Constance Hall: I bathe my kids three days a week
A mum-of-six has shared how she keeps her sanity by bathing her kids three times a week, and allowing them to “feast with their hands”.
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Australian mummy blogger Constance Hall has dished on how she saves time and maintains her sanity with six children.
Ms Hall - who is Perth-based - revealed to Mamamia how she makes the dishes more enjoyable.
“Feast with your hands … I often put (out) a huge pile of vegetables along with another plate of sliced meat or whatever you’re making,” Ms Hall said.
Ms Hall also said that picnic dinners were a quick, easy and cheap way to get dinner done.
Ms Hall also admitted that she chooses not to bathe her children every day and said that it “won’t kill them”.
“They don’t have to bath or shower every day. They can quite often skip that part of the routine if it’s getting everyone down. I’m like, ‘Fine, stinky, go to school and gross everyone out,’” Ms Hall explained.
And when it comes to the neverending laundry pile for her six kids, Ms Hallsaid that she once received the best piece of advice: buy each child a coloured bucket, label the bucket with the child’s name and then “chuck” their dirty laundry in the bucket.
She went on to say that if her children wanted clothes folded, they go to their bucket and do it themselves.
Ms Hall said that it was essential for every parent to have a “check-out time”. Hers is 7.30pm.
After 7.30pm each night, Ms Hall says that all her children are on their own.
“I’m not your mum; I’m not here. I’m not your slave, I’m just a statue of a woman who an hour ago wiped your bum and is now drinking wine chatting on the phone to her sister,” Ms Hall explained.
On Facebook, she said: “I share my big family shortcuts in this article. Call me lazy, call me a slummy mummy, but when you have six kids living under your roof things change, you’re kidding yourself if you think that you can give six kids the same life you gave one.
“It’s about f***ing off the sh*t that doesn’t matter to leave time for the stuff that does.”
In February, Ms Hall posted a throwback snap of her enormous pregnancy belly before she gave birth to her twins, Rumi and Snow in 2015. Ms Hall admitted that she was “struggling to survive” and “depressed” before the arrival of Rumi and Snow.
“So many people thought (this picture) was a beautiful memory, of course it was. To the outside world,” Ms Hall said.
“Inside I was dying. I couldn’t change positions without panting for five minutes.
“My depression was through the roof, I cried every day, my two other kids missed their free spirited mum, I couldn’t even get up to answer the door, you can see my swollen lips and fingers but I purposely shadowed my swollen nose and eyes that I could barely open due to fluids in my face.”
Ms Hall has shared on a prior occasion that she was left angry after her midwives kicked her husband, Denim, out of the room when she was giving birth to their one-year-old son Raja because “the presence of men was disruptive”.
Originally published as Constance Hall: I bathe my kids three days a week
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