Hubby and Housework

When you’re pregnant with your first baby, the one thing no-one tells you is how much of your time will be taken up looking after this tiny human being you lovingly bought in to the world.

How you will cope with the housework once baby is born is absolutely the last thing on your mind when you have more important events like scans, shopping trips, a hospital bag to pack and antenatal classes to attend.  If you have supportive family, you will find that once your little one arrives, you will have plenty of help around the house and newborn babies don’t produce much mess.  These first few months pass in a blur and it isn’t long before it’s just you and hubby and tiny baby quickly develops into crawling babe then even better, marauding toddler!

This is when keeping on top of any sort of cleaning and tidying can get really difficult.  The amount of mess toddlers produce can be likened to the amount of weight ants can carry in relation to their body weight.  MASSIVE!

Just when you think you’ve got it cracked and tidied one room, you realise half the contents of said room have already been carried and dumped in the next room by your little darling.  If you have more than one child under 3, then good luck getting any cleaning done before bedtime, and then who wants to start cleaning the loo when it gets dark?  Surely if you’ve survived the last 12 hours with two toddlers you should be rewarding yourself with some tv, a relaxing read, a bath and copious amounts of tea/wine/gin (delete as applicable) and cake.

The first piece of advice I would give to new parents is to drastically lower your expectations when it comes to cleanliness.  There is no way you can adequately look after and interact with your child during the day AND keep a spotless house.

You can tidy as you go along but even that can be an unreachable goal.  When baby needs feeding or changing, you can’t ask them to wait until you’ve finished the dishes and mopped the floor, they need your attention immediately.

You will soon get used to only doing half a job.

The first instance you get ‘free’ time in the day, you prioritise feeding yourself, showering or more likely a quick wash in the sink, an important phone call to the doctor/dentist/tax office. Or just simply nipping to the loo.  Yes, once you have babies, you have to pencil loo trips in to your diary!

The most important person when it comes to helping out around the house is your partner.  They can make or break your mood and chipping in with the chores can surely only result in a happier marriage…

I was asked by Wriggly Rascals, an online parenting community, to write a guest post in response to a survey they are running asking ‘How Do I Get My Husband To Do More Housework’.

Mum of two (6mths and 3 yr old), Maeve has written in as her husband has always been extremely reluctant to give her help around the house.  Now Maeve is up in the night with the youngest and looks after the children all day she is finding it increasingly hard to keep on top of things.

It’s about time her hubby pulled his finger out!

You can read my Hubby and Housework article on the Wriggly Rascals Blog from today and I would love to hear your comments on my top tips.

How do you encourage your partner to help out or are you too at your wit’s end?