How did you get through each day? Did you have a schedule? A special room to play in? A mother's helper?

We live in a big house & it's hard to contain the kids to one small area. The twins are constantly climbing on counters (they can scale the cabinets), dumping out food (there's a lock on the fridge but I can't figure out how to keep them out of the pantry), taking off their diapers and then peeing on the floor, etc. I have trouble keeping up with them, and if the baby needs a diaper change or to be fed, the twins have free range. I can live in a messy house but my house is being destroyed and my sanity is wearing thin.

How did you other moms get through the twos and threes?

Oh, I'm so sorry, mama. I have no advice, but I heard your frustration, and hope you can find a solution.

Hugs,

My trio is now 5 and we still have totlocks on all the kitchen cabinets. I love totlocks. Can you put a lock on the pantry door? Even just a chain up high? When they were younger (from 4 months until they were 4) I did have a mothers helper for about 15 hours a week. We used her for one day so that I could get laundry and stuff done and then one evening a week she fed the kids dinner and we went out for a quick dinner. It really helped me stay sane to have someone fill up my tea. We also only had one room to play in when they were little. I locked all the other doors so their mess was contained.

Now they are in preschool 5 mornings a week, I teach 3 mornings a week and on the other two mornings I clean up everything they mess up.

:hug: I know how hard it is. I hope today is a better day.

Lys

I used the kind of baby gates that bolt into the wall instead of pressure mount, I put locks on everything, I had to completely ride the entire house of absolutely everything that writes that wasn't washable. Sharpies, magic markers, crayons, paint--threw them all out and replaced them with crayola washable because it seemed like in the time it took me to go pee they could find a marker and draw a mural.

I took taking off their diaper as a readiness sign. So I spent a week of my life living in the bathroom and by the end one was perfectly potty trained and the other changed his mind and decided to keep his diaper on (LOL, he's a stubborn kid). So one trained at age 2 and a quarter and the other at 3 3/4.

This too shall pass.

(hugs)

i can only imagine have two jacksons and a baby around....whew.

Hi my twins are 4 now, just had a b-day 23rd of Jan. I feel your pain it's rough, some days I sitdown afetr they are finally in bed and think OMG... did I really survive the day and do I really have to do it again???? There was a time when I had every door way gated every cabinet locked and every valuable at least 4 feet up. I am not gonna say it gets worse but well.... it changes the bad gets better and then it changes to something else. l am at the point to where i am ready for them to start school, but then they are my babies and it's going to kill me. All I can say is hang in there.

I'm closely watching this thread ! My 18 month old b/g twins are climbing up the coffee table to get to the TV ! Just last Thursday, as a result of big brother not closing both the washroom door and the toilet bowl lid, my dd stepped onto the Rubbermaid stool and sat right INTO the toilet bowl. :lol:
She sat there for a few seconds and waited for me to rescue her ! After I picked her up and planted her into the bath tub to take a bath, I was thinking I should have a camera with me !:lol:
My colleague later told me she could have drowned !:drop: I never thought of that !:wah:

Oh I have a tip to share, or maybe it was jusy one of those I'm going insane moments, but when the twins were about 18 months they would dig in my kitchen cabinets, over and over no matter how many times i tried to stop them, In desperation one day I coudl not get out to get cabinet locks nor did i have the inclination to screw in the 4 4 screws required to install each one, i used cup hooks. YES i took them from under my cabinet and screwed them at the top edge of each cabinet door into the cabinet itself,just enough so tI could turn them so that the hook caught the edge and held it closed, all i had to do to open them was turn it a little. The boys never figured it out for at least a month or two...it was heaven.

Brilliant, thank you!

Well, I may be anal and a terrible mother but my twins are confined to one room throughout the day. They basically have free reign in the Livingroom. There toys are all in there and there really isn't anything in there that they can't mess with. Right now our biggest problem is them running and climbing on the couches and falling off. Because of our house lay out too we had to get a large gate for one dorway and the other doorway we have a loveseat sitting there so they can't get to the dining room. They aren't allowed to run un-supervised in any other part of the house. When they are in my kitchen they are in the high chairs. I don't have locks or anything on things (though I plan on installing them just in case).

Now their nurserry is another place thet is baby proofed (at least mostly) and that they can run around in but they are really only there for nap time and bed time.

I admit there are days when I want to run screaming from the houseYesterday was one of them. But then there are days that really make up for it.

I would love to have a mamma's helper but we can't afford it. I did have a girl who was coming in a couple hours once a week to give me time to do paperwork or what not but that didn't last long.

Good luck.

Our kitchen/dining room/family room/front room are all open with no doorways to close off. I am thinking of keeping everyone in the downstairs TV room during the day because I can gate that off but that's 6-7 people in one room all day & I might go nuts.

Upstairs I can keep the baby safe from the twins but there is a lot more to climb on or get into.

I could probably potty train one of them but I'm overwhelmed by the idea & the baby pretty much needs to be held all of the time. This too shall pass is my mantra most days. ;)

Adria...with the baby wanting to be held all the time, have you considered a sling? DS wouldn't let me put him down even for a minute as a baby. I have problems with an arm too so holding him and doing anything was impossible. So my friend lent me a sling and it was a godsend. I was able to carry him around and still take care of DD and the house. He even enjoyed it especially when I turned him facing out.

Some tips I thought of as I was reading your post. As far as pulling off the diapers, if I put pants or shorts on over the diapers my tots seem to not pull them off.

I have to keep everything high up (the stuff I know they are after) like pens, crayons, cereal, cookies. I had to reaarange my cupboards.

Toby is constantly dragging chairs around the kitchen to get into stuff. I give him a firm no and redirect him to another area.

Be careful, my three year old literally broke his arm from climbing on the countertop, standing up fully, then falling to the floor.

We have no gates but have knob guards so they can't get into other rooms, but my kitchen and livingroom is all open.

It gets crazy, it's exhausting. I have no help and my mom is 2000 miles away. I will homeschool my other oldest three this fall. Pray for me. :drop:

Tip: I joined a gym with a nursery and that gives me an hour and a half to let them play and I let out some stress through exercise. love it! What a gift to myself.

Hi BEthany! I don't think I've seen you before - we have the same problem with twins pushing chairs around the kitchen to get to things.

Just tonight tehila stood on top of her highchair tray and tipped over the highchair - she fell ....twice. However, anticipating this, I lowered their highchairs to the ground - so they aren't much higher than a preschool chair.
I have no idea how to keep them in the highchairs - they wriggle out of the buckles.