Talk About Marriage - View Single Post - Stay-at-Home Wives: What do you do all day? (What should they do?)

tobio · 02-24-2012, 05:03 PM

I've been a stay at home mum for four years now, not primarily by choice, I was working but got made redundant, started looking for another job then got pregnant and logistically it made more sense for me to be at home. We have four kids aged 8, 5, 2 and 1.

I find I am VERY busy all day! Gawd knows my OH says he couldn't do it with our lot.

OH gets up for work and I do at the same time. He leaves before breakfast. Getting four kids ready to go out to school is basically carnage no matter how much you organise things!

The day then consists of washing up, clean kitchen from breakfast, loads of laundry in the washing machine, loads of wet laundry in the tumble dryer (repeat this around four times for each plus a couple of extra loads as the toddler is potty training), put away dry laundry, vacuuming, clean the bathrooms, scrub table and highchairs of weetabix aftermath, clean kitchen, clean living room, baking (make all cakes and biscuits from scratch), snacks, lunch, wash up from lunch, more vacuuming, more dry clothes to put away, tidy bedrooms, run errands to shop/bank/town for OH/us/dinner/bills/etc, prep dinner (from scratch), school run, cook dinner, eat dinner, wash up and tidy kitchen and living room from dinner, homework and reading for older two, packed lunches for next day, bathtime, bedtime, more laundry, more laundry, more laundry, plus the stuff you can't get done with kids about...

Much of this is s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out by carrying either a crying baby or a cuddly toddler on my hip at any given time: I have perfected the art of washing both my hands without putting the baby down amongst many other things!

As a treat I get to sit down when driving and occasionally when eating a sandwich at lunch

I never, ever get chance to spend ages on the internet. I treat being at home like a job. The trouble is I'm actually a stay at home mum, I HATE being called a housewife because I don't stay at home to do housework, I stay at home to look after the kids. Yet I feel terribly guilty that I don't spend enough time with them. I mean, I do spend time with them and doing fun stuff but MY GOD it is hard to find the time with four of them. It is terribly easy to think I have when I've sort of been *alongside* them so I do prioritise it now, albeit in lots of inventive ways at times!

02-24-2012, 05:03 PM	#37 (permalink)
tobio Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: UK Posts: 777	Re: Stay-at-Home Wives: What do you do all day? (What should they do?) I've been a stay at home mum for four years now, not primarily by choice, I was working but got made redundant, started looking for another job then got pregnant and logistically it made more sense for me to be at home. We have four kids aged 8, 5, 2 and 1. I find I am VERY busy all day! Gawd knows my OH says he couldn't do it with our lot. OH gets up for work and I do at the same time. He leaves before breakfast. Getting four kids ready to go out to school is basically carnage no matter how much you organise things! The day then consists of washing up, clean kitchen from breakfast, loads of laundry in the washing machine, loads of wet laundry in the tumble dryer (repeat this around four times for each plus a couple of extra loads as the toddler is potty training), put away dry laundry, vacuuming, clean the bathrooms, scrub table and highchairs of weetabix aftermath, clean kitchen, clean living room, baking (make all cakes and biscuits from scratch), snacks, lunch, wash up from lunch, more vacuuming, more dry clothes to put away, tidy bedrooms, run errands to shop/bank/town for OH/us/dinner/bills/etc, prep dinner (from scratch), school run, cook dinner, eat dinner, wash up and tidy kitchen and living room from dinner, homework and reading for older two, packed lunches for next day, bathtime, bedtime, more laundry, more laundry, more laundry, plus the stuff you can't get done with kids about... Much of this is s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d out by carrying either a crying baby or a cuddly toddler on my hip at any given time: I have perfected the art of washing both my hands without putting the baby down amongst many other things! As a treat I get to sit down when driving and occasionally when eating a sandwich at lunch I never, ever get chance to spend ages on the internet. I treat being at home like a job. The trouble is I'm actually a stay at home mum, I HATE being called a housewife because I don't stay at home to do housework, I stay at home to look after the kids. Yet I feel terribly guilty that I don't spend enough time with them. I mean, I do spend time with them and doing fun stuff but MY GOD it is hard to find the time with four of them. It is terribly easy to think I have when I've sort of been alongside them so I do prioritise it now, albeit in lots of inventive ways at times!