Post by ellipses84 on Apr 14, 2021 14:08:56 GMT -5
In the snack post, there were some good parenting hacks. I recently listened to a podcast about parenting hacks and I have a few of my own. What are your best parenting hacks?
I’ve traveled a lot with kids (not this year). I pack everything in separate bags or bags within bags, and put what I need in the most easily accessible place. For example, electronics for airport security, or pack 1 night of clothes for each night of a road trip, then a separate backpack with all toiletries. Coffee shops are the best place to get milk while traveling for kids because they have every type you can think of; whole, almond, etc. If you need things like diapers you can order and ship them to your destination ahead of time (or instacart groceries to the hotel when you arrive). I buy little presents surprises for kids to unwrap on the plane or play with in the hotel, like Lego mini figures. Also, dollar store stuff, like glow sticks, if we are going somewhere they might sell $30 glow toys on the street.
We live somewhere warm near the beach so I always have 1 beach bag and 1 swim bag packed in the garage (and during summer I often leave each, along with a beach umbrella in the car all the time). I keep a giant laundry dispenser container of water in the back of my SUV to rinse off feet after the beach (I saw a family do this last year and thought it was genius! Why didn’t I know this 10 years ago?).
I’m late to the podcast train, but there are so many great ones on any subject you can think of. I prefer entertaining ones but sometimes I listen to parenting, self-help/ relationship, cleaning/organizing, etc. I don’t have much time to read by myself, so I’ve also been getting audio books from the library and listening while I work or clean. I really like all the Covid drive-up options. Our library let’s you reserve books on their app and will let you know once they get transferred to our local library for drive-up pick up. This saves me lots of time and money and the kids always have something to read. Ours has ebooks / e-audio books but I try to encourage kids reading real books since they got so much screen time for school this year.
We are fairly minimalist in what we keep in the car. We do keep our chairs in the car for sports games and sunscreen. My beach bag is sort of packed and by the back door, but towels and swimsuits rotate out because they are wet, so it's not like I always have a beach bag ready to go. In the winter, I threw in a blanket for Covid friendly outdoor brewery. I used to keep a couple of Band-Aids in my purse at all times, but they need to be replenished.
I guess because my kids are older, I don't need as many hack like things as I did when they were babies/ toddlers. They can pack their own suitcases and beach bags. I might have to go through their suitcase because they will forget underwear or something, but they can help with that heavy lifting. I guess my hack is make them do chores lol.
Our library has tons of kids audiobooks so I try to keep a few loaded on my phone at any given time. They are especially great for car rides or just when DS is asking too many questions and I want some peace without using screens.
Post by starburst604 on Apr 14, 2021 15:26:25 GMT -5
Something that's been most helpful for me is a 3 tiered hanging basket thing that I keep just inside our front door which is also by the garage door so I can grab all the things before going out somewhere. Top basket holds DD's epipen, labels for her school stuff and all our masks. In the winter the lower 2 baskets hold hats and gloves for all of us. In the spring I take those out and use them to hold sunblock/bug spray and then flip flops or any shoe we would throw on to run outside. Basically everything we would need to grab before walking out the door. On the side I hang a mesh bag to throw in used masks for washing.
Also I rotate out DD's clothes as soon as she outgrows them or the season changes. The other day I had her try on a bunch of stuff to see what still fit, then immediately donated or sold what we couldn't use anymore. I aim to have no more than one bin of clothes stored away for her, usually the out of season stuff that should still fit the next year.
Maybe these aren't hacks so much as a way I keep clutter at a minimum, or us from going crazy trying to find hats and gloves in the winter lol.
Post by ellipses84 on Apr 14, 2021 15:47:13 GMT -5
Oh yeah, older kids chores is a great hack 😊 I have my son clean toilets, swiffer sweep/mop and sort laundry. He may not do as great of a job as I would but it saves me time and gets done more frequently.
Organizational tips are great too. I love the medium size clear bins with latches. You can fit a lot of them on upper closet shelves, so I use them for next size and out of season clothes.
I consider a hack anything that saves me time or makes life easier!
We have a lingerie bag magnet-ed to the side of our washing machine, so I've told DD to put her dirty masks in there so they are ready to go. Then if she knows she's getting low, she does a load of them.
I generally have DD's next season of clothes in underbed storage, so on these shoulder seasons she can grab shorts if it's unseasonably warm and I haven't pulled them out yet.
On that note, I also have a bin where she can put things she no longer wants, wears, fits in, etc. She's pretty good at keeping track of what she likes the most and will regularly put stuff in there as she outgrows them (either physically or style-wise).
If you like making photo books, I'll stand by this one. Offload photos from your phone each month and label them Month-Year and put them in a year specific folder. I do this through iPhoto which then syncs to my Mac and makes it even easier. When I go to make a yearly photo album I just need to pull out those 12 months, and it's easy to keep track of when all photos were taken. I do this for trips, too.
Maybe my favorite hack, which doesn't make my life easier but makes her happy, is restaurant ticket rails in her art/play room. It's easy for her to hang and take down her art and she knows if she's running out of room that it's time to purge stuff she's created to make room for the new stuff. If there is something that she truly can't part with, I save it in a box I have of her stuff.
Post by cricketwife on Apr 14, 2021 17:43:58 GMT -5
This is more a MMM tip than a hack but-
Check if you can suggest titles to your library. We use the library a lot but they don’t always have the books I want for DS but they do have an online request for suggested purchases. They have purchased every one of my suggestions except one and I get to be first in line to put a hold on it. I often browse at Barnes & Noble and then request the titles that I’d like. So it’s great for saving money while still getting books for DS.
Post by thoseareradishes on Apr 14, 2021 18:06:45 GMT -5
I keep a bath towel in the car to dry playground equipment off.
Her clothes are in an Ikea Trofast unit, so it's easy for her to open bins and pick out her outfits. We will need to switch to a larger dresser soon, but it's been great while her clothes are small.
We have a private google photo album we put pictures in for the grandparents, friends, etc.
Post by puppylove64 on Apr 14, 2021 18:18:00 GMT -5
I keep a picnic blanket in the car all the time. In the summer, I usually keep a bag with sunscreen, sunglasses, hats, and sometimes swim suits and towels. I always keep baby wipes and a first aid kit in the car.
I hang all of my kids’ clothes so they can pull things down off the hangers and not destroy their dresser items. Their underwear, socks, and swimwear is in drawers but not folded. I clothespin together socks so they don’t end up inside out (like they do when the kids pull them out of rolls).
Once a week, I do a look for rogue hangers in the closet as I do laundry.
Our library has tons of kids audiobooks so I try to keep a few loaded on my phone at any given time. They are especially great for car rides or just when DS is asking too many questions and I want some peace without using screens.
This one is great. We drive 90 minutes on the regular to another property, and my kid gets motion sickness, so he can't use a screen. Audiobooks have saved the day.
Post by redpenmama on Apr 14, 2021 21:15:28 GMT -5
Sock baskets in the laundry room. Everyone has white socks, so they get tossed in a bin with their name on it. They grab a pair on their way downstairs every morning. No need to match them up or put them away only for them to disappear in their drawers.
I keep a large bin in each kid's closet for clothes they outgrow over the course of a season. At the end of the season, I empty it and either store them for the next kid or consign/donate them if we're done with them.
My kids prefer to shower/bathe in the master bathroom, so I use that time when I'm in there with them (since they need minimal supervision at this point--just some eyes on them in the tub) to clean the bathroom.
Small hand sanitizers in every carseat cupholder. By now, they know to put some on when we get in the car after school or activities.
I use ziplock bags and sharpies to label them for so many things. Especially for the million things I have to sent to daycare where everything has to be labeled - show & tell, extra underwear, etc. I just label the bag and put the thing inside. The other day I made DD sort everyone's winter hats/gloves/etc. out of the garage into ziplocks and deliver them to each of our rooms so we can put our winter things away neatly.
It drives me nuts if I can't see what's inside a bag or box. Ziplocks solve that issue. I'm a big fan of the clear trash bags too when organizing bigger things to move or donate.
Post by ellipses84 on Apr 14, 2021 23:46:18 GMT -5
redpenmama That reminds me a friend with 4 kids under age 5 has a bench by her front door with a basket for each person underneath and she keeps their shoes AND socks in it. I need to do this. It would save us so much time!
When I had a lot of drawers in my old bathroom I’d keep my underwear, bras and socks in the bathroom to put on after showering.
Post by ellipses84 on Apr 14, 2021 23:48:58 GMT -5
sent my kids destroy all the boxes to their games / toys with little pieces and lose everything. My purge quarantine project was to get giant zip lock backs and organize all toys, puzzles, and activities with small pieces. I keep the bags upright in a long skinny storage ottoman and the kids can only pull out one bag at a time. If they put it away they can get another.
Post by countthestars on Apr 15, 2021 11:54:56 GMT -5
I've used a clean spare diaper in the car to dry off playground equipment or wet grocery carts when I don't have a towel handy.
Baskets of clean socks live next to our door so no one has to run back upstairs for socks as I'm trying to get them out the door.
I send my kids to the car (in the garage) to hop in while I do one last sweep/look around as we're heading out. It's easier to think when they're not talking to me.
I pre-fill the dog's bowl with her morning food so she's not barking when my family is still asleep.
I keep a change of clothes for each kid in a wet bag in the car so they can change and I have an easy place to put the wet clothes when we end up somewhere messy or wet or there's an accident.
Post by countthestars on Apr 15, 2021 11:56:57 GMT -5
Oh, and I don't fold many of my kids clothes. They pretty much wear all cotton/comfy stuff or athletic clothing so I just lay it flat and throw it in the drawer.
I buy my kids 2 good pairs of gloves for the winter. If one pair still has the tags on them at Spring Break, they can “trade” in the gloves for a toy. They have never lost a pair of snow gloves! (The little cheap knit ones are another story, though they’re pretty good with those, too!) They’ve had one temporarily misplaced on the bus, but they were motivated to find it the next morning instead of chalking it up to being gone. As they’ve gotten older and play outside more, I have bought 3 pairs, as sometimes one pair is still wet or a pair gets a hole in them, but one pair worked up until 3rd grade!
I taught them to make their own breakfast really young, so I can have slower mornings.
Post by ellipses84 on Apr 15, 2021 12:54:34 GMT -5
Alexa and Siri are my virtual assistants. If I tell the kids they have 10 minutes to get ready, do something or finish up their screen time, I set an Alexa reminder so I don’t lose track of time while I leave the room and do something else. She tells them when time is up and they love her so they don’t hassle her like they do me 😂 I set 5 minute warning daily reminders for a virtual class for one of my kids because it was at an odd time.
I keep various shopping lists (Costco, grocery, hardware, etc) and activity / bucket lists in my iPhone notes/ reminders and use Siri to add to them, so no matter what I’m doing I can just say what pops in my head and not forget it before I have time to write it down.
When she was younger I put a sippy cup of milk in the fridge and a snack trap of cherrios on the counter so she could have breakfast without waking us up at 6am on weekends.
Each weekend, I make 14 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the week for my 2 kids. They go in freezer bags and when I pack lunch boxes, I just pop a frozen sandwich in each. On the weekends, the kids just take one out when they are hungry and leave it on the counter to defrost. I know they have those UnCrustables but since my kids eat PB&J literally every day I use natural PB, the one specific bread they will eat, no sugar added jam etc to minimize complaints.
I also developed a "formula" for packing lunch boxes, since my kids eat lunch and 2 snacks at school.
Frozen PB&J sandwich, gogurt, and cheese stick always. Then I add one type of fresh fruit (I try to send whole apples/bananas or things that don't require advance preparation) and a crunchy snack of some kind (Cheese Its, pretezels, goldfish etc). I used to feel bad about sending the same things every day but my kids don't seem to mind and it's made life easier for me.
The Tooth Fairy asked AJ to leave his lost tooth in a baggie on the kitchen table, and then hides his money in an envelope elsewhere in the kitchen...so that way they don't have to worry about accidentally waking him up getting the tooth out from under his pillow. At my sister's, the TF totally understands that my niece was a little creeped out about them coming in while everyone was sleeping so they said she could tape a baggie with her tooth in it to the front door and the TF would leave an envelope with money in its place.
Along those lines, we don't need an Elf on the Shelf at home because I have all Santa's contact info-phone, email, Twitter handle, you name it. And if the eyes in the back of my head can't see whatever shenanigans AJ is thinking about pulling, the dogs will tell me after he goes to bed. That way, another kid who really needs an EOTS can have the Elf that would normally come to our house.
The Tooth Fairy asked AJ to leave his lost tooth in a baggie on the kitchen table, and then hides his money in an envelope elsewhere in the kitchen...so that way they don't have to worry about accidentally waking him up getting the tooth out from under his pillow. At my sister's, the TF totally understands that my niece was a little creeped out about them coming in while everyone was sleeping so they said she could tape a baggie with her tooth in it to the front door and the TF would leave an envelope with money in its place.
Along those lines, we don't need an Elf on the Shelf at home because I have all Santa's contact info-phone, email, Twitter handle, you name it. And if the eyes in the back of my head can't see whatever shenanigans AJ is thinking about pulling, the dogs will tell me after he goes to bed. That way, another kid who really needs an EOTS can have the Elf that would normally come to our house.
Along these lines, last December I changed my Dad's contact info on my phone to say Santa Claus with a picture of Santa. Then I would text "Santa" updates on my kids' behavior and "accidentally" leave my phone somewhere that my oldest would find it. The best was when we could time it so that DS would see the text pop up in real time.
atexan, Ooh I like that! A couple years back I used one of those holiday photoshop apps to add Santa on a picture of our tree after we had put the gifts underneath and made sure to show it to AJ. Now every time some kid at school tells him Santa isn't real I remind him that he saw the picture I took and he's like "oh yeah!" I know it's prolonging the inevitable but I'm not ready for that yet! Especially since Z is so much younger so he'll need to help us keep Santa going for her for a while longer.
osulori same! My DS1 is 7, so I knew this might be the last year he'd really believe. I do think he might end up being one of those kids who wants to keep believing even after they pretty much figure it out. DS2 is 4 and this was the first year that he really "got" the whole Santa deal.
My best trick is one I use for long car rides. I pay my kids each $1/hour to either go to sleep or pretend to be asleep. They al look forward to long car rides so they can get $$ and my H and I enjoy quiet time and can chat up front.
I think I've told this one before but my kids are older now and think its hilarious.
Before they could read, I would tell them things in the grocery store or Target or where ever was just for dogs. I'd pretend to read the label on a box of cookies they were eyeing, "Oh, bummer. These say dog treats." or a toy they were asking for, "Oh, man, that does look like a fun toy, but it says only for big dogs."
They would even start asking me if something was just for dogs before asking if they could have it. LOLOLOLOL
Post by ellipses84 on Apr 15, 2021 19:26:24 GMT -5
fryjack2 LOL! I tell my kids food might be spicy but it doesn’t work on the youngest who loves spicy stuff. We also had the “music truck” drive by our house every day for a few years before my kids discovered it also sold ice cream.