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This post is sponsored by Mott’s.
Being moms (and dads), we all find little ways to make life roll a little smoother. Some families develop special chore charts or rotations, others might have a special meal prep plan. There are two things that I have found to be shortcuts or lifesavers in our own family, so I wanted to share them with you!
My first shortcut has to do with laundry and this little trick might make you fall in love with me.
Get a mesh laundry bag or lingerie bag for each of your kids. The colored mesh bags are nice so you can keep each kid’s laundry separate. Then, each kiddo puts their dirty socks and underwear in the bag. When you’re ready to do laundry, throw the bags in the washer and dryer, then give the bags back to the kids to match, fold, and put away. No more wondering whose sock is whose, plus it’ll help with the mismatched missing socks!
My next favorite parenting shortcut has to do with food! If your kids are like mine, they can get a little fussy or on edge if they start to get hungry. Sometimes when we are running errands or get stuck in long waits, we need some little snacks to tide us over until our next meals. So, I created a snack bin that goes in our car and holds some simple snacks for us to grab. The Mott’s® Snack & Go applesauce pouches are great for our snack bin and so easy to eat in the car! I even include some mini bottles of water, which get used quite often (watch that you don’t leave the plastic bottles in the sun or hot car) and some crackers.
Those are two of my favorite parenting shortcuts, and here are a few of my followers’ favorite parenting shortcuts/tips!
My kindergartener hates doing his homework, especially writing sentences or numbers over and over. I place a small candy like jellybean, pez, fruit snack, etc at the end of each row. When he finishes a line of homework he gets to eat one. Gets the homework done with no fights! — Heather
I always, always have pre-packaged snacks in my bag. Cheddar bunnies solve most problems. — Robin
A heads up has been my parenting secret for years. Kids are just like us, they don’t want to be told that they have stop what they are doing right now. If you give them a heads up, hey guys we will be leaving in 10 minutes…it seems to make it better for everyone. — Michelle
I make sure outfits are picked the night before and any bags, diaper or church, are ready the night before as well. Makes getting out the door in the morning much easier. — Becky
Sleeping in is really important to me and to my hubby so we created an incentive. We really limit (almost nonexistent) during the week and on Saturday morning they are allowed to watch tv for as long as they let us sleep in. They have learned to get breakfast, feed the pets, let the pets outside and resolve conflicts very quietly because they know the second we wake up the tv turns off. (All for about 60-90 min of tv) on the plus side I never have to get up before 9 (sometimes 10) on a Saturday. — Michelle
“word of the day”- when I knew we were going to be out all day (works especially well when traveling) I would give the kids a new word . At checkout counters or anywhere where they would start acting up I would ask about the word of the day and ask them to make sentences, or relate it to something they saw. It worked like a charm cause it gave them something to do and think about. Patience was a particular success cause we got to “practice” it at an hr long security line in Miami airport!! — This That and the Passport
Now it’s your turn! What’s a favorite parenting shortcut of yours? Comment and share below!
Mott’s® Snack & Go is the nutritious applesauce kids love in a squeezable pouch they can take with them wherever they go. Mott’s is also the only applesauce brand with Box Tops for Education®, helping to support kids’ schools. Visit us on motts.com to learn more.
Oh my goodness the tip about candy at the end of rows of math problems is genius!! I am constantly reminding my son to stay on task. I am going to try that!
Great Krista! Hope it is helpful. And a thank you to reader Heather for the idea!
My shortcut relates to traveling with angst or toddler. Mornings are hectic at home much less when you are on the go or on vacation so when paking for my little one I place his entire outfit (including morning/bedtime diaper) into a gallon size ziplock bag. Not only is it easy for me to toss my husband’s direction without hunting each piece down, all I have to do is count how many ziplocks I have vs how many clothing changes we will have. No more hunting for matching socks or t-shirts when that theme park is calling your kiddo’s name!
I know a lot of families that love the ziploc bag approach Chrissy. We’ve always been able to just pack the outfits together using our teach your kids to pack system, but the ziplocs are great for babies and toddlers! Thanks for sharing!
Just bumped into this on Pinterest, sonsimple, yet genius!
We have just hit the stage where my 6 and 2 year old daughters can have the same underwear and dresses (don’t get same styles before age 2 and after about age 8 or so in UK) so tights and pants look identical after drying till they try to get them on. Mesh bags would solve this as you say, plus we have a daily nightmare finding school uniform for eldest as she removes items in different places when she gets home and it doesn’t always get found and washed together. (Tights by front door with shoes, knickers in bathroom, school jumper randomly thrown, skirt and tops anywhere between hall and her bed!) She can have another mesh bag for school stuff and then at least I can tell at once what I need to go hunting for.
Daft thing is, I run a cloth nappy (diaper?) library so have dozens of mesh laundry bags around!
Thankyou :-D
Fabulous! It has saved us so much time. And no more moments where no one claims the pair of socks or undies!
I love mesh laundry bags, too! Here are 6 other uses (articles.earthlingshandbook.org/2011/01/19/zippered-mesh-bags-for-laundering)!
One of my favorite parenting shortcuts is having each person use the same water glass all day or even for several days. The dishwasher fills up more slowly, so less time is spent unloading it and less money spent on utilities–and when we started doing this, we didn’t have a dishwasher, so I was really motivated to minimize the dishes I had to wash by hand!