Is the question I get asked more than anything else.
Sometimes, I’m half tempted to lie. Oh, you know, I just have to be very organised. My husband is great, we’re a real team and the kids aren’t really all that much trouble, truly.
(For the record, my husband is great and I’m not just saying that in case he reads this. And the kids are trouble sometimes, but they’re pretty cute most of the time so I deal.)
The truthful answer to that question, how do you do it all, is this.
I’m not. I’m just not doing it all.
I’m not doing it all by any stretch of imagination.
My life is held together with sticky tape, cable ties and long day care.
And my house is filthy.
That is how I manage to be at work four days a week, in a relatively presentable state and the kids manage to be entertained appropriately and fed three meals a day (hopefully.)
I sacrifice a clean shower for the opportunity to actually have a shower.
I sacrifice mopping the floors for time spent playing with the kids on them.
The only problem is that, after a spell, a dirty floor and a filthy shower irritate me so much that I lash out at my husband – the poor man. At times I am furious with him for not doing the chores that I also neglect to attend to.
Mamamia’s Co-Founder, Mia Freedman, once said “get as much help as you can afford.”