Parenting is hard. We have very little, if any, control over when our kids throw tantrums, get sick, blow out their diapers, or decide they hate the food they happily ate without complaint the day before. But there are some things we can do to make parenting easier, and I’ve pulled together my top 5 tips for doing just that.

My problem? I struggle to follow my own advice. Even though I know doing these 5 things consistently will make my life as a WOHM easier, I find it so hard to actually do them.

1) Wake up before my kids. It’s so hard when I am sleep deprived (or just tired) to force myself to wake up early, but it makes the mornings so much smoother when I do. I can let our dogs out, make coffee, unload the dishes, start a load of laundry, and get dressed without two adorable but needy little children hanging on me. Occasionally I even have time to read my book, take the dogs for a walk, prep ingredients for dinner, or catch up on email. When they do get up, I am able to focus completely on them which makes getting them dressed and fed breakfast way easier. I never regret getting up before my kids, but it’s a struggle every day to find the motivation to do so.

2) Leave the TV off. Big P’s behavior dramatically improves when we leave the TV off. And by off, I mean absolutely off all day. He is more helpful and a much better listener, plus he will happily (and even sometimes independently) play with his toys and Little P. We read more books, play more games, and go outside more often, plus we avoid arguments about the TV when we just leave it off. It’s so hard to do though especially when our schedule is interrupted for whatever reason (and with 2 young kids & 2 working parents that happens frequently).

3) Keep up with the dishes and the laundry. While I’ve never loved dishes or laundry, I really hate them now that I have kids. There are just so many, no matter what’s going on. The best way for us to keep the dishes under control is to load the dishwasher after dinner, run it overnight, and unload it as soon as we wake up. This routine allows us to put dirty dishes directly into the dishwasher, which avoids the piles of dirty dishes in the sink. Likewise, the best way for us to keep up with laundry is to do 1 full load every day (wash/ dry/ put away) and catch up with the towels, cloth diapers, and sheets on the weekends. We also keep all of our laundry hampers in one place and pre-sort our clothes as we put them into hampers (which is my single biggest tip for making laundry easier and something I’ve actually consistently done since Big P arrived!). For whatever reason though, Mr. P and I are terrible at keeping up with dishes and laundry on a consistent basis, which just results in bigger and bigger piles.

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4) Shower at night. Showering at night not only makes my mornings easier, but it also helps me re-energize at night. After I’ve showered, I find I am extra motivated to do all the other things I should or want to do after my kids go to bed. It also just feels nice to go to bed feeling clean and knowing you’ve checked 1 thing off your to do list for the next morning. But when I’m exhausted and don’t want to do anything except sit on the couch and watch Gilmore Girls, it can be so hard to force myself to undress and step into the shower instead.

5) Put my phone down. I’m a better parent when I put my phone down. My kids are better behaved when they’re not competing with my phone for my attention. There I said it. So have so many other people (this is a great book on this very topic). But it’s so hard. I use my iPhone to snap photos of my kids, to commiserate with my Mom friends, and to feel connected to the rest of the world when your 3 year old asks you to cut his pancake up then cries because you cut his syrup. But it’s so worth it when I force myself to just put the phone down.

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What are your best nuggets of advice for other Moms? Do you have any tips and tricks to make it easier to follow your own good advice?