1) Tickle them awake - You know those mornings when you have to wake your kids up for school? Maybe you don't, because your kids actually fall asleep at a decent hour. But I have my twins in one room, and even though I put them in bed no later then 8:30pm, who knows what time they actually fall asleep. Once I leave the room, I think they stay up and chit chat for another 30 minutes about Legos or Clash of Clans. So naturally, they can't wake up in the mornings for school! I used to have to yell and threaten and give time-outs. But I finally got smart and thought I'd just tickle them until they physically get out of bed. I mean, it's genius! What else can make you wake up faster than loud, insane laughter? It works SO well. They're wide awake after a couple of minutes of incessant tickling, and I go my merry way downstairs to prepare breakfast. No fights, no anger; everyone is happy. :)
2) Unloading the dishwasher - You don't need to be a mom to use this trick. I read this somewhere but can't remember where. We have two dishwashers at home. But with 5 people in the house, sometimes I feel like I need 10 dishwashers. I don't mind loading them, but it's the unloading that drives me crazy. So now after one load of dishes are done, when I need clean ones, I just go directly to the clean dishes that are still in the dishwasher. That way, as time goes by, there are less dishes in the dishwasher to unload, and less dishes to load into the dishwashers. Love this tip. Even if you have just one, or two, or even more, this trick works.
3) Kids sleep in traveling clothes - Maybe you already do this, but I recently just learned this trick from a dear friend (you know who you are). I was telling her one day how much trouble it would be to get my kids ready in the morning to catch a 6am flight. She told me to dress the kids in the clothes they'd be traveling in when they go to bed. You know, just sweatpants and t-shirts and stuff. That way, you at least eliminate one thing you need to do. I was like, "why didn't I think of that?!" And we've been doing that ever since. It doesn't sound like a lot of time saved for those of you w/o children, but those of you that do have kids, you know what I mean!
4) Save plastic "kids" cups from restaurants - Those plastic "kids" cups that we get from restaurants when we order the kids meals really come in handy. On those mornings when we're running late for school (which is like, every morning), I make the kids breakfast and take them with me, then pour their milk in those kids cups with lids, and there you go! Breakfast in the car. It's nice because those cups already have lids. And it's the perfect portion for a meal. No more having to buy sippy cups at Target, and you get to help Mother Nature by re-using those restaurant cups more than once.
5) Do a potluck picnic instead of a sit-down meal - I thought of this when the boys were still very little. A bunch of our friends decided that we were going to go to the aquarium together with all our little ones. And we wanted to have lunch before we went. We were going to find a restaurant that would accommodate us all. I suggested that it might be better if each family brought some food to share, and just have a picnic at a nearby park. That way, the kids can eat and play at the same time, and we wouldn't be driving ourselves crazy trying to keep them in their seats, which is what we would've had to do had we been in a restaurant. This went well, except we were late and the picnic was over by the time we got there! Ha!
6) Go to dress rehearsals - For those of you with children who have school performances. If the school holds dress rehearsals and the school allows parents to go to those, because they want to accommodate everyone's schedule, then GO TO THOSE. Seriously. It's the same as the actual performance, only with significantly LESS PEOPLE. We just experienced that this week. My husband couldn't go to the actual performance today, so he went to the dress rehearsal yesterday. I went to both. And let me tell you, there were only maybe 10 parents there at most yesterday, with plenty of parking, as opposed to today, where it was almost impossible to find parking, and a mob of people fighting to get the "best" spot so they can see their own children perform and get good pictures. My husband got beautiful pictures yesterday of our daughter. It's a no brainer. Every year we're attending the dress rehearsals.
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| Our beautiful and silly little munchkin |
That's about all I can think of right now off the top of my head. When I think of more, of course I'll post them and share them with you. TGIF!
xoxo,
Lin
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