Can anyone with a toddler and baby share some tips?

I'm struggling with managing evenings. How do you manage dinner, bathing both children, bedtime, cleaning the house etc? Im just finding it overwhelming at the moment especially as partner works shifts.

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Hey ! I have a may baby and a 3 years old and a 9 years old at home . Its not easy as my partner is at work all day and some nights on top so most of the time i am alone . For dinner i have a seat for baby that i put in the kitchen with me and i kinda sit the toddler on the table doing drawing ect to keep both as still as possible . Fir bath i bath baby and toddler together makes my life so much easier ! Bedtime is one after the other. Toddler first then 9years old and then baby with me . When baby is asleep i go downstairs and clean the house ready for the next day chaos . But sometimes i don’t clean as i am exhausted. 🙈🙏 anything else feel free to message me x

Slow cooker or make ahead dinners are a big help, if a bath for both is too much one skip and day, alternate days, or bathe in the morning, cleaning doesn’t happen in the evening bedtime routine takes everything. Dinner cleanup for me happens after kids are in bed, or sometimes the next day after breakfast is most of the cleaning or tasks that need done while toddlers free play or have activity after breakfast that I can step away to safety scrub a toilet. When I was working full time I picked three days a week where I had a block of time and that was when I cleaned and meal prepped and accepted the days I didn’t clean that it would be there tomorrow and it was okay. Killing myself to achieve it all wasn’t realistic for me and it made it easier to find a routine that would work instead of try to adhere to one that didn’t allow me time to sleep or be anything that upset my house was a mess and my kids didn’t brush their teeth two days in a row. Disposable table cloths under high chairs

Still haven’t figured this out - I call my parents round when my husband is working late 😅 probs need to start braving it! More we do it easier it gets hey!

I have 2u2 atm and still finding our feet. My eldest goes to nursery 3x a week, on days shes at home we have prepped freezer meals that I can either slow cook or air fry. Me&partner try to prep some dinner things for days im home alone e.g marinating, cutting meat/veggies. Making meals that are batch cook, tray bakes or super quick (beige food). We do an online shop each week and figure out recipes, lunches, bulk buy nappies and wipes.

I try and do 1 cleaning task a day but even thats a struggle sometimes. Washing up at night time when toddler is in bed. I have accepted that weekends are when most cleaning gets done and it looks a state until then most weeks.

My situation is different as my partner is home by 1830 latest 1900. We take in turns who does toddler bedtime, whoever does then they bathe toddler. I bathe my newborn in the days im alone with her x

Following because I will be in the same situation in few months right now I have my mom help

Does working shifts mean he's not there in the evenings? I guess I have it very lucky. During this season my partner does the dinner, bath & bedtime while I handle baby, cleaning and getting kids up, dressed & fed in the morning. Does working shifts mean an inconsistent schedule?

We have a 2.5 yo and 5 week old now. Tea time we all eat the same meals, eating at around 5/5.30. Cleaning the house I do during the day and I bath my 5 WO in the day at the moment (not sure when I’ll swap to a night to get into a routine). 5 WO is either sleeping during bedtime routine or she just comes along with me for it 🤣 not sure how it will work when they both have a bedtime routine but at the minute 5 WO is flexible x

Bathe one after breakfast and the other after lunch? Or just alternate bath days, I don’t bathe my baby or children every single day. A sit me up seat (find a safe one that is for bathtubs) can be used so you can wash both kids in the same tub more safely. Or just wash one kid, get them out and dressed, and then the next. I definitely don’t get any cleaning done from 4-8pm. It’s dinner, baths/bedtime routine and all hands on deck until they are asleep. The dishes aren’t going anywhere and some nights not everything gets done. If baths are the stress you don’t have to do them in the evening at all. If they help your kiddos fall asleep as part of the routine you will have to move whatever conflicts to another time slot. My schedule looked like 4 pm kids come home from school/daycare, 430 snack time while they are snacking I finish dinner, usually it’s done and just needs put on plates and cooled down. After they eat snack they’re off to play while I get dinner on the table usually at 5.

While the older kids eat I feed the baby. I don’t eat dinner until after they’re in bed or I eat before they get home or while they eat their snack I scarf a plate. I clean up or bathe the baby while the finish eating and often they are down playing and I either bathe them next ~6pm or they get wiped down and then it’s 630 Jammie’s brush teeth and story time is about 645. Bedtime snuggles at 7 and between all the I need another kiss lights out is ~7 and they are asleep by 8. The mess is left until they’re asleep or next day after breakfast if I’m tired. I prefer my evenings alone. When I had “help” he was just in the way and it messed up my groove.

We do hello fresh for dinner, if the baby lets me put him in the Moses basket I have him there with me whilst I make dinner if not I put him in the baby carrier and my toddler watches a film, I give my toddler his dinner then clean the kitchen and join him for my food. Then I run the bath make sure I have all the bits for afterwards ready put my toddler in the bath first then add my baby, wash toddler than baby then get baby out, dried and dressed then toddler. Bedtime we all read stories together in toddlers snug then put toddler to bed. Then tidy up downstairs baby in Moses basket if he’ll go down or in carrier if not. Sometimes a lot of this is interrupted with baby wanting to feed but we just feed when we need to or he just has to wait a little bit. It is a lot especially if toddler and/or baby are not playing ball x

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They don’t have mobile phones, they don’t have a car or drive, they do have a landline phone but it’s quite old and unreliable. For example when we need to contact them we often have to email them and wait until the end of the day when they check their inbox to get a reply, sometimes this takes days.

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