Make your life with kids simpler

by Roger Sinasohn (Subscribe to Roger Sinasohn's posts) Mar 26th 2008 11:11AM

Categories: Just For Dads, Fun & Activities

There's no doubt about it -- kids definitely complicate your life. Anything you can do to simplify things will improve your chances at getting through parenthood alive. Luckily, you're not alone in this. Leo over at Zen Habits has got your back. With six kids of his own, I'd say he probably knows a thing or two about parental survival.

His latest post offers you twenty-five ways to simplify your life with kids. We're big fans of #13, although we include pajamas as well, so that if the kids pass out on the way home from a party, we don't have to wake them up to change when we get home. Rachel is also very good at numbers 6 and 10, but for me, prepping early means getting the kids ready before we're supposed to be somewhere.

Check out the list; you're likely to find something that will help you out. If you've got something add, by all means, let us know in the comments here. Because, personally, I can use all the help I can get.

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Sheryl 3-26-2008 @ 3:40PM

I have got to advocate for the prep-the-night-before suggestion. We are not morning people, so the rule is, "if it's not ready the night before, it ain't happening in the morning".

Our weeknights can be pretty hectic, so each weekend over the school year, I have my daughter go over the following week's lunch menu to pick the day(s) she'd like to eat school lunch (although, it's usually not at all), then I make sure she's got the money in her school account. Then we make sure we have all of the requisite "stuff" to make brown bag lunches for the remaining days. Lunch get made the night before.

Then, she puts together one outfit for every school day, taking into consideration which days are PE days, which days she does an after-school class, etc. She doesn't get to change her mind about any of those outfits unless she does so the night before, the weather made a radical change that makes something unwearable or there is some other unforeseen event. It's a little rigid and crazy-sounding, but you would not believe the sanity it has brought to our lives.

Backpacks, swim bags, lunches, briefcases, etc., get packed up and put in one spot the night before.

Bottom line: mom and girl-kid are out the door in 45 minutes each morning. This includes mom showering, dressing and doing hair/makeup (kid showers at night), and kid dressing, grooming and having breakfast.

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