6 Simple Things I Prep That Help Me Parent 3 Kids
After 12+ years of parenting, I’ve learned that doing a little bit of simple prep makes the work of everyday parenting go much smoother. This week, I’m sharing 6 things I prep - hope they're helpful!
As your Type A Mom friend I’m always looking for ways to streamline the behind-the-scenes work of parenting so we can spend more time with our kids instead of on the busywork of parenting. Some of that parenting work is straightforward - like scheduling doctor appointments - but some of that parenting work is less obvious. And because it’s less obvious, that parenting work is often overlooked or seen as something that can be handled without preparation.
After 12+ years of parenting, and having 3 kids, I’ve seen how being unprepared for some parenting work makes things harder on everyone. Once I saw that being reactive instead of proactive was adding extra stress where it didn’t need to be added, I looked at how I could lessen that stress, and I developed some systems and hacks that help.
This week I’m highlighting 6 simple things I prep and use every week (and some of them every day) that help me parent. These 6 ideas came out of much lived experience and trial and error, and I hope that some of them can help you too!
1. HANGRY KIDS AFTER SCHOOL → OFFER AN “ARMREST BUFFET”
Every day at school pick up my kids get into the car ravenous. It makes sense because lunch is around 11am and I’m getting them around 3pm, and that is a long time without food for growing kids! Plus kids don’t often eat all their food at lunch, so they’re really hungry at the end of the school day.
I learned quickly that being hungry at the end of a long school day also means being hangry… So I started bringing snacks to pick up and it helped everyone so much!
I line up snacks on my armrest so they can grab a snack as they get in the car. I call this snack set up the “Armrest Buffet” and my kids look forward to it every day, and I look forward to their much more stable moods😉
For snack ideas, I try to do a mini-meal and offer things they can’t have at school (i.e. 2 of my kids’ schools don’t allow nuts so I bring nut based snacks in the car for them), and I look for ways to include protein and hydration – two things kids need at the end of the day for energy!
2. FIGURING OUT BIRTHDAY PARTY GIFTS → KEEP A UNIVERSAL GIFT LIST & GIFT SHELF
Having kids means going to many birthday parties. And, that means giving many gifts to different birthday kids. Sometimes my kids know the birthday kid well so they tell me what they would want (today A(6) is going to a party and the birthday boy likes Minecraft so we’re giving a Minecraft Lego set to him), but many times my kids aren’t sure what the birthday kid would like. Not knowing what to give, and finding time to get a gift, adds extra work! Since giving gifts is inevitable with kids in the house, I figured out how to lessen that work by doing two things:
Universal Gift List: I put together a list of gifts organized by age (from 1 to 13) that are typically loved, and that are not too specific so many kids will enjoy them. Since my kids are 6, 9, and 12 I have a lot of experience with giving and receiving gifts, so I’ve only included items they love to get and give! Click here for the complete list.
Gift Shelf: I have a “Gift Shelf” in our house. It has different gifts that I know are universally loved (chosen from my gift list). If I don’t know the birthday kid well, or if I forgot to get a gift, when there is a party I simply go to that Gift Shelf and choose a gift, and wrap it!
3. HOMEWORK SUPPLY PANIC → HAVE SCHOOL SUPPLIES AT HOME
When my oldest son started kindergarten the school sent home a list of school supplies they needed for the classroom. I took him school supply shopping and it was so fun! But then, homework began and I realized he also needed school supplies at home to be able to complete his homework! Not only did he need school supplies, but he needed additional items that I didn’t have to buy for him for the classroom like flash cards, a portable desk to do homework anywhere, a rotating pencil caddy for the kitchen table, a dry erase board and marker, and more!
After too many panicked nights of rushing out to get homework supplies, I started stocking a full set in our house. Since homework is something we know is happening, being prepared for it has made things so much easier and allowed me to focus on what my kids need help with while doing homework as opposed to scrambling for supplies! If you’d like to stock your house too, click here for a list of what I keep at home (and why).
4. AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES PUSHES HOMEWORK INTO LATE NIGHT → KEEP HOMEWORK SUPPLIES IN THE CAR
Along the same note as having school supplies at home to be able to do homework, it turns out that having different activities after school, and 3 kids, means we don’t go right home from school to do homework every day. It also means that when my kids would get home from those activities, they were often very tired and not able to focus as well on their homework.
There is often downtime as one kid waits with me for another kid to be dismissed from school, or one kid has extra time between getting picked up from school and the start of their after school activity. I realized that if the kids could do homework during that downtime then they wouldn’t need to do it when they’re tired after their activities, or when stay up too late finishing it.
So now I stock my car with homework supplies so they can get some of it done in that downtime, and I added in a few car-specific homework items like a clipboard and a lap desk!
5. THINKING OF WHAT RECIPES TO MAKE → KEEP FAVORITE FAMILY RECIPES IN ONE AREA
Figuring out what’s for dinner every night can be a lot of work. I like to “meal plan” on Sundays which means I make a plan for every dinner each night of the week. I take into account what groceries we already have, and what time I realistically have each day to make food, and then I list the dinner for each night of the week. Then each night I just cook on autopilot – I’ve done all the heavy lifting of planning and thinking ahead on Sunday! Click here to read a more detailed explanation for the steps I take to meal plan.
One major element to making the Meal Plan work each week is that I have many recipes from which to choose so I’m not reinventing the wheel each time I need to think of what to cook. In my kitchen there is a bookshelf where I have:
Cookbooks I use often
Printed out recipes from websites that I love
The Dinner Recipe Book I put together of what I’ve created over the years that my kids love to eat
When I’m planning dinner, or when I need to pivot on a night where the planned dinner won’t work for some reason, I have all those recipes from which to pull! Having all those recipes that I know I like to cook from and that my kids love to eat takes a lot of the work (and stress) out of figuring out what to cook each night.
6. FINDING A DISTRACTION FOR BICKERING KIDS → STOCK UP ON “BACKUP CRAFTS”
Sibling bickering is inevitable… Over time I’ve found that one of the best ways to stop bickering between my 3 kids at home is to offer them something specific to do. For our family, that is usually some sort of art project or craft.
Years ago I realized that instead of scrambling to track down crafts/activities to distract my kids when they’re bickering (when tempers were already hot), having a dedicated shelf of hidden crafts ready to be pulled out when needed was PRICELESS to keeping my kids playing happily. I also realized that having these crafts are great for play dates – they’re an icebreaker if kids need that, they distract kids if they start arguing, and they can calm them down if the play gets a little too rough.
I now stock different crafts that are fun for my kids to do, and I make sure to have a variety of how much oversight is needed from me. Basically, independent crafts vs. ones I have to do with them so I can choose accordingly for whatever I’m able to do at that moment.
One of the biggest keys to the Backup Crafts getting my kids’ full attention is I do NOT show my kids the crafts I’m storing. Instead, when I need to use one, I bring it out as a surprise. The surprise adds an element of excitement to the craft that seems to help my kids more fully engage in it.
If you’d like to put together Backup Crafts for your house, click here for a list of craft ideas we like to keep at our home.
Life with kids gets busy and is unpredictable. But by having the basics for those 6 things prepared, I do feel like I can better handle whatever comes up each day! Please let me know if you try any of these ideas and how it goes!
❤️, Amanda, your Type A Mom friend
PS: Instead of 3 things that helped me parent, this week’s PS is going to be 3 quick makeup tool tips that I learned from my friend Patrice Dragicevich - she’s a makeup artist (we went to high school together!) who taught me and some friends how to do our makeup efficiently this week. She taught me a lot but these 3 makeup tool tips were eye opening for me so I wanted to share!
To find out when a makeup item expires, check the label for the picture of a makeup jar. It will say the amount of months from purchase that it’s good.
The “beauty blender” sponge to apply foundation is supposed to be wet! We’re supposed to get it wet then squeeze out the water, and then it will be about twice its size. I’ve been using it dry!
The blush sticks/round balls are NOT supposed to be applied directly to our face - we’re supposed to use a brush or our fingers so it blends well and isn’t too thick or bright. Oops!!
PPS: Next weekend I’m on a girls ski trip with my daughter C(9) and it’s my birthday, so I’ll be taking the week off and won’t be sending out an article. I’ll be back in your inbox on March 8th!
This was so helpful! My oldest is starting kindergarten next year and I wouldn't have thought to buy school supplies for home, yet it makes so much sense (and I also love school supplies so yes!).
This was genuinely very helpful. I’m working on turning my car (proud minivan owner 😜) into a better “workspace” for myself and my family, since we’re on the go all the time after school! These tips were super helpful! A+!