A day in the life of triplets

We often get asked how do we do it? So I thought I’d let you in on a normal day at home with triplet toddlers. This is a day that my wife would have done alone whilst I was out at work. But as I’m at home at the moment we are running a tight ship together. Teamwork is everything.

6.am – I get up. I have always got up before everyone else in the house, reason being I need to meditate. My head needs to be in the right place to begin the day. If I wake up agitated or rushed my impatience will cause friction. I also need to give myself a chance to let my nerve meds kick in so I can get moving and mobile. Which is incredibly important when dealing with toddlers who do the opposite of what you ask and don’t stay still.

6.30 – I get Frankie up to get ready for school and wake my wife up who also meditates. This puts us both at a mental advantage to deal with whatever may come throughout the day, and to deal with whatever moods the triplets might be in with patience and tolerance. It’s good for us and them. A win win. Once Frankie has left for school the triplets start stirring. Usually between 7.30 – 8.We normally walk into happy excited girls keen to point out with looks of concern that all the dolls and teddies ‘fell down’. Or more accurately they launched at each other at some point before they went to sleep and they ended up on the floor.They make their own way down the stairs on their bums now, so we don’t need to do trips up and down the stairs, which I’m truly thankful for.A quick bum change and it’s straight into breakfast before we settle in to a morning of refereeing and keeping them entertained to ensure less refereeing. They are at a stage where they get bored easily and this usually ends up in tears with at least one sat in the naughty corner until they are ready to apologise to their sisters. Breakfast is usually followed by play time. They still need constant supervision though or they might end up doing something silly like getting in the sudocream.We are now doing our best to educate them with colour charts and flash cards. This is best done one on one, or it just ends up with one or two in the naughty corner. Chaos can ensue quickly when trying to get all three to concentrate. The easiest way to teach them is for me to play with two in another room, and for Stacey to spend 20 mins at a time with one separately without distraction.Snack time is at ten. This is chill time watching Twirlywoos. Then it’s dressed and out to play. We usually take them for a walk depending on how mobile I am on that day, or play in the garden or out on their Scootie bikes. Getting them out is important. Three toddlers stir crazy from being stuck in the house is a situation no one needs to deal with.After a bit of fresh air we have the lead up to lunch. We usually do songs and dancing for half an hour before we get them changed. Lunch is at 12. This is followed by a dash to grab teddies and dollys to take up to bed. They then go down for a few hours sleep. As do I. I’m usually physically drained by lunchtime and my pain levels are rising. Thank God for nap time.

Between 3 and 4 the girls are awake and raring to trash the downstairs of the house. They have dinner at 4. After which they go into a slow progression of getting tired and whiney.This means more entertaining from us. Thankfully we have Frankie home by this point so we can take one each if need be to keep stimulated and out of a sibling skirmish (or full blown attacks).

We let them play as they want to in the afternoon. Our little garden is perfect for them to get out of the house and give us a chance to get a few jobs done.At 6pm, we chill and watch ‘in the night garden’, by which time we’ve changed between 15 – 18 nappys throughout the day and broken up endless arguments. getting them calm before bath time is also important. No one wants to deal with 3 fired up hypo toddlers in a bath tub. Especially not me who baths them while Stacey gets their room, and clothes ready.

At 6.30 they have a bottle of milk and a bedtime story.By 7pm we are downstairs, mentally exhausted and ready to have dinner and chill.10.30 – bedtime – wake up and repeat.