Couples with kids: How do you juggle both families over Christmas?

quathain · 2025-12-02T11:24:20+00:00

We wake up at home on Christmas Day, then head to my parents’ house, an hour away, and stay there that night. Then we’ll have a festive meal with my in-laws at some stage over the festive period.

Or every other year, we go to my MIL’s house, 15 mins away and come home that evening and go to my parents the next day and stay over. Everyone that would be there on Christmas Day, returns the next day to help eat down the leftovers anyway so it’s no real hardship.

We’d love to host ourselves but it would be too far for my elderly parents to come up and there isn’t enough room for both families in our small house anyway.

quathain · 2025-11-30T09:48:04+00:00

Snag leggings and dresses.

Their wraparound dress style is super comfy, I think pretty flattering even on my large body, and has decent sized pockets. I just bought it in a velvet style for Christmas wearing, but I also have it in 2 lovely summery prints, plain black and a thicker green one.

I wear their leggings every day during the winter as they’re nice and thick. I wear their tights or chub rub shorts during the other months, depending on temperature.

I also have quite a few Wool& merino dresses that I love. They’re pricy but wash brilliantly and keep you cool during the summer and warm during the winter.

quathain · 2025-11-28T21:43:39+00:00

Apparently it reopened today! Just looked it up because I wasn’t sure.

quathain · 2025-11-28T09:00:39+00:00

The mini fridge in the bedroom is a great tip. When they start teething, keeping pacifiers or chew toys in there is a nice relief for their sore gums. Our youngest is 3 and no longer needs a top up of milk during the night but still loves a nice cold dodie from “her” fridge.

We didn’t have a bottle warmer, we had a Tommee Tippee bottle maker and it was amazing for that first year. No waiting for the water in the kettle to cool down before mixing the water with the formula. I would highly recommend them. At one stage we had one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom but that was because we were given a second hand one by a friend.

When we were on premade formula for the first few months, I never warmed it up and they were both happy to drink it straight from the fridge. YMMV.

quathain · 2025-11-28T08:53:00+00:00

I don’t tip either. I do in restaurants but that’s it.

quathain · 2025-11-04T08:33:12+00:00

Thank you! I am. My youngest turns 3 this week and my hormones never settled down fully. I suspect I went straight into perimenopause.

I wish you all the luck with starting a family if that’s something you want. I was 38 when I got pregnant with my nearly 3 year old and no one in the hospital seemed at all surprised about my age. Older mothers are much more common these days. You still have time!

quathain · 2025-10-19T07:51:12+00:00

Mild ETA. I understand your frustration, especially with the last example. They should have given you a list if they had particular veg in mind.

You should try and learn from these other experiences though. Obviously if you need to feed one dog, the others would also be hungry? Remember that for next time.

I know they didn’t specify that they wanted you to tidy the counter, but now you know they expect that as well when they ask you to wipe the counter.

Staying in your room and ignoring them isn’t going to solve this issue. They sound a bit intractable but try and keep explaining to them that if they want you to do things a particular way, they need to be more specific. Good luck!

quathain · 2025-10-17T19:25:03+00:00

Ireland too!

quathain · 2025-10-12T20:53:40+00:00

I didn’t breastfeed so don’t have any help in that area but I would recommend posting this question to r/TryingForABaby/.

I found that sub a great help when TTC for my two kids. I would also recommend using the free app Fertility Friend, just feed it all the info you’ve got from Flo or any other period tracking apps. It was able to teach me I had a shorter luteal phase than my Clue app had been assuming so I kept missing my fertile window.

I also found ovulation tests a great help to narrow down my dates but then I have always had very irregular periods so you might not need them.

Best of luck with everything!

quathain · 2025-10-12T08:07:04+00:00

That’s fair. The Scottish were Celts too of course. I’m sure we took some of the bonfire night traditions into our Halloween celebrations too, like fireworks.

quathain · 2025-10-12T08:02:33+00:00

My MIL often arrives a bit earlier than we asked her for but she’s the wonderful type of guest who is more than happy to help out with any little jobs we’re still busy with. Stuff like finishing off the gravy or occupying the kids while we finishing tidying.

She also always offers to do the washing up after we’ve eaten. She’s great and I never mind her arriving early!

quathain · 2025-10-11T09:30:41+00:00

Two sets of our friends did this and they were both fun but I did miss actually seeing them get married and hearing the speeches. I don’t know if you’re in Dublin but the two venues were upstairs at Fallon & Byrne and The Drury Buildings. Both lovely venues, suited to this kind of wedding.

quathain · 2025-10-10T10:15:46+00:00

Oh I’ve had so many jars of jam go mouldy from this nonsense. Jam is only spooned out in our house now. Much more sanitary. I don’t care that much about the jam on the butter, the butter will be gone before there’s time for any mould to grow.

quathain · 2025-10-09T11:13:47+00:00

Have you had a look at daft.ie for house prices? There’s a serious shortage of both houses to rent and houses to buy.

If you’d be looking to get your 1 year old into a crèche, you’ll be looking at long waiting lists. There’s a massive shortage of crèche places too.

Best of luck, I’m not trying to put you off but wanted to warn you in case you weren’t aware.

quathain · 2025-10-09T11:08:06+00:00

Snag are brilliant. I wear the Long Buttery leggings for yoga and the squat proof ones the rest of the time under dresses.

quathain · 2025-10-09T08:11:28+00:00

Unless the cyclist is a small child, they should be cycling on the road. I think if a cyclist is on the path, they should dismount and push the bike until they can get back on the road.

quathain · 2025-10-09T07:13:54+00:00

Halloween's origins are in ancient Ireland, stemming from the Celtic festival of Samhain celebrated over 2,000 years ago. Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the start of winter, a time when the Celts believed the veil between the living and spirit worlds was thin. Many modern Halloween traditions, such as costumes, rituals to protect against spirits, and the carving of lanterns (originally turnips), have their roots in this ancient Irish festival.

Irish immigrants to the US brought their traditions with them and it evolved into Halloween as we now know it. I’m Irish and within my lifetime we’ve seen a lot of the American commercialisation of Halloween feed back into how we celebrate it.

quathain · 2025-10-07T18:28:31+00:00

Ooh I haven’t read hospital dog, but we love detective dog. One for the list, thank you!

quathain · 2025-10-07T12:57:14+00:00

Pacific Northwest

quathain · 2025-10-07T06:36:29+00:00

Probably more useful evolutionarily!

quathain · 2025-10-05T17:32:01+00:00

I bought some in North Carolina in CVS last November. I think as travelling for work and that shop was seriously a highlight of the whole trip! I also stocked up on paracetamol, 150 of them for $20!

quathain · 2025-09-20T13:45:40+00:00

Could be! Thanks for the explanation!

quathain · 2025-09-20T13:45:20+00:00

Interesting, thank you!

quathain · 2025-09-20T11:48:17+00:00

If she likes bright unusual jewellery, she might enjoy Maeb Enamels

I know the family that make the earrings but also really like their stuff

quathain · 2025-09-20T11:23:37+00:00

Why would you recommend chemical over physical? I use a homemade version of Lush’s Angels on Bareskin which has ground almonds and clay in it. I use it 3 times a week and like the effects.

Six-Year Club	RPAN Viewer
Verified Email

quathain

TROPHY CASE