It's easy... you just learn to do three things at once.

Most people don't just wake up one morning with three small children (moms of triplets notwithstanding). You have one baby at first. If you're like me and didn't grow up as the oldest of 16 kids, then your learning curve is steep. Somehow, you learn how to feed a baby, dress them, bathe them, get them to sleep and keep them out of the cat's litterbox. When another baby arrives, it's not that difficult because you already have a pile of baby stuff (stroller, carseat, carefully-picked-out outfits that they're just going to puke on) and your experiences with the first one are still fresh in your mind. Now if only you could grow an extra pair of hands...

How do you take care of two small children? You learn how to do two things at once!

How do you take care of three small children? You learn how to do three things at once!

That's the secret. If you don't have a mother, mother-in-law or other relatives living nearby and if you don't have money for a mother's helper or a robot clone of yourself, then you will have to become the queen of multitasking. It doesn't always happen that all 3 children need something at the same instant, but if you have 3 unhappy little people, then you have little choice but to do 2 (or 3 things) at the same time. I wish I had a better solution, but this is all I've been able to come up with

More or less, this has been my life for the last few months. If everyone wakes up at the same time in the morning, then I take my 3 little puffballs into the living room and lie them down on the couch and do assembly-line diaper changes. Yes, 3 kids in diapers... there's a landfill somewhere with my name on it. (my older boy is potty training, btw) Then I grab the baby and hold her while I make the breakfast. You really only need one hand to make instant oatmeal and pour milk into cups (for the boys), a bottle (for the baby) and a cup of instant coffee (for me). Then we sit at the table, me with the baby in my lap and the boys who sometimes still need help spooning oatmeal into their mouths. Yes, my oldest (who will be 3 in a couple of months) will sit in front of his oatmeal bowl and open his mouth like a little bird and say "Aaah" and expect me to feed him. This is the same boy can make poopies in the toilet... go figure.

There are days when one wakes up before the others and I can get that one changed, fed and dressed before the other ones get up... I never know if my day will be filled with juggling or whether I get to sit in a quiet house in the morning with just one child. If you're the kind of person who needs predictability in your life, don't have 3 children under the age of 3.

What happens if you can't multitask? Unfortunately, not all of my chilcare tasks can be done simultaneously with others. Here's a quick rule of thumb: if 2 or 3 little people are crying and you can't solve both their problems simultaneously, take care of the bigger one first. The bigger one is more aware of things and more likely to feel slighted if he's ignored.

Also, you want to get the oldest one on your side... that's the one who can be most helpful. A toddler can't change a diaper, but he can bring you diapers and wipes from across the room.

I guess that's my next parenting tip... get the oldest one to do your work for you. :)

The 'perfect storm' of naptimes

You know what the best thing about children under age 3 is? They nap! In the middle of the day, amid the chaos and mess, you find a brief child-free oasis where you can drink a cup of coffee while it's still hot... where you can lie down for a few minutes.... where you can work uninterrupted. It's amazing how a job that takes half an hour with kids around can be accomplished in 5 minutes without them.

I love naptimes. I don't know if there's a real science to getting little children to nap.... if they are sufficently tired and sufficiently fed, then they should nap. Of course, the baby naps more than the bigger ones, but all my three little puffballs nap.

Sometimes, even a tired little puffball will not nap. This is something I fail to understand.... your bed is soft, your room is warm, you have your teddies... why do you want to stand around the living room kvetching when you could be napping? It's moments like these when I wish I could switch places with one of my kids. I'll go nap and they can take care of the baby and put away the laundry.

There is an advantage to having the kids napping in shifts... you can focus your time and attention on one child while the others are asleep. It's good for each child to have a little time alone with mommy and not have to compete for attention with siblings. A lot of times, this is just how things happen in my house... one child is tired but the others aren't. What do you do? Sometimes it's better to put one child down to sleep than to attempt to do something with 2 happy kids and one kvetchy one.... that just leads to 3 kvetchy kids.

But what if one child is only borderline kvetchy? What do you do? I'll tell you you what I do... I take my little almost-tired one, put on his shoes and plop him in the stroller. Time for a walk! Time to go to the park! I give him a chance to 'burn out' so that he will be good and ready for a nap when we return from the walk or the park or whatever.

Then we come to the magical point in time and space where all three of my little puffballs are tired and go down for a nap at the same time. This is the 'perfect storm'. I can do anything I want uninterrupted and unimpeded.

That's the first parenting secret that I'm sharing. You can get anything accomplished no matter how many kids you have.... as long as they're napping!

No, my kids aren't setting fires and playing with knives

There's an inherent paradox in the world of mommies who blog, all the more with mommies with many children who share their lives over the internet. OK - raising kids is hard work, your life is crazy busy, being a mom is the world's most important job, you're a mommy 24/7 - so.. um... why are you on the internet right now? It's a valid question, right?

I've seen blogs written by mothers of large families where the blog's owner puts in the effort to reply to every comment posted on her blog. This kind of thing makes me suspicious. It's great that she's interacting with her readers, but shouldn't she be doing mom stuff instead? Are her kids in the other room setting fires and playing with knives???

Thankfully, I do have some small moments in my day where I can sit in front of the computer and share my thoughts. Besides, my little ones aren't tall enough to reach the knives and haven't yet figured out how matches work! As I write this, my oldest is 2years9months, my middle child is 1year5months and my baby is 2months old. Those are my 3 little puffballs.

The purpose of this blog is to (hopefully) make people laugh and (hopefully) provide some advice and insights into raising a family with 3 small children born very close together. Recently, I have found that my life doesn't fit into those neat little Facebook status update boxes anymore. And I hope that I have something valuable I can communicate to the world at large.

What should I tell you? Taking care of small children is hard work. But babies are cute... very very cute... and that cuteness outweighs the late nights, the spit-up covered couches and the mountains od laundry. I've had "3 kids under3" for two months now and I haven't gone to the crazy-house just yet. And yes, I have an agenda. My agenda is to turn you into me - just kidding! If I can leave you with some thoughts, here they are...

Being a mom won't swallow your soul.

Having children is good.

Big families are healthy.


If I haven't yet convinced you, keep on reading.