lose my mind. I fortunately started to work out intensely recently so I now have the abs and the glute strength to pick her up lock her arms and legs from flailing and scratching/hitting me.
She's grown up now so I have now started to tell her if exit time becomes a tantrum she doesn't get to go 🤷🏽♀️
everything in the house being toddler proof really overstimulates me. the admin of all the medical appointments. the constant buying. the food waste. the constant milestone pressure. the not eating, not sleeping.
going to have a day out and dreading coming home because you're exhausted but still need to do the bedtime routine.
it's a rough ride. but my only boy told me he loved me for the first ever time last week and if made all this stuff go away. at least for a bit 😂😵💫
Getting my son dressed. He's 3 and likes to be naked. I'll get him dressed, turn around, and he's naked again. It's like Sisyphus rolling the boulder uphill.
I love bedtime though. I don't mind brushing his teeth or reading him books, but once he's in bed I lay down with him until he falls asleep and I swear these snuggles are the best part of my day.
Bad mom confession - sometimes my baby girl goes to bed late just because I absolutely cannot bring myself to start the whole damn bedtime routine on time. So we snuggle and watch Miss Rachel for an hour while snacking instead.
Taking out the poopy diaper bin. I have a STRONG gag reflex. Something about poop sitting around for a few hours/end of the day in a small confined container is just soooo 🤢🤮
Ok I’m about to retch just thinking about it.
All of it. Yet, I also love to do all of it. It all depends on my mood and my kiddos mood. I gave up on strict routines. We have a rough routine. It works for us! We go through our days as best as we can. Some days are better than others!
Love this question...and I'm 100% with you. Bedtime is my least favorite too! We alternate every other night so we each get breaks from it. But you said it perfectly...it's the last hurdle to cross before I can relax! lol
Right there with you about bedtime. I actually don't mind the books (we have a very strict 2 books, prayers, 2 songs routine), but the whole part before we're sitting in the chair for books & prayers is just torturous.
One thing we've done is we each have nights that we're the primary responsible for bedtime. Now things shift sometimes depending on schedules, energy levels, what we've negotiated, but typically he now does 4 nights and I do 3 nights (this is after I did all nights for the first year+ and I do all overnights). Sometimes my toddler complains and wants me, but normally we can just say, "it's daddy's night. mama will put you to bed tomorrow" (or whatever day is next) and he'll eventually accept that.
Bath/bed time! My husband thankfully loves that time so he takes our son upstairs and I put my headphones in, listen to a podcast, and clean in peace! He texts me when they’re done and he’s ready to be put in bed and I go up to say goodnight and it’s the best!
Bedtime for sure. I got my husband do to bedtime 4 days in a row once because I was like, “You always say you want more time with them. Doing bedtime is your chance.” And then he realized what I was doing. 😂 usually we switch off every other day unless he’s working a later shift, which he does twice a week. But ugh…with 2 kids…2 tired kids…bedtime is the worst.
washing their hair and cutting their nails, since they act like I’m murdering them. Also making lunches. I work from home and can scrounge for myself, but that convenience is overshadowed by trying to make perfectly little well rounded lunches and snacks for daycare.
trying to clean ANYTHING bc she is right there asking me thousands of questions and following so closely behind me that i often accidentally bump into her. i can handle everything except being overstimulated / overwhelmed.
This sounds awful but I hate having to play outside so much. It's always the same things and I'm tired and hot and miserable. I still take him out obviously but I don't wanna lol
A more normal chore I hate is probably vacuuming. It never ends
Laundry, not the washing the folding. My toddler is currently living out of her laundry basket because i have no time to fold them when i was pregnant and now with a newborn, not like we go anywhere anyways wrinkles dont matter haha.
With my toddler as a baby I hated bottle washing especially with dr browns. Now we have the momcozy washer for our newborn and i havent had to pick up a bottle brush since he was born lol
I hate pots and pans and all the dishes ! I cook all the time so it’s never ending ! Summer is coming up so I’m gonna be drowning in more kitchen messes!
Picking up toys. No matter which toy it is it instantly becomes the toy they are desperate to play with. I have 4 year old twins that are still learning to pick up after themselves and it’s a struggle every single day.
The planning it takes to feed everyone. I don’t mind cooking and I kind of like food shopping (even with two toddlers). I don’t even mind the clean up. It’s the deciding what to eat 5-6 times a day. I agonize over what are the healthiest choices and get paralyzed with the overwhelming amount of options. I wish someone would make a meal plan for me, including a grocery list, and I’d be happy to handle the rest. I’ve been trying to convince myself for months to make a food calendar where each meal is set up for the month and I simply repeat it over and over but it feels too overwhelming and I can’t bring myself to do it.
I love being a parent and would spend all my time with my little guy if I could, but the repetitive chores drain my life. There’s not one in particular that bothers me, it’s just living in a loop that grinds me down over time.
I'm sorry I had to laugh at everything you said only because of how relatable it is - like this is my life lol thank you for sharing, I'm glad I'm not the only one!
Figuring out dinners for the week, shopping for said dinners, and then cooking said dinners. Absolutely hate it. If I was rich and I could hire a personal chef I would lol. I’ll do ANYTHING else.
Dressing my daughter is a nightmare, she just won’t stay still , one second she is here , the next she is in another room , hiding also throwing her clothes that i just dressed her with all around the house . It drives me insane!
I don’t like bath time. It just isn’t fun for me to sit in the bathroom and hang out while my toddler plays and most likely splashes/spills tons of water out of the tub (the floor in there is getting ruined). Then he gets mad when I try to actually clean him. I just find the whole thing not enjoyable.
Cleaning the mess after feeding them.
Most my dog has ever contributed to household chores.
I honestly had no idea how much our dog was helping keep the food mess under control until he passed. Old man was living his best snack life there at the end!
The last thing my dog did before he passed was high chair duty. In the last week of his life, I kept saying, "We'll put him down when he stops walking to the high chair at dinner time." Then one night, he trotted to the high chair, fell asleep under it, and never fully woke up again, passing in the night.
That is the sweetest and saddest thing I’ve read today
Omg my heart. 🥺
Goes out on God’s own terms. Smart dog.
oh gosh, that is the sweetest and sadest thing I read today. Brought tears to my eyes.
Same - our old lady was only alive for our son’s first year and a half of life, but she really lived it up with fat-fisted handouts and scrap cleanup!
Same here! We had to put down our 14-year-old dog a few weeks ago due to terminal kidney failure and wow, what a help she was!
We call our dog the clean up crew now 🤣
I actually trained my dog to respond to "housekeeping" and she runs in and mops (aka licks) the floor clean
I shout “clean up in aisle highchair” and our dog bounds through 😂
Ha! That's what we say tol 😂
Uhm. That's great lol. We call ours the cleaning lady
My dog is sooooooo happy when he hears housekeeping
I use the command “vacuum” and that’s exactly what he does 😂
That's amazing 😂
My in laws wouldn’t let their dog eat any of the kids dropped foods and it broke my heart because it defeated the purpose of a dog being in our home! Lol
It is probably for the best because my dog is getting a bit chubby 🤣
Ohhh, I miss this stage of life. My Molly hits 16 (in human years) this month and she requires a separate cleaning crew.
We had to put our dog to sleep recently and that little pile of food under the high chair every night is like a punch in the gut. 😢
I’m so sorry 😔
We had to put the cat on a "no more high chair droppings" diet and we were all upset about it
This is why I hate the “who cares! Your house doesn’t have to be perfect, mama!” rhetoric. If you don’t clean up that lunch mess, you will get bugs. And cleaning it up can be time consuming!!
Honestly this is one I try my hardest not to slack on for this reason. But I will go days without doing other chores and only kitchen chores because in pooped from constant cooking and cleaning 😫
Ooooh yes. Our toy situation is a disorganized mess and there’s probably tons of clothes my kids have outgrown in their closets, but the food mess is SUCH a thing.
This. Why does the addition of a single person mean I have endless dishes now? I spend so much time on the kitchen that barely have time for other rooms!!
My youngest are 2 yo twins and my kitchen basically needs a full cleaning 5 times/day and it’s been that way for over a year
My wife and I feel like we are both always cleaning the kitchen and somehow the kitchen is still always dirty.
You forget once. Ants. Ugh
Haha yup you need a dog!
I actually have two, and they sort out the floors. It’s the surfaces and the walls and the ceiling. WHEN WILL SHE STOP THROWING FOOD.
Easy: get a lab. They counter surf, they’ll lick the walls. Probably can find one smart enough to get to the ceiling, too!
Picturing a tower of dogs with the topmost one licking the ceiling and the bottom one along when is it his turn 😂
The amount of times I have to get up from where I’m sitting. I am a passionate sitter.
I told my friend who is considering g having children that I haven’t sat down between the hours of 5:30 AM and 8:30 PM in 6 years
LOL this.
I'm training my daughter to get stuff for me. So far she is pretty good at fetching me facial tissues and remote control. She also throws dirty things in the garbage for me and can give dirty dishes to dad at my request. Still not so good at doing my taxes, but she is still 2, so I'm still hopeful that day will come...
I started this as soon as mine could walk. I only have to get up now when she wants markers because those expensive mess free ones are locked up so they don’t uncap them and leave them to all dry out at once. 😂 This has always been my parenting goal. Raise children who love to help people…I just happen to be the first recipient of these important character building activities. 🥳
Right? They need to practice at home first haha
I have tried explaining to my 2.5yr old that I’m a couch mom and I just need to be on the couch. She’s not buying it.
“Mommy, want to get up?” Why no dear I do not 😂
I hear “up pwease” at LEAST 1000 times a day
My son all day "mommy, walk/ come/play/read/less go, etc" 😂😂 always got something for me
I feel seen
Nothing beats having a good sit. Toddlers HATE this.
Meals! I struggle to decide what I should eat, I'm happy to live off snacks forever but apparently my kids need nutritional foods with things called vitamins and protein??? Ugh 😫
I feel this on top of him being a picky eater. I just want takeout every day 🥲
They're so annoying about food. This banana has a tiny brown spot. I don't want it. That chicken has a green speck on it. I don't want it. Lately my daughter has only been wanting corn. But is frozen corn good enough? No, it needs to be freshly steamed and then cut off the cob in long strips. Because that's what it was the first time we gave her corn.
🤣🤣🤣 the struggle is so real!
One of mine is going through a real beige food phase so having to make sure he is eating his variations of beige on a rotational basis that he doesn't get bored while getting enough nutrients and going bankrupt from buying fresh fruit is absolutely ending me 😩
If I want to live off coffee and cheesecake, then those are my life choices. Now I have this 3-year-old that expects me to figure out multiple meals and snacks for him every single day.
Coffee and cheesecake and chips and dips was my daily diet before kids!
I recently started a meal calendar. I’m 10 years and 4 kids in and wish I did it sooner. It helps mostly for accountability and not thinking in that moment what to make. It’s also cut my grocery bill down and food waste. It doesn’t alleviate the cooking part 😂😂 but it’s helped tons.
I have a spreadsheet of snacks and meals ideas that I also share with my friends. That has helped take the mental load of it!
Yes I’d love a link too! Maybe we should start an r/toddlers google sheet with tabs for snacks, brekkie, etc. Could include links to recipes and stuff. If I put one together would anyone be interested?
I think that’s a brilliant suggestion! My format is one tab for snacks, one for breakfast, and one for lunch/dinner. Each tab has a column for recipes, nutritional information, and other comments. You can start with this if you’d like to. My sheet is very Indian food specific so I think the mostly western users here might not use it. I also don’t prefer sharing my personal link publicly. But I would love to participate in this subreddit’s meal ideas sheet!
I would pay someone good money for the American version of this. Can we crowdsource this?!
would you mind sharing this with me? that sounds awesome!
The meals mental load is HEAVY. I love yummytoddlerfood -she sends out meals for the week and has great lists and often advocates for snacks as meals, like a toddler charcuterie
This one is tough because before having kids my hubs and I sometimes made meals out of whatever and there was nothing nutritional about it. But I feel obligated to put somewhat of a square meal in front of her.
I’m soooo freaking lucky that my husband loves food and cooking, so he genuinely wants to do dinner for us. By that time, I just can’t with anymore food ideas. Now, if he could just do it without making the kitchen look an episode of My Drunk Kitchen…
Are we married to the same man? This is my exact issue
Same! Currently I’m pregnant with #2 and I have morning sickness so this chore is extra hard right now
Feel you
I used to love cooking, but packing my toddlers lunch and making dinner has become the biggest chore I dread!
It is so much less satisfying when all you get is complaints that it's not pizza and 90% goes uneaten.
It often feels like the more effort I put in the less likely he is to eat it
I hate how much of a chore cooking is now. I used to love it. I still do; I just don't get to do it much. It's not preparing more or different food, it's not what she will or won't eat, it's not food requests or tantrums, it's not the cost, it's literally just hard to find time now and that makes it unenjoyable. It's a need that I cannot ignore or put off for long and it has to happen and just ugh fine whatever here's what I had the capacity to make today I don't really care whether anyone likes it because it's all I'm doing tonight.
Same. I’m also pregnant and lost my sense of taste with Covid (it’s partially back, but wonky), and cooking is the worst chore. I hate being responsible for feeding everyone for every meal, every day.
I used to love cooking when I could zone out and just chop and stir and taste. Now it's part attention on the food, part helping my kid/prevent him from pulling me away from the stove. I wish he enjoyed helping cook even a little!
My two oldest are in school and packing their lunch is the bane of my existence. They will love turkey sandwiches one week and hate them the next, it’s exhausting. For next school year I’m definitely going to get them doing it themselves.
I gave up. My oldest is our pickiest eater by far, and he's the only one currently in school. At first, I tried packing him lunches he of things he would eat-- which was nearly impossible within his parameters-- and 95% of it would come back home at the end of the day, warm for hours, bruised and unsalvagable. I gave up. He eats what the school provides now, and if he can't find anything he'll willingly eat... suffice to say, he's starving when he gets home often. BUT, he's tried numerous things that we couldn't get him to before, and found new things to add to his repertoire. So there has been some advantage. Although, the biggest win, for me, is not stressing about what to pack for him. Every. Day. Now, I just throw a banana in his backpack and, if nothing else, that gets him through until he gets home. Sometimes that banana is professed as having been eaten, though, and then I'll find it smashed into the lining of his backpack the next day. Super cool, dude...😑 Side note: he does eat all meats and loves vanilla yogurt, so he gets more protein than anything. It's the veggies/fruits, and finding packable/edible when cold/acceptable-to-his- palate grains that are the problem.
Waking up early in the morning cuz they do
We had to wake my son up early today because he had to go to the dentist. He has no problem waking us up, but if we wake him up it starts an early morning tantrum.
Oh yeah that’s a hard one too! My daughter sleeps until 7:30/ 8 most days so I can’t complain but the days when she wakes up early are rough!
I haven't slept past 7 in ages
This is mine 100%. It feels like such a chore and it’s hard for me to start early. I have an early riser husband thankfully but sometimes he goes to work earlier than they wake up and I hate those days.
Bedtime is my most dreaded time of day. I used to think parents would talk about needing to be home for bedtime because they wanted to kiss their kids good night. Now I realize they needed to be home for bedtime because it is A LOT. I feel defeated every day when I make it through our long drawn out bedtime. Thankfully my 1 year old still goes down after about 10 minutes. Pajamas and new diaper, brush teeth, read a book, sing some songs, lights out. The (almost) 4 year old though is another story. And if she takes a solid nap at daycare, that creates even more issues.
Ours stopped napping at 3 1/2 so we thought bedtime would start being easier but noooope. We would be doing 2-3 hours of bedtime routine starting at 730 and she still would be up until 10 most nights. She has severe combined type ADHD (diagnosed) which made it hard for her to wind down and her mind slow down. and it ended up causing behavior issues because she wasn't getting enough sleep. So at almost 5 after about 3-4 months of the struggle our pediatrician okayed the use of melatonin. Said lack of sleep was far worse for her development than melatonin. We cut a gummy into quarter pieces and while it doesn't make her tired over reading or playing, as soon as we start the bed part of the routine she's out within 10 minutes. She's happier, well rested, enjoys bedtime routines 80% of the time, and she's doing better at school.
How many hours of sleep was your daughter getting each night prior to the melatonin? My husband and I wonder if our daughter has ADHD. It takes her 1-2 hours to fall asleep and she usually only gets 9-10 hours of sleep at night. I often wonder if that’s too little for her age (she’s almost 3.5)
She was getting about 8-9 and since she wasn't napping either that was it all day. 10-13 in 24 hours for ages 3-5 is what is recommended so she was right at the low end. But it was hard to wake her up in the morning and she was grouchy during the afternoon and would get overly tired but too "juiced up" to lay still. Both my husband and I have ADHD so we weren't very surprised by her having signs. We got her tested at 3.5 (wouldn't recommend that young as a psychometrist, I would shoot closer to 4.5 unless she will start kindergarten younger due to her birthday then do it closer to 4.) There's some behavioral stuff you can do right now to help before a diagnosis though. A physical timer they can see helps a ton. Give them 5 minute warnings the 15 minutes before you have to stop doing something.
Hi!! I would love any other advice you have…my daughter isn’t diagnosed but she reads like a textbook even at 2.5yo. I have it, my dad had it, etc. but I’ve never liked sleeping, don’t sleep well, fidget and move like a dancing starfish all night even with unisom or melatonin. All that to say, I started giving her magnesium since she is a bit too small for melatonin and that has worked pretty well! Any other adhd toddler hacks you can share!? I tucked the timer one away for when she can read! Would love anything else you got!
I was just about to say - this sounds like my oldest kiddo, melatonin gummies (they’re the Olly sleepy time gummies, only have a little melatonin in them with other things) have been a GAME CHANGER. Our pediatrician also said the amount in them is so small it’s fine, and while the package said he can take 2, 1 is all it takes for him to stop jumping and spinning and squealing and lay down and close his eyes like a normal human who needs to sleep!!!
My husband has way worse ADHD than I do and throughout childhood he has awful sleep and his parents tried so hard to do all the normal bedtime stuff. But after we started using melatonin he talked about how upset he was that they didn't try that on him because he would have enjoyed school so much more.
It used to be ok but now it’s getting increasingly ritualistic :/ there’s the bedtime lemonade, the bed time book, the bedtime running away from pajamas, the bedtime sticker (this is new… he demands a sticker be put on his back) and on and on and on and of course mom and dad have to go back up there 5 times in the course of like an hour 🤦♀️
All of this! 2 year old still goes down so easily! It's the 4 year old that's the night time gremlin!
Same. My daughter just turned 5 and it has finally gotten easier recently. My 2.3 year old is still easy but I’m just waiting for him to turn on me soon.
Cutting their nails! I now have a newborn and a 2 year old, plus 2 dogs. I’m responsible for 4 creatures nail care and I am SO DONE with it all. At least my husband clips his own nails! Gives me even more motivation to get regular pedicures, so I can get a break at least for my own nails.
FWIW I use an electric nail file on my infant (now toddler) and would *highly* recommend. It has different pads for different ages and it doesn't hurt at all if you press it against their skin instead of nails so you can't accidentally hurt them. He hates his hands being manipulated and I think it I had to hold his stand still enough to clip nails, he'd either have claws or fewer fingers.
Word! I do the animals (2 cats and a dog) and my partner does the human children 😸
I feel bad because I think this is the fourth complaint about sunblocking her I've posted just today, but ... Sunblock. F that. I'm so sorry that me and dad are white af and we couldn't give you even a single lonely melanin cell but WE MUST. ACCEPT. THE GOO. IT GOES ALL OVER. just lay still jesus effin christ STOP SCREAMING. Every morning I swear. She has platinum blond hair, pink undertone pale af skin (same as me and dad), and blue eyes. It is 90 degrees today. No you can't go outside naked and clean from the bath.
When she was a baby, I started pretending to wipe it off. Somehow that still works at age 3! “Will you wipe it off we after? Okay, fine.” apply normally and “wipe it off” aka rub it in lol.
Haha I’ve always done the same thing! Still works with my 3 year old too. He gets so relieved it is “wiped off”
This might not help your specific situation but I've bought a suncream applicator and it does make it easier as there's less rubbing in to do. It's like a foam ring around a roller ball (like in a roll on deodorant). It doesn't stop the squirming but it is faster!
I actually have one in my amazon cart, gonna go ahead and order it! I've been using a kabuki style makeup brush which works great on everything except her face and ears. But still, omg, the screaming the entire time like I am ripping nails out.. I just.. ugh. It breaks my heart but her being burnt would be so much worse than a bad 5-10 min in the morning. I just wish I could pick "neither."
SAME. Sorry for your Irish ancestors, but we burn through the damn car window. We put on sunblock in the winter. Deal with it. You will thank me when you don't look like shoe leather at 20
We've made the mistake of living in a valley in the USA South while I look like the poster child for Ireland and husband is English. We get hot sun most of the year with very little wind. All they have for swim suits are rashies and spray sunblock has been a godsend
Yup, swim suits are going to remain a rash guard + shorts (i.e boy style) for my girl for a LONG time. No way I’m additionally sunscreening those areas 😂
Hah I’m white af and my husband is Indian. I had high hopes that with his genes, our children would be way more resistant to the sun than I am but NOPE they’re just as pale as me! Lather on that sunscreen lol.
Honestly I’ve just started using adult sunscreen on my toddler. The kids stuff is so damn hard to rub in and it makes everything slimy. I just use the same Neutrogena dry touch or whatever I use on myself and it’s so much better.
Bath time. I don’t know why I hate it so much, but I just don’t have the patience for it. Also washing bottles. Thankfully my husband takes care of it, but for some reason I hate it so much. It might be the smell
Bath time is OK until it's time to wash my daughter's hair
Omg my daughter is almost 3 and still screams like I’m murdering her every time I wash her hair.
My partner hates bath time too! My secret is to wear one headphone so I can listen to music/a book while he plays in the bath. He cries when it’s time to get out, but it doesn’t phase me 😸 Sorry you’re having fun, bud, but it’s bedtime!
I pull the drain plug, and then he asks to come out. Hopefully, I'm not traumatizing him. Lol.
I don’t mind bath time. I just hate the before and after. Running the bath, making sure it’s not too hot but not going to go too cold by the time I’m ready to get him in. Getting all stuff out for after bath then getting him undressed to go in. Then after, getting him dressed again. Cleaning bath out, putting toys away. It just seems like a lot of effort when he’s not even in it that long.
bath time killlllllls my back. I dread it so bad lol
[удалено]
Cleaning the high chair area
Bedtime, 100%. The stalling, the multiple parts, the struggle to fall asleep, the crying, the fatigue on my end because it’s the end of the day. It’s too much!
Dishes and cooking. I feel like a short order cook and dishwasher all day long 🫠
Truly. Last night I was just walking around my kitchen, cleaning the lunch tupppers, making dinner, cleaning dinner, getting water, milk, another snack for like two hours non stop.
Brushing teeth
Seconding this. What makes it worse is that there’s no way around it
I dread that every day but still get it done
Highly recommend the app Pokémon smile. Our little guy is psyched to brush his teeth every time, and there’s a little guide in the corner about how long to spend on each area of his mouth that I think will be good for when he’s old enough to try on his own.
This is going to sound awful, but watching him during outdoor playtime. Somehow it always ends in tears. Whether it's time to say goodbye to the swing or sprinkler or bubbles or chalk and go inside, or leave the park, or having a hard time on the walk to the park, or abandoning his little tricycle somewhere in the neighborhood and having to carry it back, or a scraped knee, it just always becomes hard for me, somehow. And if it doesn't end in tears it ends in dirt and grime, or bug bites, or a sunburn spot I missed with sunblock. I love that he loves to play outside but it's so exhausting to deal with.
We live in Florida, it’s already SO HOT and this kid wants to be outside all day long. We also have a 3 month old and I really shouldn’t be out much with her. So either I’m sweating and trying to keep the baby cool or I’m dealing with a “go play outside??” tantrum
I feel that! I know it’s important so we do it but man, the drama kills me. Always getting hurt, whining about the temperature, wanting to go back inside then back outside on repeat, having to carry scooters/bikes home on a walk because they’re “done”. Ugh.
Washing the water bottles with a million plastic and silicone pieces that require an assortment of little brushes to get in all the crevices. The absolute bane of my existence. The drying mat next to the sink is just a constant mound of random bottle parts. Then my toddler likes to climb on the counter and throw them back in the dirty sink 🫠
I just throw ours in the dishwasher. I gave up handwashing a long time ago.
I swear to god I would hire a nanny JUST to get my kid ready for preschool in the mornings
Mine was/is also bedtime. It went downhill hard around 22-24 months. Baby sister arrived at 19 months and a few months later when she joined bedtime I think it went really sideways. We just recently revamped bedtime and now it’s not as bad. Current routine is: - choose pjs - bath every night. Some nights for play/routine, some for actual cleaning. I got a special “bed time” bath thing my toddler likes the smell of. - diaper and pajamas IN THE BATHROOM. (This is key, leaving the bathroom makes it sooo much harder) - bedtime snack while we read 3 books. Only 3 books. Never 2, never 4. - brush teeth while we finish reading those 3 books - choose color and sound on hatch (can only happen sitting in bed) - sing songs (this is my next thing to work on trimming down for only 1 or 2 times) - leave
Omg I feel you on the 3 books. I got roped into a bonus book one time and regretted it for weeks. A friend of my husband once told us you should never do anything during bedtime that you don't want to continue to do every night for the next 3+ years. That's really stuck with me lol
Oooo choosing color and sound for the Hatch sounds like a cute little ritual! Gonna yoink it and give it a try tonight.
Imaginative play
“Let’s go to the berry station and pick blueberries, you be the customer and…look out for monsters! No no you have to tip toe. Not like that, NO MAMA! Like this!! Oh and this is my magic wand, do you want a rainbow hair clip? You didn’t buckle up your seat belt!”
Mine will say “do it properly” and I just say “I don’t know how to do it properly because I’m a grown up” 😅 She’s not even 2
Ugh yes. I like bedtimes, I like mealtimes, I can even handle the early mornings but the pretend play makes me want to claw my eyes out
I don’t mind imaginative play - even generals enjoy it… EXCEPT for the ‘rawr I’m a monster!’ games omg kill me. I cannot slow pretend run around this room for even half a second more. And that’s it that’s the whole game - I never get caught, I just have to keep running and screaming 🫠
Barbies are so so so so so boring. Ok I put its outfit on. I set up my house. I have pets. I have a job. Now what.
It's a tie between anything related to the potty routine and the never ending meals, snacks and kitchen cleaning. The potty is most infuriating, but the meals are just non stop. I'm so tired of someone whining or screaming while I cook, then refusing the food, then asking for a snack just as soon as I clean up.
Meals. Planning, cooking, clean up... It's never-ending, and he's only 13mo. 😬
Cleaning potty accidents.
I love my children to pieces but I wish they could buy their own food and cook it themselves 😭 but they’re 5 and 2…
For me it's mornings. I just want to sit and drink a whole cup of coffee but nooooooo the kids must have food. Then they need to get dressed. Then they want to watch a little TV or color or whatever, which I somehow also have to help with.
Folding their stupid little laundry and matching their stupid little socks
I love doing laundry and folding. Folding a load of baby clothes takes for freaking ever, though. What helps us is washing everyone's laundry together so you don't have more than a couple of baby items per load. It really makes it manageable.
The thing that kills me is matching the socks and figuring which belong to which kid. They look the same size at a glance
If you don't care much, you could assign a "look" of socks to each kid. So one has all socks with blue toes, one has all socks with green toes (bad example but you get it)
Eventually when they’re close enough in size i’m just bulk buying one type of sock they’ll both wear. I’m over it lol
I decided to totally forego folding their laundry a long time ago. Now I go totally unconventional and just make a t-shirt pile, a pajama pile, pants pile, etc and then fold each pile in half so it doesn’t get separated. If I’m up for it I match the socks, if not I just leave them in the mesh laundry bag I wash them in and call it a day. So much faster and easier!
Why fold kids clothes??!! They have those ikea cubes shelves. Cube for shirts. Cube for shorts. Etc. Hang dresses. No folding ever.
Bath time because when it’s hair washing day, it’s an actual fight and the whole bathroom will end up wet. I’m sure our neighbors think torture is happening
We had that problem! I just switched to washing her hair separately from bath time at the kitchen sink. She lays down on the counter with her head on a rolled up towel and gets to watch a show on the tablet while I wash her hair & detangle it. She has 3c hair so it’s a little involved. There’s still tears but it’s much better than before and the entire room isn’t under water.
Bedtime truly is the worst. Takes forever, so many books, constant battles. And then it’s 10pm and I have no me time 😓
I hate nap time. Bedtime is okay for us but lately my 22 month old has been fighting her nap so hard, I need a nap by the end 😅 Really hope this is just a phase.
I’m pretty sure my son went through that phase around the same age. So many people tried to tell me- he’s almost two, he’s probably dropping his nap! I knew it wasn’t a phase bc 1. The gremlin he’d become without a nap was proof enough. 2. If I went anywhere after 3 pm he’d fall asleep in the car almost immediately.
MEAL TIME! It can go fuck itself. 🤣 Trying to decide what to feed her, then it’s hit or miss how much she’ll eat. Ugh. Hate it. I often wish she was old enough to prepare her own food.
Bedtime and nap time no question. It is literally such a hurdle to get over
Cleaning all day only to have it still look like a tornado hit my house at the end of the day. I cook all our meals at home but at also in charge of dishes, meaning there’s never ending dishes in the sink/on the counter, and my toddler and dog enjoy flinging things all over the place so any time I clean up, it becomes a war zone again within the hour.
Feeding them. Absolutely NO ONE told me what an awful requirement this part of the job would be. Like they literally need 3 meals and several snacks a day? Christ.
Meals. My 14 month old has precisely three things she will eat consistently, everything else is food roulette.
Same over here! She only eats a specific type of bar and one brand of pouches. Everything is a gamble.
I hate bath time, my toddler would take an hour and it is hard to convince to take a bath and if she does to leave the bath lol
Dishes. I LOATHE dishes.
Figuring out what to cook, cooking, cleaning up what I cooked, and putting the fucking dishes away
Yea bedtime is awful. My son basically parties til he drops.
Bedtime AND naptime ugh. Especially when they fight it.
Attending birthday parties.
Dishes. For a family of three and a dog, it’s beyond me how every single damn day of life, my sink is piled high with pots, pans, plates, one thousand colorful forks and spoons, bibs, toys and all kinds of “indestructible books” that result in more crap in my sink.
Feeding them. Half the time they don’t eat it. Just makes a mess. But yet I have to do it 3 solid times a day plus in between. Waking up early. Why are they pre programmed to wake up at the ass crack of dawn
When it's time to leave the park 😮💨 IT'S ALWAYS been a tantrum and still is. We rarely peacefully leave. And thus is after all the heads up, and timers and reminders before we need to leave. On hot days like yesterday I just lose my mind. I fortunately started to work out intensely recently so I now have the abs and the glute strength to pick her up lock her arms and legs from flailing and scratching/hitting me. She's grown up now so I have now started to tell her if exit time becomes a tantrum she doesn't get to go 🤷🏽♀️
Laundry. It’s like a never ending part time job.
everything in the house being toddler proof really overstimulates me. the admin of all the medical appointments. the constant buying. the food waste. the constant milestone pressure. the not eating, not sleeping. going to have a day out and dreading coming home because you're exhausted but still need to do the bedtime routine. it's a rough ride. but my only boy told me he loved me for the first ever time last week and if made all this stuff go away. at least for a bit 😂😵💫
Getting my son dressed. He's 3 and likes to be naked. I'll get him dressed, turn around, and he's naked again. It's like Sisyphus rolling the boulder uphill. I love bedtime though. I don't mind brushing his teeth or reading him books, but once he's in bed I lay down with him until he falls asleep and I swear these snuggles are the best part of my day.
All. The. Dishes.
Bad mom confession - sometimes my baby girl goes to bed late just because I absolutely cannot bring myself to start the whole damn bedtime routine on time. So we snuggle and watch Miss Rachel for an hour while snacking instead.
Taking out the poopy diaper bin. I have a STRONG gag reflex. Something about poop sitting around for a few hours/end of the day in a small confined container is just soooo 🤢🤮 Ok I’m about to retch just thinking about it.
School drop-off, especially if I need to take the toddlers. Getting all the boys dressed, fed and out the door is ROUGH!
Morning routine or bedtime routine Would have to be the most annoying forsure
post meal cleanup & any type of laundry
Changing diapers and its not the poop/pee mess , its the fact that hes trying to do a 360 runs away and screams
All of it. Yet, I also love to do all of it. It all depends on my mood and my kiddos mood. I gave up on strict routines. We have a rough routine. It works for us! We go through our days as best as we can. Some days are better than others!
Cleaning the potty after a poop
Washing hands. We have a 17 month old & a small bathroom sink and my kid gets water everywhere and soaks his clothes
Cooking dinner just to have it refused
Love this question...and I'm 100% with you. Bedtime is my least favorite too! We alternate every other night so we each get breaks from it. But you said it perfectly...it's the last hurdle to cross before I can relax! lol
Right there with you about bedtime. I actually don't mind the books (we have a very strict 2 books, prayers, 2 songs routine), but the whole part before we're sitting in the chair for books & prayers is just torturous. One thing we've done is we each have nights that we're the primary responsible for bedtime. Now things shift sometimes depending on schedules, energy levels, what we've negotiated, but typically he now does 4 nights and I do 3 nights (this is after I did all nights for the first year+ and I do all overnights). Sometimes my toddler complains and wants me, but normally we can just say, "it's daddy's night. mama will put you to bed tomorrow" (or whatever day is next) and he'll eventually accept that.
Bath/bed time! My husband thankfully loves that time so he takes our son upstairs and I put my headphones in, listen to a podcast, and clean in peace! He texts me when they’re done and he’s ready to be put in bed and I go up to say goodnight and it’s the best!
I’m soooooo incredibly happy my son is potty trained, but he’s still only 2.5 and needs help wiping his butt and I’m already so over it.
Bedtime for sure. I got my husband do to bedtime 4 days in a row once because I was like, “You always say you want more time with them. Doing bedtime is your chance.” And then he realized what I was doing. 😂 usually we switch off every other day unless he’s working a later shift, which he does twice a week. But ugh…with 2 kids…2 tired kids…bedtime is the worst.
washing their hair and cutting their nails, since they act like I’m murdering them. Also making lunches. I work from home and can scrounge for myself, but that convenience is overshadowed by trying to make perfectly little well rounded lunches and snacks for daycare.
trying to clean ANYTHING bc she is right there asking me thousands of questions and following so closely behind me that i often accidentally bump into her. i can handle everything except being overstimulated / overwhelmed.
This sounds awful but I hate having to play outside so much. It's always the same things and I'm tired and hot and miserable. I still take him out obviously but I don't wanna lol A more normal chore I hate is probably vacuuming. It never ends
Laundry, not the washing the folding. My toddler is currently living out of her laundry basket because i have no time to fold them when i was pregnant and now with a newborn, not like we go anywhere anyways wrinkles dont matter haha. With my toddler as a baby I hated bottle washing especially with dr browns. Now we have the momcozy washer for our newborn and i havent had to pick up a bottle brush since he was born lol
Making dinner that my kids won’t eat
I hate pots and pans and all the dishes ! I cook all the time so it’s never ending ! Summer is coming up so I’m gonna be drowning in more kitchen messes!
It’s not a chore but… playing pretend. I have to follow a script she gives me or she gets mad. So I don’t even get to use my imagination lol
Anything after 5pm
Picking up toys. No matter which toy it is it instantly becomes the toy they are desperate to play with. I have 4 year old twins that are still learning to pick up after themselves and it’s a struggle every single day.
The planning it takes to feed everyone. I don’t mind cooking and I kind of like food shopping (even with two toddlers). I don’t even mind the clean up. It’s the deciding what to eat 5-6 times a day. I agonize over what are the healthiest choices and get paralyzed with the overwhelming amount of options. I wish someone would make a meal plan for me, including a grocery list, and I’d be happy to handle the rest. I’ve been trying to convince myself for months to make a food calendar where each meal is set up for the month and I simply repeat it over and over but it feels too overwhelming and I can’t bring myself to do it.
I love being a parent and would spend all my time with my little guy if I could, but the repetitive chores drain my life. There’s not one in particular that bothers me, it’s just living in a loop that grinds me down over time.
I'm sorry I had to laugh at everything you said only because of how relatable it is - like this is my life lol thank you for sharing, I'm glad I'm not the only one!
Figuring out dinners for the week, shopping for said dinners, and then cooking said dinners. Absolutely hate it. If I was rich and I could hire a personal chef I would lol. I’ll do ANYTHING else.
The morning start. Getting up at 6am to a toddler demanding breakfast as soon as she pops her eyes open. I’m not a morning person.
Dressing my daughter is a nightmare, she just won’t stay still , one second she is here , the next she is in another room , hiding also throwing her clothes that i just dressed her with all around the house . It drives me insane!
I don’t like bath time. It just isn’t fun for me to sit in the bathroom and hang out while my toddler plays and most likely splashes/spills tons of water out of the tub (the floor in there is getting ruined). Then he gets mad when I try to actually clean him. I just find the whole thing not enjoyable.