Date: December 27th, 2025 1:18 PM Author: stimulating chapel
It’s really chaotic until everyone is about 8 or so, then it’s not as much screaming, but a lot of we have to go here, there, then over here, then there, etc every day. It’s tough. With work added on top it’s super tough.
Date: December 27th, 2025 3:10 PM Author: Ruddy native pistol
This. I have 5 and we have a 16 month old and him and the three others I have that are “toddler age aka 1-6” all pretty much play in the basement with the 16 month old who now walks around. I obviously listen if I go upstairs for coughs or choking but if someone falls my 3 year old daughter sprints up to tell me. I know what you mean, they can’t drive each other to t ball practice lmao but they can play peacefully in the basement for 20 minutes before one starts screaming that the other hit one of them.
Date: December 27th, 2025 2:38 PM Author: Titillating incel
I have 7 kids (raising 6 of them with my wife) The real trick is you just gotta tire them out. They have a lot of energy and need to be running and playing all day. When they get out of control I take them outside and we hike up the hill behind the house and I make them wear weighted backpacks. They have associated throwing a fit with having to go on a hike so they do it a lot less. Afterward they are too tired to be annoying and they go to bed at 7 pm.
Date: December 27th, 2025 3:02 PM Author: Titillating incel
We are going to try for 3 more kids, there is nothing better than a lively home full of vitality and joy, we just had the best christmas ever. I don't know why anyone would limit themselves to 1 or 2 kids. There are unborn kids looking down at us from heaven hoping to join us on earth IMO
Date: December 27th, 2025 3:03 PM Author: galvanic sex offender old irish cottage
Manage what? Give them a safe environment, read to them, take them outside or send them into the backyard, do some fun and wholesome activities, limit screens, and beyond that, just slide and let do.
Date: December 28th, 2025 3:58 PM Author: Concupiscible hideous gaping
Idk how you people with 3 kids avoid getting fired or have any free time that isn't spent on family stuff. Also, with one kid you can generally bring them along with you everywhere. With 3 it becomes a zoo.
Date: December 27th, 2025 9:43 PM Author: Spectacular turquoise reading party
lots of basement virgins itt saying just do __ retarded shit, but the bottom line is that it's fucking hard.
having money and/or helpful local grandparents makes shit substantially easier, but it's still fucking hard at times. money can purchase hired help (which isnt ideal) and also luxuries that save you time to make life less hectic.
you really have to prioritize and you cant do all you want to do.
Date: December 27th, 2025 10:03 PM Author: Ruddy native pistol
This. My mother died, my dad works to keep busy, my retired in laws bounced to a state 9 hours away (haha gtg!) when we started having kids. So I have no choice but to make my wife a SAHM. It’s very difficult. The difference between 1 and 2 vs 3 and 4 is much harder though.
Date: December 27th, 2025 10:10 PM Author: Spectacular turquoise reading party
we have 3, and 0 to 1 was by far the worst jump for us. a lot of it was circumstantial though:
- neither of us had an experience with babies/kids so we had no idea what the fuck we were doing, and now we do. i'd never held a baby before. wife never babysat and wasnt one of those girls that steals other women's kids. neither of us had siblings with kids to learn from them.
- 1st baby was a pain in the ass. 2nd and 3rd were/are easy babies.
- 1st baby was born in late 2020 in the middle of wuflu who made everything difficult logistically
- we moved from mfh to are country w the 1st kid as a 3 mo old and were living in my in laws' for a couple months trying to find housing, which was miserable
Date: December 29th, 2025 12:28 PM Author: Soggy crotch
seems way easier to deal with 1 baby than multiple preschool age kids who get harassed everywhere they go if their mask falls below their nose and can't even go to a playground. We basically just turned our backyard into coney island.
The switch to zone defense is very hard and you have to learn to let things, like your own expectations and sanity, go. You look for efficiencies by having them do the same things, wear the same things, and go to the same places. And then you have to carve out a bit of space to let them be individuals as they get older and can start to manage their lives more on their own. As noted above, its hard until everyone is seven or so
Date: December 27th, 2025 10:12 PM Author: Spectacular turquoise reading party
beep beep beep, but i dont get this zone defense thing. i feel like it's a stupid cliche that people like to say, but having 3 kids now, i dont even know wtf it means. i'd challenge someone to articulate wtf it actually means in terms of parenting.
if wife stays at home and watches the baby while i take the older 2 kids out to the park, that's not zone defense. that's just dividing up shit as you'd do with 2 kids or 5 kids. zone defense is such a stupid term in this context.
It’s trite, but being outnumbered really is meaningful when they’re very little. I had three within five+ years and the hardest part was having an infant, a toddler, and then thank god the five year old was a pretty chill kid and you could turn your back on him for ten minutes.
And as they got older it meant you didn’t always have drivers to get everyone where they needed to go or they’d have all kinds of conflicting bullshit. School recital on the same day as soccer and orchestra and a Target run to get poster board for some project.
Date: December 27th, 2025 10:27 PM Author: Spectacular turquoise reading party
ok, sure -- outnumbered is the much better expression. zone defense just seems like a retarded inaccurate expression.
we have 3 in under 5 years. same experience as you. the oldest is now 5 and he was a nightmare baby and toddler but turning into a good kid. he's really nice to his baby, and he is now starting to get more independent and he and the 3yo play really well together and busy each other often.
Date: December 28th, 2025 12:17 PM Author: Spectacular turquoise reading party
we're very blessed/lucky w the help we get and that we wfh and have extra time with them, but we both feel like we're totally neglecting our kids -- because we've got 3 and the baby takes a lot of time for wife to nurse (we each grew up w 2) and we're just spread so thin. we're not doing any striver ECs for the 5yo like most UMC strivers seem to be doing. i wonder if it matters or all this is flame
I was in the same place a decade ago. It's all flame, you're fine. Though do try to get then into something active as they're a bit older. For us it was mountain biking and paddling, which we all do as a family. One wandered over into climbing for his outdoor sport, one added fishing as an interest to all the paddling, and the youngest is getting into racing his bike. The important thing is we can mostly hang out outdoors together and take trips where you can keep everybodys interests in mind
Date: December 28th, 2025 8:27 AM Author: Useless affirmative action
I have 14 kids (ages newborn - 18) and what the wife and I’ve found best is to get them into a cycle of work as early on as possible. If you live on a plantation like we do, there’s obviously a lot to do outside most of the time. But even if you’re in a colder climate and forced to be inside a house more often, between laundry, the boilers, cooking, washing, slaughtering, darning and so forth there’s always work to be done. Put them to it in teams so they can develop good relationships with their siblings and it fosters expertise from an early age.
Date: December 28th, 2025 2:22 PM Author: drunken base
They're way cheaper and easier to entertain before puberty. Give up on your house being perfect. Even with a sahm that became a challenge after 3 kids. You have to start prioritizing. I hated car seats and potty training but overall much easier.
With teens and preteens it's so much driving. Somebody always has a practice or a birthday party. My wife sends a daily text of our schedule and it's ridiculous. I only get to sleep in without obligation a few times a year. Oh they get expensive as fuck too.
Date: December 29th, 2025 12:38 PM Author: Vibrant Gaming Laptop
at what point did society decide every teenager must be personally shuttled to their every event? this is truly confounding to me as a nokidmo. when I was a pre-16 teenager I got rides way more often than my parents driving me anywhere
Date: July 7th, 2026 9:21 PM Author: arousing heaven
i wish i would have known about the second paragraph before having kids. i wouldnt have had them or moved to a country where its not like that or something
Date: July 7th, 2026 9:51 PM Author: razzle-dazzle psychic
It really tests your patience and endurance
I used to remind myself I'm making myself stronger and I'm trying to not make tye same mistakes my parents did
Holy so many times I dreamt of just driving off into the sunset
But honestly it's all amazing looking back. In the moment it's pure hell. Imo just be more present and include them in everything you do. I have 5 kids passing tools to me one by one at one point. Now the oldest can fix his own dirt bike by himself. It's fucking amazing.
Also you gotta just really take time and reflect. This is an investment in your future and lineage and literally no one else in the world will ever care about you as much as they do. Also 99% chance at some point judaic culture will turn them against you but you can prevail from that stage.