Smart Parenting Tips
I am a work at home mom. It’s basically a stay at home mom that holds the illusion of working while taking care of the kids. It’s especially difficult during the summer and the weather is warm and the kids want to play outside. What to do? How does one mom actually get everything done? I used to run an e-commerce business from home which proved to be too difficult while taking care of all 3 kids under 6. Besides, I had just discovered my love for blogging about health and wellness and wanted to focus on that. So I decided to purge some of my responsibilities. I sold the e-commerce business and set about changing my life so I could work on my computer, take back my house from the clutter of favor boxes, and spend more time with my kids.
5 Smart Parenting Tips – Work at Home and Mommy like a Boss
One. Make shopping for baby items hassle free.
One thing I’ve realized is that buying baby items in bulk is a necessity. There is no way I am going to drag the kids into a store, load up the cart while they dart in different directions and I look at prices. I love how I can save so much time buying Huggies Little Mover online. They come in the mail, I put them on my 2 year old, and they stay put. No leaks. No pulling it off (unless by me). No poop falling out of the sides when my toddler sticks her hands in her diaper. Yes, she does. It’s not the most fun thing to find a piece of poo on the dining room floor.
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Two. Schedule a Routine
A routine is key, especially when it comes to kids. They respond so well when they know what to expect, rather than finding out at the last minute what the plan is for the day. I have specific days that I work, and thanks to a husband who mostly works at home, I am able to escape to the library for 3 afternoons a week, on average. I have also instituted Wednesday as a no work day and the kids call it “Fun Wednesday.” So we do something fun after school, and now in the summer it will have to be something different like going to the local farm, the library, or playground – all free!
I find I work so much more efficiently at the library with no distractions and the kids feel better knowing that the same 3 days a week I go to the library in the afternoon and come home before dinner.
Three. Keep Calm and Meal Plan
I looooove meal planning. It saves my life, especially when I work in as many crockpot meals as I can. It’s great when I use my meal planning printable to keep track of what I am making each day and it helps at the grocery store as well. The key to meal planning is to be able to prepare part of the meal in the morning before you get busy with the kids or work. Then you just have to throw the meal together in the crockpot and let it go all afternoon or cook it later in the afternoon, long before the witching hour sets in and the kids get the munchies.
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Meal planning also makes it possible to keep healthy meals on the table and not scrambling to feed your family and ending up with take out or hot dogs every night. Of course there have been times when we’ve had hot dogs more often than I care to admit, but we got back on track. And the hot dogs were nitrate-free turkey dogs. I have to feel that makes it better, even just a little bit. Check out the huge list of easy and quick healthy recipes on this site to make meal planning easy.
Four. Don’t forget your shopping list.
When you have 3 kids in tow, you NEED to have a shopping list. Why bother going out if you don’t have a list? You may as well say, “See you later! Going to buy random stuff we don’t need and nothing we can actually use to make a meal!” While you are planning out your meals for the week, make sure you look in your kitchen to see what you already have on hand. I love to plan meals where I can use vegetables or other ingredients across meals so they aren’t sitting in my kitchen.
I love using Evernote for my shopping list. I can set it up on my computer and arrange items according to the store layout and it syncs to my iphone. Then, in the store, I am able to delete the items I have put in the cart. I am not organized enough to get coupons ready before I go out, but that’s always a plus if you can do that.
Five. Know When to Say Goodnight Moon
It’s not fun for anyone if you are burning the candle at both ends. I used to stay up until midnight every night working, then wake up at 6am after a fitful sleep with a breastfeeding baby and attempt to maneuver through the day. I was exhausted, cranky and had no energy for my kids. They were, after all, the very reason I was working so hard, so why was I taking out my exhaustion on them? I was living so unhealthy and I could feel it. I noticed a huge different when I began going to be no later than 10:00pm, if not earlier. Even if I wake up around 5am, I am more refreshed by having a good night’s sleep. And having some ME time in the morning makes the early morning chaos with the kids much easier to handle.
These 5 tips helped me learn smart parenting and I hope they help you too. It’s so much better to learn how to save time and use what time is available efficiently so you have more for your kids. That’s what they will remember when they get older. Not the toys you can buy them with the money you earn!
Don’t forget to write down the coupon code WOWHUGGIES so you can save $12 on a box of Huggies at diapers.com!
How do you work at home AND mommy like a boss? Share your tips!
Great tips! I definitely think making and keeping lists is very helpful.
I think these are awesome tips and I am so glad that you did what you needed to get your life back. Staying calm and trying to get enough rest are so important to get you through any day!
I attempted to work from home when my LO was 2. The result? He started preschool, lol. I’m trying again now. And the getting to bed will be the hardest part. There’s so much to do and so little time! But you’re quite right. It’s pointless if one of my goals in working from home is to spend quality time with my LO and I end up spending cranky time instead. Thanks for the tips!
Shay, I hear you. You are basically on auto-pilot all the time! But I have found these tips save my sanity. Though believe me, I have to remind myself to follow them.
Your tips are right on the mark! It’s nice to know other people have these ideas. I like getting the kids involved in meal time routine (like setting the table or folding the paper napkins into new shapes) so I can be in the kitchen but still be close to them.
Wow! Very insightful tips that I will need very soon with the baby on the way!