Being a busy parent comes with its fair share of challenges, from managing household chores to ensuring your little ones are happy and engaged with activities and balancing work or professional life. With so much on your plate, it’s sometimes a real juggle, and essential to find smart hacks that can make your life simpler! Here are the top 10 parent hacks/tips that have helped me as a busy mum with little kids, and hopefully, they can help you streamline your daily routines and give you back more quality time to enjoy with your family.
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Simplify meal preps: Make meal preps easier by having a system or meals that you know your family and kids love, for example certain days with ‘Tuesday Tacos or Friday Fish and Chips’ or alternate the 2nd week with another favourite family meal. Sometimes, it helps to get kids involved with some choices from a list ‘would you like spaghetti or pizza?’ If they’re older, they can help with preparing meals or choosing items for their lunchbox. Some hacks include spending some time ahead of the work week and using clear containers with chopped up fruits/veg or snacks ready for lunchboxes prepped the night before. During the week, one-pot or slowcooker meals are easier to manage. Additionally, Mavella Superfoods range can also help with getting fussy eaters with veggies and other superfoods.
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Online Groceries: You can save you time and enhance productivity using online grocery delivery or pickup services. This helps you avoid the stress of shopping with little kids in tow (as you know they always want more than what you’ve budgeted). With online groceries, it’s easier to shop within budget and apply some great online savings and discounts. Sometimes, with sale items you can buy in bulk or at certain times during the year. I tend to keep a running grocery list my phone or share you can also share this in a group chat/app with family, and easily add items as they run out.
3. Outsource Tasks/Chores: Sometimes, outsourcing tasks like cleaning, gardening, and lawn mowing is a practical solution in today’s fast-paced world, to manage busy lives. If it’s affordable in the family budget, hiring professionals can reclaim valuable and quality time that can be spent with your children or focused on personal pursuits, alleviating the stress of maintaining a clean and organized home and burden of chores after a busy workday or week.
4. Shared calendar/planner: Using a family planner to schedule work and family time or shared calendar on your phone or apps like to doist can help manage time effectively and reduce feelings of being overwhelmed. In our family calendar, we have a column for each kid’s activities. Sometimes, when it all gets a bit too much with planning ahead, it helps to identify your top three priorities for family/work each day. Kids can get involved in the planning too – for example, the next holiday destination, or picking out the game for games night
5. Rewards or chores chart: You can help kids establish a daily or consistent routine by have a rewards or chores chart. It provides them with structure and security, and they know what is expected of them to be ‘rewarded’. I use a magnet system for my kids, where they can gain magnets for certain chores/activities and helping around the house. These magnets are great incentives to be turned into coins – where they can choose to spend (e.g. school treats) or learn the concept in saving for the future - a toy/something they really want to buy or in the bank.
6. Make time for Self-Care: Making time for yourself is essential in staying healthy mentally and physically to handle life’s challenges. It helps to wake up earlier than your kids (if they’re not super early risers!) to go for a quick jog or walk or home excercise/gym, or take evening classes/workouts if your partner or carer can look after the kids one night. If you don’t have a lot of time or help to exercise alone, then you can sneak in quick ones around looking after kids - squats/running after your kids up and down stairs, or walking kids to school on a nice day.
Prioritising eating well and getting enough sleep is also essential to looking good and energized. If your kids are still very little and waking up a lot, these blackout blinds from Sleepy Sundays or Mahalo Eco Blinds may be helpful, or if toilet training and kids are wetting the bed, these bed wetting mats are handy for those late-night changes. Lastly, make time to have kid-free nights, if you’re able to call in the babysitter or help from parents/grandparents, it does wonders for the relationship and overall health.
7. Screen time limits: It’s so hard to avoid screen technology these days, and when you’re busy, it’s so easy to use technology devices to keep kids entertained. Having some screen time limits for kids is crucial for promoting healthy development and encouraging a balanced lifestyle. My hack with consistent boundaries around time spent on devices, include being able to use it after sports activities, food, chores, homework (if any)/books, and have a setting on the device for screen time limit that shuts down or needs a password to extend time.
8. Flexible Work Options: If you are juggling work and kids, exploring flexible hours or remote work if possible elevates some of that stress around balancing family activities and house chores. If you’re able to negotiate flexible hours (part-time, condensed hours on certain days, later starts/early finishes) or work in parent-friendly environments, this would be helpful with managing multiple priorities. If you’re working from home around kids, it’s helpful to also set clear work-life boundaries and define specific working spaces or hours with your family to ensure both areas receive the attention they deserve. Help your children understand when you are working and when you are available to engage with them.
9. Turn kids artwork into photobooks: This is a favourite hack I like to use as parents get inundated with all the kids (especially if you have more than one) drawings/art activities, writing, cards they bring home from childcare/school. I love to keep them all and the memories they bring with them, however, it clutters the house and it does pile up over the years. I have them in boxes and when there is a stretch of time, I scan them and turn them into photobooks where you can keep the memories forever (not fading/discolouring or breaking) in a neat way, and discard the bits and pieces that are not kept.
10. Build a support network: Lastly, this is probably the most essential one of all, having a great support network helps immensely to alleviate stress! Some of us are not as lucky to have our parents around to help, but you can also get support from extended family, other parent friends, babysitters. Having a few on call for those unexpected situations when you suddenly need the support helps with managing life’s challenges with little ones.
These Top 10 tips and hacks for busy parents can make a significant difference in managing daily life with little kids. You can simplify your routine, reduce stress, and create more meaningful moments with your family. Remember, it’s all about finding what works best for you and your unique family dynamic. Enjoy the journey of parenthood with these helpful tips!
