Parents with 3+ kids and 2 full-time jobs, how do you do it?

[Anonymous]

If you have 3 or more kids, and both you and your spouse have full-time jobs, how do you juggle everything? I'm barely managing working from home with 2 young kids. DH wants another kid, but we can't agree.

[Anonymous]

The happy two earner 4 kid families I know all live close to everything.

[Anonymous]

Grandparents help us. And were financially stable to afford outside help.

[Anonymous]

How close in age are the kids? To me that is a huge factor both in expense and the dynamics at home.

[Anonymous]

Daycare and during the school years, aftercare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grandparents help us. And were financially stable to afford outside help.

Every family I know that had three under age 5 had a lot of grandparent help in addition to preschool/nanny.

[Anonymous]

We have three and we both work full-time. Dad has always worked remotely. I only go into the office once a week. We don't have outside help. Working remotely definitely gives us more time to get stuff done. But both parents need to pull their weight dividing up both child care duties and cooking and cleaning duties. If DH wants another kid and he thinks he can manage with another kid but you can't, he is not currently pulling his weight right now. That is, you are likely doing the brunt of child and household responsibilities.

[Anonymous]

Grandparents and jobs that, while full-time, are flexible.

I'm going to be leaving early this afternoon, then work from home from 10PM - 1AM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have three and we both work full-time. Dad has always worked remotely. I only go into the office once a week. We don't have outside help. Working remotely definitely gives us more time to get stuff done. But both parents need to pull their weight dividing up both child care duties and cooking and cleaning duties. If DH wants another kid and he thinks he can manage with another kid but you can't, he is not currently pulling his weight right now. That is, you are likely doing the brunt of child and household responsibilities.

How old are your kids? Old enough for school?

[Anonymous]

I work 7-3:30. My H works 9-5. He does morning routine. I do afternoon routine.

We have cleaners every other week.

I cook M-W, Th leftovers, F/Sat order in, H cooks Sunday. H does dishes.

I do math and science homework, he does english and history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work 7-3:30. My H works 9-5. He does morning routine. I do afternoon routine.

We have cleaners every other week.

I cook M-W, Th leftovers, F/Sat order in, H cooks Sunday. H does dishes.

I do math and science homework, he does english and history.

Oh yea, we had an aupair until the youngest was 5 and in school full time. they all started 1/2 day preschool at 3.

[Anonymous]

In our case grandparents AND au pair AND preschool AND cleaning service AND laundry service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grandparents help us. And were financially stable to afford outside help.

Every family I know that had three under age 5 had a lot of grandparent help in addition to preschool/nanny.

Not us. Our oldest was 4.5 when the third was born, middle was 2.5. Very little grandparent help, though we do have local family who actively make our lives more difficult.

What does it for us is that we both have flexible jobs that are usually 40 hours/week, sometimes 45. If “full-time” means 60 inflexible hours (or even flexible ones, honestly), that’s a different story.

[Anonymous]

^^also, no nanny, only ever used daycare and then aftercare once they got to elementary.

[Anonymous]

I switched to part-time because it was the only way I could get it all done and stay sane (no family nearby).