robot vacuums are the best thing we ever purchased. IMHO its one of the best investments especially if your house is one floor (also make sure to get the one that can map your house and set no go zones).

Our house can get pretty messy even with just 1 kid. I'm fortunate that my wife has a fairly cushy job working from home so she'll do a bit of clean up during the day to keep it manageable.

If you can't afford a cleaner an alternative is a cheap babysitter to keep an eye on the kids while you do the cleaning. A cleaner runs $30-35/hr but you can find a babysitter for as little as $15 (teenager) if you just need someone to keep the kids company or watch TV with them. We've started using a babysitter (though she's $30/hr) every 2 weeks for 4 hours and my wife uses that time to clean up the house while I go do our grocery shopping and run errands. It's heaven - I spent 2 hours at Costco casually shopping - reading all the labels, doing a second go around.

Ask around and you can probably find a 15 year old who'll work 3 hours for $15/hr and give you guys a break.

We're in the same boat, and one of the best purchases we made was the robot vacuum. We got the Shark one from Costco that maps and self-empties, and we just schedule it daily when nobody is home.

It obviously doesn't do 100%, but it's been a god-send.

Y'all make me wanna order one right now. It's been hectic for me with 2 jobs and I seriously considered a cleaner once every 2 to 4 weeks so I can reset.

I'm thinking about getting a mopping one? Are they useful or just the vaccum one is useful?

Never used a mopping one, but my understanding is the combos do a shitty job of both. If you really want you should get a dedicated vacuum robot, and a dedicated mopping one.

I really like our Shark, and it was $299 on sale at ctire last year. Costco sells the higher capacity one for a bit more (I saw in warehouse a few days ago), but will also come with the Costco guarantee.

I have found Roombas more hassle than their worth. Perhaps we didn't spring for one that has mapping on-board.

If you can afford 200-300/month, probably the best solution is to find a good cleaner and to have them clean your house on a regular schedule. Having a cleaner definitely frees up time for doing more valuable things with your child and also reduces friction among partners.

We have the same Shark one from Costco. The base bin needs to be emptied once a month. Occasionally I need to check if the vaccuum ate a sock or not, or it gets stuck at dumb places that's why I said I need to some robot proofing.

It would get dust off of the less travelled places and it's amazing for reducing allergies since there's less stuff floating around. Does a pretty good job of picking up cat hair too. You do need to do your research before buying, the higher end roombas are better overall vacuums but the Shark is better at dealing with hair

My mom has spent most her life as home care + cleaning, and the work she can do is simply magical. Takes a keen eye to be a good cleaner for sure. So yeah +1 do recommend.

That being said think about skipping the ‘Molly maid’ kind of stuff and see if there is a family friend or acquaintance who does the cleaning. Might feel awkward at first but all the money will go straight into their pockets. Skip the middle man who pay minimum wage

Those with robot vacuums any recommendations?

I like the Shark that Costco sells. They were doing $100 or $150 off before new years? It's great because it has a bucket that you don't need to empty for a month. I can't imagine having to empty it every time it'll get old really quick, nevermind that the robot actually has to go back to base at least once to empty it's bucket on one session.

Just don’t fall asleep on the floor.

https://i.chzbgr.com/full/9663082496...ng-to-see-here

Kid just turned 3 and I'm starting to think about classes that I can send them to like swim, ballet, gymnastics. Both my wife and I grew up without sports or athletics in our lives so I don't really know where to start with this.

What do you send your kids to? What are some classes worth considering?

Ice skating, swimming, taekwando are all classics

Swimming for sure. Basically a life-saving skill, and adds so much enjoyment to life. A small portion of my friends still don't know how to swim and all they can do on vacation is sit with their feet in the pool...

Seconded on ice skating. Will really help them with their balance, and motor skills. Will make it that much easier in the future if they want to pick up other winter sports like skiing and to an extent snowboarding as well. A knowledge of how to balance on ice does wonders to learning other wintery things. If I have a kid, I'm gonna be one of those parents that brings their kid up the slopes at like 3 and throws them down.

Skating classes are winding down. Even when they are available, each block of lesson is so ridiculously difficult to register for. 4 - 6 new spots for each class time slot. There are like 3 - 4 time slots. Tons and tons of parents all fighting for those handful of spots. And now the season is over. FailFish

Swimming is a must. My parents had me on the ski hill on my 2nd birthday. I couldn’t get enough of that damn T bar. Still can’t :p

Put them in anything you wish you could have done as a kid. Anything learned early on, can be forgotten and picked up after a short amount of time. Learning those skills as a kid is so important.

My sons about to turn 2, among others things were getting him a strider bike (balance bike). The plan is for his 3rd birthday to get his first e-dirtbike.

Swimming tho is big too. Health is important too. Have you ever seen an out if shape swimmer??? Never

Any Tiger dads in here? :troll:

Jokes aside, I'm glad my parents enrolled me in swimming lessons. That's a life skill I can appreciate and would encourage any parents to enroll their kids in swimming lessons as well.

I tried skating lessons but due to a hip fracture when I was younger, I was never able to properly regain a proper balance. Despite the fact that I do cycle, admittedly, balance is a challenge for me so roller blading, skiing, and snowboarding also came with its challenges.

If you can get them a spot to begin with. I don't remember it being this hard to find a swimming spot when I was a kid.

We had our kids enrolled in public pool lessons before the pandemic. It's definitely tough to find spots right now and our kids are two years older and less gung-ho about things.

We bit the bullet and enrolled them in private lessons for two weeks in the summer. They're not cheap, but for a skill as critical as swimming, we are able to live with the cost.

As far as other regular activities go, we've enrolled our kids in dance, drop-in gymnastics, and cheerleading (competitive) over the years.

Anyone’s kids bite their nails? How do you help them with it, or do you ignore?

Classes (age 0-4):
Chorus and Clouds - art, music, general development.
Phoenix (near Hillcrest) - gymnastics
Tumbletown - gymnastics
Happy Feet - outdoor soccer
WOLO - art and general development
Aquaventures - swimming
Dance class on Fraser next to Earnest Ice Cream

Community Centers have classes and programs too. But they fill up fast.

What's this private lessons stuff? Got anymore info? We might just bite the bullet and do that.

https://westcoastss.ca/

These folks are highly rated among parent groups.

Booked out, and the closest for me is Coquitlam. Ain't driving to abby for swimming lessons.

Thanks for the link though. We are now looking at pedal... something.

Pedalheads. Their bike camps are pretty good too.

Main thing I think that helped with advancing the swimming is that the classes are 50/55 mins, rather than 30 mins. Nothing against the instructors at the public pools, but 30 mins per lesson, Even at 4 kids limit per class meant that the instructor only has enough time to demo the skill. Then each kid gets 1 shot at the skill, demo 2 other things and that's the end of the lesson.

then it's onto the next skill. With the extended time in the private classes, they kids have more water time to work on the skills.
Not to mention, if your kid needs to go pee during a lesson, during a 30 min public class, you're done for the day.