Monday, December 17, 2012

Do you think my husband and I do equal parts?

Q. My husband takes out the trash, cleans up the yard, works on our vehicle, runs errands, goes to the store and sometimes helps look after the kids. I take care of the rest of the house, dishes (by hand), laundry, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the kids bedrooms, cleaning our bedroom, sweep, mop, vacuum etc, cook all meals, pay bills, make phone calls, look after the kids. Do you think we're doing equal amounts of work? Also, my husband is unemployed right now, and I am disabled so I don't work at all.

A. I say, some help is better than no help at all. If you want him to help more, you need to tell him. Be specific. My experience has been that a lot of men are often clueless; you need to tell them exactly what you want. You'll be more likely to get a positive response if you put it nicely as opposed to crabbing about it.


What's the best way to secure a home from theft?
Q. My house got broke into yesterday and after I got home from work, I found kitchen knives on the bed and our bedroom was trashed especially my wife's closet which the lock is busted open and several of her jeweleries were stolen. My wife and I were shocked and I'm no longer can't work late without worry about my wife and kids safety. I already has ADT installation tomorow but want to find more ways to secure my home since I come home late sometime.

A. get the,get the WIRELESS call backup,in case you loose your telephone line of if its cut adt will still receive a signal from your alarm,then get a 45 caliber gun as a backup,make sure that you get lessons on how to fire it and safety training classes,i use it for bears,the two legged ones who want to intrude in my house.


What is the best way to stay organized in a small space with 3 kids ages 3,2,and 1?
Q. They all have different personalities and all make messes. I feel like all I do is clean and it gets trashed five minutes later. Im a stay at home mom and my husband thinks I stick to schedules too much and I am always cleaning but it doesnt seem to help. Any ideas how to keep everything tidy.

A. Three under three is certainly going to put you in the position of cleaning all the time. While organization is a good goal, applying it will be very different at home than in an office -- or a home without children.

Keeping everything tidy is not a reasonable goal and you'd do well not to put that kind of pressure on yourself. With three toddlers, you'll maintain more of your sanity if your goal is to keep up with them.

I had three under three. Now I have three in college. The "mess" doesn't go away, it just changes shape.

Keeping a schedule (this happens at this time, that happens at that time) can be daunting with three little ones. A routine (this happens after this -- regardless of the time -- and then we do that) might be more accomodating for everyone, especially you.

Mornings can start when everyone wakes, not necessarily at 8AM. We eat, we clean up, we watch a program, we play outside, we snack, we play outside some more, we eat luch. This doesn't have to happen by the clock to go smoothly and successfully.

Do remember, "Stay at home Mom" doesn't mean you have to stay at home. Check into your local resources for playgroups and parks. Network with other moms about scheduling playgroups and exchanging babysitting.

Children cannot mess up what they can't reach, see, or know is there.

Keep breakables and other valuables up and away. If necessary, put them out of sight completely. While it may seem like you'll never see your things again, the reality is that the days are long and the years are short. This means you'll be bringing your things down and back into view before you know it.

Safety devices work in theory. In practice, small children are geniuses. Block outlets, unused radiators and cords with furniture. All lower kitchen cabinets should be child proofed with one exception. Here you would keep plastics the children can play with. Cooking around kids is dangerous. Cook in advance (when they're sleeping) and reheat later; tell your husband to keep the kids occupied; create meals out of raw fruit, raw vegetables and sandwiches. Puddings are great -- and much fun in the tub (see below).

Keep a minimum of toys available. A child with too many choices (more than 5 toys) can be become an overwhelmed child. A child with a toy that contains more than 5 pieces can also become overwhelmed. Simple blocks go a lot further than a box of action figures.

My rule of thumb was that if a toy couldn't go in the dishwasher or clothes washer, it wasn't a toy for my kids. This helped immensely on many levels, the least of which was cleanup.

If your kids have more than 5 toys each, stick the rest in storage. When you bring out all those "new" toys, put the other toys in storage. Change them out about every three months.

Messes will be made no matter what. To consolidate messes, never dismiss the wonders of the bathroom.

If you have a hand-held shower nozzle, explore the possibilities. During the colder months and during rainy days, I fed my baby during the day by putting her in her high chair and the high chair in the bathroom while the two older enjoyed their lunch on the tray that fit between the sides of the empty tub. When my baby was done eating I washed the older two and let them dress themselves. I then put the baby (still in the high chair) in the tub and washed her up along with the high chair. I'd take her out and let the high chair dry.

On warm days I used an empty inflatable kids' pool instead of the tub. After eating, I'd fill the pool with water and bath bubble mixture. If you have a sprayer on the end of the hose, you can get some rockin' bubble mountains going.

The beauty of inflatable pools and pool toys is that they can go inside in a bedroom (without water, of course). The inflatable toys that have slides and palm trees are great, but if all you can afford is a moderately sized inflatable pool, this can double as a napping place (with pillows, blankets, stuffed animals) and as a place to play or look at books. Very small pools can hold books or toys and make it easier for small children to learn organizational skills (books go in the pink pool and toys go in the blue pool).

The important thing is your peace of mind. Three small children are exhausting no matter what you do. Don't put extra (and unnecessary) pressure on yourself to do more, more, more. Keep it simple. The simpler things are for all of you, the more fondly you'll remember them at the end of the day, the more accomplished you'll feel, and trust me -- they'll remember the time you spent with them, not how tidy everything was.


How long does it take for your house to look completely trashed again?
Q. Every night before bed we pick up all the toys in the family room, get them back to the kids' rooms and usually pick all the toys up in the kids' rooms as well. The next morning I think it takes a matter of like 20 minutes for the house to look completely trashed again.

BQ: Do your kids generally have to pick up their rooms before bed or do you just ignore all the toys on the floor? Lol.

A. just in the last few months i've managed to get most of the toys and art supplies moved to either our extra bedroom or the basement. i give those places 10 minutes before they look like armaggedon. they do a clean up at the end of the day, at least to get it back to merely "messy" rather than "apocalyptic."

the rest of the house we seem to be able to go a little longer. still only 10 or 15 minutes until less than perfect, but no longer completely trashed.

woohoo. progress.





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