Advice needed from working mums

[Ohgosh!]

Tips for working mums.........as my dear mother once said :don't sweat the small stuff, and remember it won't always be this hectic...in a few years the kids will be all grown up and there will be an empty nest. The time will pass so quickly.

[Looking for help]

That is my philosophy too Ohgosh! I work 4 days a week, and spend Friday trying to rectify the damage of the previous 6 days. For an hour or two on the Friday evening, there is food in the fridge, and a relatively ordered and clean house. Then everyone else comes back and the place is a shambles within about 15 seconds.

The only room in the house that is always tidy is my oldest's and that's because he is away at university. It is just great when he comes back and it is a mess again

[rachag]

Scarlett - this is exactly what I try to do - even OH has gone through bin! Unfortunately, DD has cottoned on. Youngest once asked 'why do you always push sets of beads under the sofa with your foot?' That made me feel dreadful but I was not going to either tread on or hoover up those sets of 5000 beads that 4 year olds get given!
Scarlett - yes, we are lucky to have them. The friends with clean beige carpet in their cars are childless (or OH's who never have children in car. Mine is a health hazard but doubles as study, dining room, changing room etc).

[doodles]

I have a plaque in my kitchen which says "We can't both look good, it's either me or the house!"

I rest my case.

[scarlett]

Oooooh Doodles I like it !!!!!!

Rachag...I once threw my husbands passport away and a lucky mascot that he took to the Gulf war with him....he was fuming but luckily retrevied it from the binbag ....so now I have to stand on parade whilst he checks ( but I still throw everything away the next day anyway)The best time I find is an hour before the binmen arrive and then all evidence is disposed of before everyone arrives home......then when your dh asks you what you have been up to, you just nonchantly reply, " Oh nothing much " To which he replies " On that 11 plus forum, I suppose " and you're thinking " Yes !! getting ideas !!!!! "

[Lookinglass]

I like the sound of Down with Superwoman whos the author?

and to put another angle into the discussions, what are your oh like? Do they help at home or do they think that being the primary earner should suffice...oh I just love.....that argument oh one way to make me see red when he swaggers in from work and reminds me that his job is sooooo more important than mine because I only work part time......does this only happen in my household? and if not what tips do you have for coping without taking it to the playground tit for tat......

[KS10]

My m-i-l showed me an article a long time ago (or was it a cartoon?) about a woman whose OH did not appreciate all that she did. One day, the husband came home from work to find the place a complete and utter tip. He hurriedly sought his wife, worried that she was ill or that something dreadful had happened. He found her lying on the bed, relaxed, glass of wine in hand (may have added that bit myself) and reading a magazine.
"What's going on?" he demanded.
"Well, you're always asking me what I've done all day and today I decided not to do it."

[doodles]

Conversation with my mother last week, she asked why I was always chasing my tail and tired all the time

My response was that when she was 46 I was 23! At that age I have an 8yo and a 12yo both boys - is it wonder the house is always a mess and I am permanently exhausted

[marigold]

doodles my mother is exactly like yours. By the time she was my age her three children had long left home, she had taken early retirement from teaching and my father was still working so she had 20 years of peace before he was permanently under her feet messing up the sitting room. She filled her time with Open University degrees and good works while sitting in the middle of a pristine home.

She also dresses exclusively in County Casuals so has much to sneer about when it come to me and my standards having NO IDEA about what life is like for a nearly 50 year old with three teenage children who occasionally pops into Top Shop and who has only the energy to read books with pink covers. " Darling isn't that skirt a little short and would you like to borrow my French copy of Bleak House, I so enjoyed it ? "

I only work during the exam season and have therefore bred a household of monsters who are waited on hand and foot. It is so much easier to do things myself rather than argue for hours about picking up towels, dirty mugs under beds etc. My only fear is that I tend to walk around the house with a constantly aggrieved air and may fast be becoming a grumpy old woman.

[scarlett]

Lookingglass......you could start a whole new thread about annoying husbands......my husband informed me a while back that I wasn't up to scratch when it came to ironing his shirts......he was in the army for years, so is a bit particular......so now I don't bother and thats a few more items to bundle in the bottom of his wardrobe.....once I ironed all the collars for him and told him to wear a jumper over the top, which resulted in him staring at me in a bemused fashion for a few minutes, but as I tell him my talents can't extend to everything you know !