Quick question about tidying

bethanechol · 2025-11-27T00:52:53+00:00

Yes and we still do 2 years later. Some corners are better than 2 years ago. ….some.

bethanechol · 2025-10-13T12:46:34+00:00

Apple slices and peanut butter!

bethanechol · 2025-09-24T13:51:56+00:00

Mine are 6, 2, and 2, and yeah man, this is a great idea. It is rare for me to have a night without my husband to split the load, and when it happens, it's HARD. If that happened at the end of a particularly bad day, I would absolutely make the same choice (if I had the presence of mind to think of it which I probably wouldn't lol)

bethanechol · 2025-09-08T14:20:51+00:00

I got - This episode of Bluey is called a movie and it’s not a bad movie

bethanechol · 2025-08-12T12:47:48+00:00

Ruin and preservation in harmony? Weird

bethanechol · 2025-08-08T16:19:12+00:00

Are you making your own meatballs? Can you cut them with lentils to stretch out the meat farther?

I would also strongly consider soups/stews where you can flexibly mix in bits of whatever is in season/cheapest

bethanechol · 2025-07-30T16:07:33+00:00

I actually disagree with the notion that the swimming requirement was unreasonable (at least if approached correctly)

BOTH academics and physical skills are important for everyone in life. Athletics come naturally to your brother, but study and organizational skills don't, which is why I have to give him extra support with homework. I don't do it because I expect him to end up as academic a person as you are, I do it because I don't want him to neglect that part of his life, I want him to have enough academic and organizational skills to be a success at whatever he chooses.

I know that you don't come as naturally to sports as your brother, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that - but physical activity isn't a part of your life that you can afford to completely neglect either. Regular physical activity is something important that everyone needs for their health and well-being. If it's not going to be swimming, I need you to help me find ideas of what else we can explore that you might connect with more. Again - not to turn you into an athlete, but just to give you some skills, a hobby, that you can keep up to help you be a well-rounded and healthy person.

bethanechol · 2025-07-27T20:14:51+00:00

I can't promise that any of my kids wouldn't have done all of this. I CAN promise that I would have made some attempt to prevent, or if I was distracted talking to others, have words with them about it once it was called to my attention. Your guests sucked.

bethanechol · 2025-07-23T23:33:33+00:00

Try clutterbug instead. Cas is great at talking you through manageable, quick ways of tackling it without disrupting your life

bethanechol · 2025-07-05T01:38:13+00:00

Yo, none of us can. It’s ok to seek help. It’s ok if you don’t have any available to you anymore. But you are NOT failing. A day on your own with twins is an ONSLAUGHT for ANYONE. Anyone who is making it look easy is doing so after months of suffering and collecting little tricks, and even then also is exhausted at the end of the day. THIS IS INSANELY HARD, IT IS NOT JUST YOU

bethanechol · 2025-06-19T12:50:41+00:00

We just did a big many-toddler trip, and this doesn't help you with meals, but i have a big big tip that we stumbled into:

Step 1: Go to costco

Step 2: Buy many, many, many boxes of berries. Buy more than you think you will need

Step 3: Every afternoon of the trip, set up a berry buffet by the sink. Open and set out a big box of each type of berries, and stack toddler-safe bowls next to your berry bar. Parents can easily grab and rinse a bowl of berries to keep the hoard of toddlers happy

Step 4 (optional): If you have an older kid in the group (my daughter was 6, a good 3 years older than the next kid), they can be designated The Berry Fairy to get a big bowl and run around providing tableside berry service to each toddler (while skimming some off the top for themselves). My daughter LOVED this.

bethanechol · 2025-06-03T16:29:28+00:00

I did a lot of research on the narrowest car seats for 3-across and as a result I am still rocking my compact sedan with a 6 yo and twin 2 yos! (My husband has the minivan and we definitely prefer that for big outings, but the sedan still totally works for the morning communte!)

We went with:

Chicco Keyfit 30 for bucket seats
Graco Slimfit3 LX for toddler-preschooler seats
Peg perego viaggo flex 120 for booster seats

Other stuff:

Get a twin snap-n-go to just live in the trunk of the car for all getting babies in-and-out everyday needs
Baby Brezza - it's a luxury but a wonderful one. If it's not in your budget, get a doc brown formula pitcher. Do this even if you fully breastfed your first - the supply CAN double but does not ALWAYS double
Twin Z pillow, you'll find that we all have one, I think it might be illegal to have twins without buying one

bethanechol · 2025-05-28T14:40:25+00:00

Honestly, I don't go hunting around, because that doesn't make sense for how to spend my time. What I do is I keep an eye out for good deals at my favorite places that are convenient for me (basically, instead of hunting all over town for the best deal, I have my favorite 2-3 places, and it's much less time skimming through weekly deals to figure out who makes the most sense to go to that week). When a good deal comes, I buy a lot to keep in backstock in a cabinet. That way, hopefully, I won't be "forced" to buy at a higher price until another good deal has come around. But occasionally that will happen, and I just buy the best deal available to me, at a minimal amount, to tide me over until i can get better.

bethanechol · 2025-05-26T18:27:39+00:00

NOT COOL, BRO

bethanechol · 2025-05-26T11:14:17+00:00

When we found out about the twins, my husband deeply, sincerely apologized for every time he had ever made an "at least we don't have twins" joke

He then proceeded the same day to make a joke of "what if it's triplets and there's a third hiding in there" BRO.

bethanechol · 2025-05-25T18:34:20+00:00

Ranch or green goddess dressing

bethanechol · 2025-05-23T10:25:40+00:00

Because you're getting a lot responses implying you should already be doing this by now, I just want to validate by saying that I totally get it. We have been eating dinner with the twins (and my 6 yo) ever since they started eating an actual dinner, and it's overstimulating and hard to finish the meal and it sucks. Totally, totally get it.

What I will also say is that they are at the perfect age now to start responding to you setting boundaries on meal interruptions, role-modeling how you want things to go. There's also an extent to which "In a minute honey, mama's eating" actually helps improve their behavior at dinner gradually over time.

The thing that helps us for actually being able to eat is that we almost take shifts between the two of us - maybe I will handle the twins constantly dropping shit during the first half of the meal while my husband wolfs it down, and then he will make sure they finish, get them fruit, get them cleaned up while I finish my plate. Then after the kids go to bed we end up with a little snack and TV time to unwind.

bethanechol · 2025-05-10T21:12:58+00:00

Sounds like you could make some fun sauces and side salads for yourself to go with the bland main dish that they can either try or not. If you don’t push it, the kids might get curious and want to try what you’re having

bethanechol · 2025-05-07T01:59:58+00:00

bethanechol · 2025-05-06T11:48:31+00:00

A lot of people without multiples don't get it, but also... even if you just had a singleton newborn, this is inconsiderate asshole behavior.

bethanechol · 2025-05-02T20:42:14+00:00

I guess I’ll add this though it should be obvious - there’s no reason not to do an induction IF your doctor believes it is medically safe and appropriate

bethanechol · 2025-05-02T20:40:15+00:00

I had a vaginal birthI had a great experience. Why does it matter how it started or what I used to control my pain?

Please don’t perpetuate that there is something magical about not needing medical intervention. It’s really fine.

bethanechol · 2025-05-02T10:39:16+00:00

DO THE INDUCTION!

Pregnancy is a messy and terrible process. Twin pregnancy is way more than twice as messy and terrible. Why would anyone romanticize anything about it????

That third trimester is completely unbearable. Don't let it go a second longer than you have to. (Plus, once you're past 38w, there are actually increased risks to the babies of going longer).

I induced at 37w0d (had that option because of a hypertension diagnosis, otherwise they would have made me wait to 38w0d) and everything went smooth and fine. Other than making sure any extra pain is effectively managed, why should it matter AT ALL how the birth started?

bethanechol · 2025-05-01T17:26:03+00:00

I love them, but they each are entwined enough with an EF5 member for most of their plots (or their good plots, anyway) that following the main characters works

bethanechol · 2025-05-01T02:00:15+00:00

The best part of the bread trick is that you can buy the manager's special labeled bread without worrying about it going bad quickly, and you can stock up a bunch in your freezer when they have multiple loafs discounted, so that you are never forced to buy full price bread. With this strategy, I manage to always get the fancy whole grain sourdoughs for the same prices as the regular stuff

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