How to live simply with kids?

Kindymycin, 11 months ago

I totally hear you and I have a lot of chaos in my house with a 5 and 2 year old, but it's getting better. As others have said, you're in the thick of it. Take solace in that its gonna get better.

Something some one told me that helped a lot is to get into the mindset of "living in moments" for now. You probably still have tons of little moments that can be simple. The five minutes it takes to make your coffee in the morning, your commute to work, those few minutes chatting with you wife before sleeping. Try to notice those moments and really drink them in and let them fill you instead of slipping by. Also, when you notice those moments, purposefully lay down the tension from the 45 minute meltdown you just handled, because that's over, and try to just live in that moment a while, cause in another five minutes you're gonna be cleaning up a blowout lol.

NotABearJustAHuman, 11 months ago

If you can find a copy, I suggest the book The Idle Parent by Tom Hodgkinson. It might help you some

frostcandy, 11 months ago

Simple living doesn't always feel peaceful. 😅 I'm also a SAHM with what I would describe as quiet hobbies (reading, journaling, crochet, etc). My toddler provides plenty of chaos though lol.

With a 3mo and 2yr, you shouldn't be worrying about simple living right now honestly. You're in the thick of it. It's okay to just be in survival mode.

I imagine what you need is quiet time and a break. Do you have any family that can babysit sometimes so you two can go away for a while? Even a few hours is helpful. Does the toddler still nap? That is the time for one of you to also power nap, if possible.

The key is to simplify the house maintenance too. Some days the laundry and dishes will fall behind. That's okay! These days are gonna go by fast. I can go on and on about cleaning and organizing systems if that is something you wanna hear.

scrappy_Duncan, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago)

Some good advice and sorta what I didn't want to hear lol. My wife and I do have a night every week when family watches the kids and we go on a date or just spend time together. I think I just have to come to terms with the fact that the house will always need cleaned and that there will always be a list of maintenance things that need done. I guess my issue is that I often need a clean house and mind in order to have peace. So maybe I need to work on my mentality with those things to have peace even with things that need done and a messy house.

useful_idiot, 11 months ago

Great question. As kids get older it only gets busier. Wrangling a 4 and 6 year old is like a second full time job with required overtime.