How mothers take care of two or more kids by themselves?

My mom always told me that she would put one on one hip and the other one on the other hip and go do what ever she need to do. I'm soon going to be dealing with two kids myself. a 1 year old and then of course a newborn most of the day by myself till my husband get's home. I get two weeks of help from my mom after my son is born and then I might have two more weeks and having my husbands grandmother help out. Me I like a challenge and I have lots of other stay at home mom friends. All though not all of us live in the same state but we share tips on how to do things. Many of the tips are you just got to take it slow and be creative at times and depending on there personalities some times taking care of them can be easy or a hard. I really can't wait till my second baby is born and for months I've been telling my daughter she is a big sister. She really doesn't get that we are having another baby but she is so cute when she plays with her little dolls and she'll point to other babies and say JD which is her little brothers name.

First, congradulations on the new arrival. I know what you are going through as I have an energetic five year old girl and a very curious eleven month old boy. The initial stages were very difficult for me. But I had my parents as well as my mother in law to help me out. Only after a good three months did all of them start leaving me to take care of both of them by myself. Taking care of two small kids is difficult work. But you will get the hang of it. Moreover, each child is different and so caring for them becomes a challenge sometimes. I always have the little one on my hip when I care for my daughter. Even when I am giving her a bath, it is bath time(or play time) for the younger one as well. Moat of the time I try to do things together for both of them. Saves time as well as the problem of leaving one to take care of the other. Otherwise, it is easy for me when my daughter goes to school. The real tough time is when I sit down to help my daughter with her school work. I know I have not been of much help, but doing things together saves a lot of time and effort. That is the only point I could think of sharing with you.

Hello kaka. Congratulations on you baby girl. She must be about five weeks old by now. you are so lucky to have help from your mum and husband. When I had my second son the only help I had was my grandmother took care of my older son while I was in the hospital with son number two. Back then I never though about how am I going to take care of two little boys. The older son was 21 months old when son number two came along. exactly 12 months later I had daughter number one and 21 month later along comes blessing number four, another little girl. So I had four kids in five years.for a washing machine I had an old time wringer and had to hang my diapers baby clothes and the rest of the laundry out side on a clothes line. When son number two game along I had a baby chair for him to sit in. It looked like a car seat but much simpler and lighter.He was so big when he was first born that his little feet hung way over the end. These baby seat s would set in such a way that the baby was sort of reclining. With this seat I could feed t he baby, let him sit and watch me do dishes or other chores. He could fall asleep too. son number one could sit at the table and color or play with what ever toy self his interest at the time. I had the older children help with the new baby by having them bring me what ever was needed by the baby. They always had their toys on the floor around my feet. It was interesting. I only had one that climbed the cupboards and she also liked to play in the toilet. I don't really know how I did it but I did with out much help from heir daddy. I just knew it had to be done so I did it with out thinking about it.I just adjusted as the need arose. Now when I see a mother with babies like that I feel rather sorry for them. I don't think we worried like mothers do today about the babies. I'll bet your son is old enough that if you explain to him that bouncing on the bed with his baby sister on it he could hurt her real bad. Babies aren't as fragile as we think they are either. When I was 18 I worked in the nursery. The first time I had to give a baby a bath I was being real careful because I didn't want to damage him when an older more experience nurse aid came in and she just showed me that I could wash him with out hurting him. To me at the time it seemed real rough but as time went on and I bathed more babies I learned they are tougher than we think. One day while visiting my husband's grandmother I had put my month old baby on her bed. The little bugger had scooted hie way over to the side of the bed and fell between the bed and the wall. He screamed bloody murder but he was more scared than hurt. Gifts and things had a good idea about the baby carrier. The Indians, Native Americans and early Asian people used them too.

I think some of these skills are learned but some of them come naturally kaka. We do what we have to do and sometimes we don't even realize we can until we are put in the position. You can do anything you set your mind too. Alot of love for your kids and caring about what you do are a strengthening combination. Sometimes certain ages are more challenging than others and I also believe that if you have good help..that's all the better. Take care!

Hello my friend kaka135 Ji, Firstly whole heartedly congretulations. You know about me, I gad three children with-in span (22-Feb-72, 04-Jul-73 & 31-Oct-75). It was rather easy for me to bring them up. Our side , in afact single baby is take not that good as at least two. You son has a company, when you can do , also afterr both go to school, son will be taeching his little sister. There is nothing alarming. There is nothing to worry. All those who ask such question, you just do not worry.I think both of you have done good planning. OI remmeber, how mich you worried and you used to write about your first time becoming mother, But She appeared suddenly. You may call from my angel anything Goddess Laxmi/Saraswati/Parvati. May God bless You and have a great time

I am a man. But I can still give you an advice or two. Since your baby girl was just born two weeks ago you need someone to help take of you. Being a Chinese myself we believe or practice the custom of employing some experienced woman or the mother or mother-in-law chip in to help during this one month period until it is over which we call 'full-moon.' Your mum may help in brewing some nutritious and nourishing herbs in 'strengthening' your body.No household chores for you for one month. Just sit and enjoy nursing you newborn baby girl. Congratulations to you in welcoming your newborn girl. God bless you.

My two sons are 364 days apart so I was quite busy! You are fortunate that your son is 3 because he's old enough to learn how to wait and have patience while you are busy with your daughter. This is a good lesson for him to learn and will serve him well in life. I involved my eldest in caring for the youngest, too, but never put a burden of responsibility on him as he was much too young. He liked to bring me diapers and other small things to help. Your daughter will be taking long naps and that's when you can be with your son and pay attention to him exclusively. I managed by getting things done while the children were napping. When they were playing I would bring my work into the room where they were such as mending clothes, writing letters (no computers back then!) or folding clean laundry. I got a lot done that way. I loved getting on the floor and playing with them, too. I'm sure you'll enjoy both your children. It's amazing the way they interact even when the youngest is only a few weeks old.

Congratulations to you !! Being a mom is really the hardest job. I have a daughter and a son too. My daughter is twelve years older than my son so the age differences was really big. The tendency is i haven`t encountered this type of difficulty. My sister though has a five children and the first three has a year age difference. Like what you said. its not that easy, but as you go along, you are getting used to it. What you are doing now is alright. You know the effect if you left your two children alone and you know how your son may react if he wants you to do something when you are still doing something for your daughter. But you know, helping your son to be mature slowly will help you also like tell him that he is a big boy and he can do something and you will check on him after or something like that. I hope you can go along happily !! Good luck !!

I think it takes teaching the kids to be self entertaining and not always wanting mom. There is a lady in the news(has been on Dr.Drew several times) who has eight kids and done most of it on her own now that they are alittle bigger. I think if the older kids help out then it helps alot. I am sure there are times when your little girl is sleeping and your son is busy with some project. That gives you time to do what you need to do. Spending your time wisely is so important. I try to get every thing else done early on so that by their bedtime I can do my own thing. Its been awhile but I was able to do it.

I have got 2 little girls 14 months apart. I haven't really thought about all the hard work that goes into it. Get a routine as soon as possible, never get them up together. Get one up and sort breakfast and then get the other and sort breakfast. After breakfast let them have playtime this mean you can get on with the dishes and any chores that need to be done. After playtime get them dressed, put on a load of washing while thats washing play with the children. Then should be nearly lunchtime so sort some lunch (I tend to prepare lunch in the evening before) feed the children lunch. Give them a story and a nap if they need it. If they dont nap (I know the newborn will) but the older one may not, then let your 3 year old play while you do some work. Then dinner time, prepare food, feed the children, after dinner let them play while you do dishes and any other chores, then play with them. After around 1 hour bath time, then dry, dress and clean teeth. Then give them supper, and calm down time, read a story, sing lullabyes anyhting to get them chilled for bed. Put them to bed around 7-8pm and you havr your evening to do any work, prepare for the next day have some 'you' time. Enjoy it though, thats the most important thing. My routine has changed a little now my oldest is at preschool but runs on a similar structure, playtime could be anything, in the house, at the park, a soft play area. Anywhere you feel comfortable with your children. Hope this helps!!

Though I do believe that the adjustment from having just one child to having two children is a little bit of a difficult adjustment, it is an adjustment that you will be able to make and you will be surprised on the first day that you are able to get both kids dressed and out of the house in a timely manner. I tried to spend as much extra time with my daughter when my son was asleep and I did try to do special things with the children. I was also able to start doing my online work as I learned it once Paul started to get into more of a routine. Until the baby is in a routine, it is difficult to do anything for yourself.

As they say, we all somehow manage. It's different for everyone. I am a stay at home to 2 kids . . . my daughter is now 7 and my son is 2. They are almost 5 years apart - and that gap has worked out well for us. In my case, I never had to take care of 2 "babies" at the same time. When it was just my daughter, we had a lot of "alone" time together - I could focus solely on her - we had many adventures! I was strict with her sleeping schedule, and she was a great sleeper anyway . . . she could nap as long as she needed. She had all the advantages of being the first born - hee hee. As she got older and we were thinking of having another one, I realized I had to make the 2nd one more flexible . . . at the time I couldn't understand how I would handle two. When my son was born, my daughter was in mommy and me classes - so my sister took my place for a couple months. We didn't want the baby to be exposed to "public" for a couple months. But then I had to come to terms that I had to expose him earlier than we did with my oldest . . . so eventually he came to class with us. He napped through most of class anyway in his stroller, so it worked out that way in our routine. My daughter also had other classes elsewhere . . . so we ended up having full mornings - with the stroller being the best contraption in the world - ha ha!! Poor guy was dragged everywhere, but he did end up being flexible, especially with nap schedules - and that's what we hoped for. He was now apart of our adventures! I think I had it easier in that my daughter was more independent by the time my son was born, so that helped a lot. Sure my daughter was still young, but I didn't have to worry much about her because she could already do many things on her own. But even then, I still had to supervise them together - she didn't know her own strength sometimes - so I had to make sure the little one didn't get hurt accidentally! Then when my daughter started kindergarten (full time), that's when I got to have alone time with him - from morning til early afternoon we had our own adventures. He started taking classes too. And his nap schedule would fit within that time too - so it worked out really well. My chore time (for both kids) has always been during the nap times. After school it's together time for all of us. Fast forward my daughter is now in 2nd grade and my son is a rascally 2 year old - ha ha - but it's still very much like that. These days as it is summer, I have both kids with me all day . . . but it's nice they can occupy each other (so I can do more chores or be on myLot - ha ha). Congratulations on your baby girl!! Was wondering where you were as I haven't seen your name pop up on myLot in a while. Enjoy this precious time . . . they grow up fast!!

Hi Kaka, I think it would be very hard for a mother to take care of two or more kids. Nowadays, my mother-in-law helps me take care of my son, and I will handle it while I am on holiday. I still feel tired to take care of one kid for one day in a week. My son is only one and a half year old, and he doesn't know how to talk. It is very hot here and he doesn't want to stay at home. I tried my utmost effort to keep his attracting at home. I envy those mothers who can stay at home as the full time mother, but on the other hand, I am scared to do that. I could not even handle one kid, I would be crazy if I need to take care of two kids and then do all the household.

Congratulations for the new baby. You have another wonderful blessing from God. Yeah your right it's tough job to be a mom and a stay at home mom. I am a working mom to a 2-year old boy. At this age he wants all attention only for him so it's tough to balance everything. I admire, stay at home mom like you and now that you have two kids to take care of then it's even more challenging at this time. Since you just gave birth, you really need help and your lucky to have a supportive family.