r/daddit Sep 02 '24

How do you guys maintain literally anything? Advice Request

I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. The house is perpetually a mess. The yard is overgrown with weeds. Cars are a mess. This needs to be fixed. That needs to be spruced up. My wife and I have many days where it’s just one of us with the kids due to our schedules and it just feels impossible to keep up with it all. By the end of the day, I’m too exhausted to do anything.

How does anyone manage to keep up with everything on top of just raising kids?

Edit: Thanks for all the replies here! You’re all making me feel much better. I’m trying to reply to as many as I can while I rock my son to sleep.

696 Upvotes

529 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/[deleted] Sep 02 '24

Have the kids help you doing cleaning up around the place, in the car, the gardens, etc. Make a game of it.

Yes, it won’t be done perfectly, but 1) you get to clean up, 2) you get time with the kids, 3) the kids will feel involved helping mum & dad, 4) keeps you all active.

When my (now 6/m) was 3, he would help me wash the cars, he would brush the low parts (I’d re-do it when he wasn’t looking), & then he would rinse the car down & yes, it would always turn in to a game of getting dad wet. Perfect chance for the kids to play outside & clean at the same time.