Parenting Hacks for Everyday

One of the best things about being part of a community with other parents is learning how they approach similar problems. Let’s face it, there are not a lot of new parenting challenges under the sun, but there are many approaches to head them off or tackle them. As we wrap up our back-to-school series, I thought it might be fun and helpful to ask our Parenting Pathway Advisory Team to share some of their favorite time-saving, kid-pleasing, and sanity-saving parenting hacks. These ladies have 13 kids between them, ranging in ages from 1 to 13. They have some skills!

Starting the Day and Ending the Day

• If you have multiple kids, it helps to have a different color or motif for each one. My big kids have the themes of unicorn, dinosaur, and outer space. In other words, my daughter’s lunchbox, backpack, water bottle, and beach towel are all unicorn. One son’s supplies are all dinosaur themed and one son has all outer space/NASA-themed supplies. The themes have changed as their likes and dislikes have changed, but it makes it so much easier to know which supplies belong to which child based on their themes. (GM)
• Lunchbox cards, either downloaded or purchased, are great! You can sign the back and toss them in the lunchbox. Joke cards are super popular with my kids since they can read them to their friends at the table. And, if your kids are having a bad day, it can be just the affirmation they need. (GM & CC)
• Have a designated bag for different activities. I have a different bag of small toys, coloring books, and stickers for my youngest; such as one bag for the doctor’s office, one for the sidelines of her siblings’ soccer games, and one for the car. They only play with those toys and books at that designated time and place. The bags stay new and interesting for the kiddos!(GM)
• Pack lunches and pick out clothes the night before. No matter how much time you think you’ll have in the morning, it won’t be enough. (MD, GM & CC)
• The “Jammie Song” by Go Fish is a great way to “race the clock” to get dressed for bed. We play it on Alexa and the kids try to get ready before it’s over. (GM & SC)
• Don’t be afraid to reread the same bedtime stories over and over to your littles. They learn by repetition and it is super comforting to them. For bigger kids, it’s fun to read a series out loud to them. We have done the Harry Potter series, the Chronicles of Narnia series, and some of the classics like Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan! (Feel free to edit any scary parts as you see fit while you read! Those Peter Pan pirates are violent! 🤣).  If you have kids learning to read, you can cast the books on to your tv with the Kindle app so they can read along or even take turns reading. (GM)
• For your oldest kids, they still need to hear that you love them, but they may be “too big” for the hugs and cutesy notes. For my pre-teen, three taps on his shoulder means “I love you”.  (As does the word “yeet” on any note I write to him. It’s our code! 🤣). (GM)
• We set a timer and play an upbeat song in Alexa and see how many toys we can put away and how fast we can tidy the room before the song or timer ends.  It’s way more fun than just cleaning up. And if there’s a squabble about who is doing more work, I tell them to pick up a certain number of things so it stays fair. (Twin mom life is not for the faint of heart! 🤣) (GM)
• Brush teeth before kids get dressed, so you don’t have to worry about toothpaste on clothes 😅(GM)

Household Chores and Home Organization

• Anytime I cook something that can freeze well such as spaghetti sauce, baked ziti, or pork tacos, I make a double batch and freeze half. It makes for easy weeknight dinners in a pinch. (GM &SC)
• Make muffins and freeze them. On school mornings, pull one out and heat on high for about 1 minute. (This is all I’ve done, but I know you can do it with breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, or even biscuit cups.) (SC)
• I only buy the same white socks for the kids so they always match and I don’t have to spend time finding pairs. (MD)
• Have a designated “shoe” space. Ours is a bin in the mud room. We have one for cleats, one for flip flops and swim shoes, and one for regular everyday shoes. My kids sometimes forget, but it sure helps when you are running late and do not have time to go on a shoe hunt! (GM)
• For laundry, I have a divided laundry hamper with three sections: delicates, colors, and whites, in our bedroom. The kids each have a regular hamper in their bedrooms. In the mornings, Mondays through Fridays, I go to the kids’ rooms, gather whatever is in their hampers and bring them to my hamper and sort their laundry in the right section. (It takes like a minute since there’s so little each day.) When one section of our hamper gets full, I do that load of laundry. Doing laundry as we go through the week became more manageable to me than a “laundry day” when I did load after load. I do it in the mornings because I’m home, but working parents can do this in the evening as part of a bedtime routine. (SC)
• The kids each have a bin at the bottom of the stairs. When they have things downstairs that need to go upstairs we’ll just toss the stuff in the bin and at the end of the day the kids are responsible for taking the bins upstairs and putting everything away. This doesn’t always happen, but a bin of toys is better than a floor of toys! (SC)

Safety

• Establish a routine for crossing the street and parking lots, then stick to it. My kids all knew from a very young age that they couldn’t walk alone in a parking lot. They had to hold my hand. As they got older and asked why, I explained that it was because I was taller so the drivers could see me. When they got bigger, but not big enough to be seen by drivers backing out they had to keep one hand on the shopping cart while walking. (GM)
• I have my kids keep one hand on the car until everyone is out and we are ready to cross the parking lot. Now, some stores even make cute little handprint magnets you can use for that. (GM)

Sanity Savers

• If the kids are fighting and it all feels like too much, take them outside or give them a bath, even if it’s not the right time of day. Doesn’t matter. It resets everything. (GM)
• Teach your bigger kids a system for getting your attention when you are on the phone or talking to another adult. Ours is to touch my forearm. I put my hand over theirs to let them know that I know they need my attention. And then, I go ask them what they needed as soon as I can. (GM)
• GoNoodle | Get Moving on YouTube is a great way to get the wiggles out when you can’t play outside and you need to get something done such as homework. (GM)
• This isn’t a hack but it is the real sanity saver for us, date your spouse. This can be going out, but it’s also simply carving out time in the day for just us. It can be watching a show together, talking on the patio, having coffee together in the morning, or a lunch date if your kids are in school. (All of Us)

Good Ideas for Any Age

• How to respond. If your child has something that makes them stand out from their peers, practice on how to respond when others ask about it. And, reassure them it’s ok to be different while you’re at it! ❤️. We practiced with my son about how to respond regarding his insulin pump and glucose monitor when kids asked what they were for. We also practiced with him on what to say to teachers, particularly substitute teachers, to advocate for himself if asked about his pump alarm going off and needing to treat low blood sugar. It helps to practice so the kids are ready with a reply when they need to be! (GM)
• Blame it “on me”. If there is something that my son doesn’t feel comfortable with doing, he can tell whoever is asking that his mom doesn’t want him to do that.  Or if he needs to leave a situation, he can tell them I said I needed him to be somewhere. Some folks have a secret emoji signal that the kids text their parents when they need their parent to call, text, or help.  For example, if a child texts a purple heart or dog emoji to their parent, the parent knows to call their child and give them an excuse to leave a situation.  (GM & CC)
• “Mom and Me” journals. If my kids need to tell me something and are more comfortable writing it to me, they write it down in that journal and I respond to them. It can be something that is bothering them, something they need help with, or something they are nervous about like a tryout or quiz. I can reply to help and encourage them.  We have a designated spot for them to leave the journal so I’ll see it when they have written something in it. (GM)

Time Savers

• Use the delay brew function on your coffeemaker and prep your coffee the night before!! (SC)
• Instead of setting a timer for kiddos in the shower so they don’t stay in there too long, this mom says they get two songs. The kids pick songs they know, so it’s much easier for them to be able to tell how much time they’re using. (GM)
• The kids would get frustrated to come downstairs, have breakfast, and go back upstairs to brush their teeth before school. They would complain, “We have to go ALL the way back upstairs?!” After rough mornings, we decided to keep toothbrushes and toothpaste in their upstairs bathroom and also have second toothbrushes and toothpaste downstairs; so, on school mornings they didn’t have to go back upstairs. This may be a struggle only to us, but the “hack” here isn’t really even the toothbrushes, it’s just kind of picking your battles. It was annoying for the kids to go upstairs and we just wanted them to brush their teeth; this way, they didn’t complain and we got clean teeth. We could have just made them do it because really, is walking upstairs so horrible? But it just wasn’t how we wanted to spend our mornings together. Every family needs to pick their own hills, and make their own compromises. (SC)

And our last and most important hack….

Never under any circumstances allow the song “baby shark” to be introduced in your home. It’s too late for some of us. Save yourselves if you can. 😜