The majority of my mom friends only have one or two children. So whenever we get together and\/or have a chance to talk, it\u2019s inevitable that they remark about how much more<\/strong> I have to handle and deal with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And it\u2019s true. Having 5 children certainly does<\/em> make for more chaos! I just brush these comments off though because little do they know<\/em> that I have a handful of secrets to manage the stress. Most moms with less than 2 or 3 children will not understand these methods, and that\u2019s OK. Moms of 4 (or more) will totally<\/strong> get this. There are numerous issues I encounter while trying to get through my day. These issues include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following are 4 of my secrets for getting through the day without beginning to drink at 8:45 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secret #1: Your 2-year-old is more capable than you think<\/strong>. Also, cleanliness is next to godliness, so have them wash their hands repeatedly. This is a double bonus, because they will have relatively clean hands (for a couple of minutes) and they find this exercise enjoyable:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secret #2: 2-year-olds are excellent at doing laundry<\/strong>. Secret #3: Your 1-year-old is more capable than you think<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, Halsey does an excellent job of (re)formatting his father\u2019s Kindle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, they say a 1-year-old\u2019s mouth is cleaner than a dog\u2019s, so let him disinfect those germ-ridden game controllers: When your 1-year-old does his chores appropriately, a suitable reward is letting him play with plastic bags: However, when your 1-year-old tries to run from helping fold laundry\u2026 Suitable punishments include making him smash his own fingers in the kitchen hand towel drawer: Locking him in a dark bathroom: Making him watch TV from outside of the family room gate: One item of importance is making sure your 2-year-old doesn\u2019t get lazy. You\u2019ve got to make her sharpen her incredible gymnastic skills: Also, you can\u2019t let your toddler get too comfortable. A good way to keep them in line is making them nap without their favourite blanket. Note the look of glee on my 2-year-old\u2019s face. She clearly<\/strong> enjoys my creative methods for compliance: Secret #4: Your cat can actually be helpful<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is Lieutenant Clawhugs reporting for duty: He helps by using his entire furry body to dust off the kitchen table: Cats are also excellent<\/strong> inspectors: In fact, cats are very thorough<\/em> inspectors: Once your cat is done inspecting your toddler\u2019s work, he\u2019ll likely want to take a break by laying on a clean<\/strong><\/em>kitchen towel. (This is because cats are notoriously lazy.): At least he makes up for his laziness by voicing his complaints. (Cats hate<\/strong> the paparazzi.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll be bringing back some of my previous posts from an earlier iteration of this site. Here\u2019s one that was originally published on December 3, 2013. The majority of my mom friends only have one or two children. So whenever we get together and\/or have a chance to talk, it\u2019s inevitable that they remark about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting","category-raising-irish-twins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Put their incessant energy to good use by making them perform the household chores that you hate. For example, let your toddler wash their own bottles. In addition, have them finish up the leftover dishes from the previous night\u2019s dinner:![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/cora_wash_bottles.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/cora_wash_hands.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here you can see Coraline cleaning out the lint filter. Another double bonus, because the lint problem gets taken care of and thoroughly punishes the toddler who has just spent 20 minutes washing her hands:![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/cora_clean_lint_filter.jpg\")
![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/cora_lint_punishment.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/halsey_format_kindle.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/halsey_disinfect_game_controller.jpg\")
![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/halsey_disinfect.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/halsey_plastic_bag_fun.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/halsey_run_from_laundry.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/halsey_smash_fingers.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/halsey_dark_bathroom.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/halsey_punishment.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/sharpen_skills.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/no_blanket.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/cat_report_for_duty.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/cat_dust.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/cat_inspection.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/cat_thorough_inspects.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20140714100939im_\/http:\/\/www.jewlee.com\/day_in_the_life\/cat_lazy.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jewlee.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/image.png\")
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