Here are some of the best parenting hacks to help reduce your load and make parenting a lot easier!
Parenting Hacks for Everyday Life
Newborns
1. Chest-to-Chest Tummy Time
Tummy time is so important for the physical development of your little one. They need to grow those muscles in order to grow properly and efficiently.
If your baby is having a hard time staying on their tummy, try doing chest-to-chest time! Your little one will enjoy it more, knowing you are right there with them. You can also put them on your legs when they get a bit older.
2. Be Prepared for Diaper Changes
If you are not prepared before you take off your little one’s diaper, things can get messy very quickly, especially for boys.
One way to help contain the mess is to put a wipe on top and then take off the diaper. If your baby happens to pee, the wipe will contain it!
3. Always Keep a Spare Diaper Bag in the Car
Sometimes you will be rushing to get out the door and might happen to forget a diaper or a change of clothes.
You never know when you are going to need those wipes, diapers, or spare clothes, as babies are messy 24/7! Having a diaper bag in the car at all times helps to avoid those scenarios.
4. No Mess Painting
If you want your baby to have fun painting but don’t want the mess associated with paints, this is a simple way to have a fun mess-free painting experience!
Drop some paint into a big Ziploc bag. Seal it and tape it all around the edges onto the floor, table, or high chair. Your child will love playing with the paint, and you will love not having to clean anything up!
5. Keep a Grocery Bag in Diaper Bag for Spoiled Clothes
Accidents are bound to happen, especially when we least expect it. It is always a good idea to keep a grocery bag or two in your diaper bag or car just in case your little one’s clothes get dirty!
6. Baby Powder for Sand at the Beach
This is a genius parenting hack everyone needs to know! Bring some baby powder if you plan to go to the beach with your kids. When you are done having fun, simply put some baby powder on your hands and legs, and the sand will rub right off!
Then you won’t carry home a bunch of sand in your cars or have your kids complain about the sand being itchy.
7. Keep it Kleen Pacifier
These pacifiers are simply incredible and a huge help for new parents. The Keep it Kleen pacifier will automatically close over your baby’s pacifier if it is dropped.
That way, you don’t have to worry about cleaning it every single time it drops on the ground.
8. Pool Noodle on Car Seat for Carrying
As a new mom, you will constantly be carrying around your baby’s car seat, and it gets heavy and sometimes painful on your arm.
To prevent that pain, put a cut-up pool noodle on the top to protect your arm from the hard plastic.
9. Zippers Only
Having zipper-only clothes is truly a lifesaver for those sleep-deprived parents. No one wants to take the extra time and focus to put back every button every time they have to change their baby’s diaper, especially in the middle of the night.
Clothes with zippers eliminate all that and will save you time and precious sleep!
10. Veggies Before Fruit
When you start to feed food to your baby, start with their veggies before adding in the fruit. Vegetables are not too sugary and will help them learn to love vegetables. If you feed fruits first, they might not enjoy vegetables after the sweetness of the fruit.
This is a simple yet effective way to help your child not be as picky of an eater!
11. Prepare Post Bath Items First
Before giving your newborn a bath, lay out all their post-bath items. Have a bath time changing area with everything you need.
Doing so will help you not worry or try to run around with your little one all wrapped up in a towel.
12. Blackout Curtains
Blackout curtains are another awesome parenting tip that truly makes a huge difference. Blackout curtains help your baby get as much sleep as possible and don’t allow any light to affect their wake-up times.
13. Pacifier Thermometer
You will need to check your baby’s temperature often while they are young, especially when they get sick. However, with traditional thermometers, that gets a little tricky.
Getting a pacifier thermometer will both soothe your little one when they are hurting and allows you to easily check their temperature!
14. Baby Sheet Over Crib to Keep Mosquitos Out
If you want to spend time outside with your baby during the summer, bring out your pack-n-play and put a baby sheet over the top.
Your little one will still get plenty of air and will be able to see everything around them, but it keeps out all the bugs, especially mosquitos!
15. Paint on Socks to Help Them Not Slip
A lot of baby socks will last until your little one is about to walk. But, most of those socks get really slippery.
Putting some puffy paint dots on the bottom will instantly create slip-free socks!
16. Glow in the Dark Pacifier
All parents should get glow-in-the-dark pacifiers. Your baby will spit them out all night long. To save you the trouble of finding it, you will instantly be able to spot the glow-in-the-dark pacifiers!
Toddlers
17. Sing Songs for Routines
Routines are crucial for your toddlers, but it can be a challenge to set them up sometimes. When you make up a fun song, it helps your kids to transition and learn the routine in a fun way.
This is perfect for morning routines and bedtime routines!
18. Always Offer a Variety of Food Multiple Times
Just because your toddler doesn’t eat their broccoli once doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. Sometimes it takes multiple times before they will attempt to eat each food.
Try to offer each food item at least 6-10 times before deciding if they don’t like it.
19. Use Scissors to Cut Food
Making finger foods for your toddler helps them to become independent when they eat and keeps them safe.
Instead of using a knife to cut up their food into small pieces, use kitchen scissors. It is fast and a lot easier too!
20. Bananas Before Bedtime
Eating a banana a bit before going to bed can help your toddlers settle down for bedtime and sleep deeper at night! Bananas have magnesium, potassium, and a few other great vitamins and minerals to help you get a good night’s sleep!
21. Lavender Epsom Salt Baths
Lavender Epsom salt baths also help calm your toddler down and prepare for bedtime. Epsom salts have magnesium, too, so with a mixture of lavender and Epsom salts, your toddler can calm down quickly and sleep deeply each night.
22. Quiet Box While Breastfeeding Baby #2
It can be a challenge to breastfeed your second child when you have a toddler. One of the easiest ways to entertain a toddler so you can feed your newborn is to create a special quiet box.
Only use the quiet box when you are feeding your baby, so your toddler knows it is special and will stay entertained the entire time!
23. Have One Day to Look Forward To
If you are a stay-at-home parent, sometimes the days blend together. To keep each week fun and exciting, have at least one day a week that is fun for everyone to look forward to.
For example, every Thursday can be pajama day where everyone wears their pajamas all day long!
24. Freeze Dance Song
If your toddlers are jumping up and down and need to let off some steam, put on the freeze dance song! This song will keep your children entertained and up and moving for a few minutes at a time.
25. Tickle Kids to Reduce Emotions
Tickling kids is a great way to get them to laugh, and laughter is one of the best ways to help your kids let out their emotions.
So tickle them, chase them, and just have fun to let them get out the emotions they don’t even understand yet. It will help your connection with your children and help them sleep better too.
26. Rotate Toys
Don’t keep all your toys in a container; instead, rotate them every couple of days. This will help your kids play with their toys all day long and will keep it exciting to get “new toys” all the time!
27. Save Cardboard Boxes for Fun
Cardboard boxes lead to all sorts of fun. For bigger boxes, your kids will love jumping in and out of them or making a fort with them.
For smaller boxes, toddlers will love coloring all over them. Boxes will become endless entertainment for them.
28. Sticker in Shoes
Cut a sticker in half and put one side in each of your toddler’s shoes. Then, teach them to put the sticker together when they put on their shoes! It is an easy way to get them to always put their shoes on the right feet from the start.
29. Monster Spray
Toddlers will start to become scared at night. Fill a spray bottle with water and tell them it is their monster spray. Then they can spray it whenever they get scared!
30. Glow Sticks in Bath
If you struggle with getting your kids to take a bath, create a fun bath experience by getting some glowsticks!
Dim the lights and pop the glowsticks in the bath and your toddlers will never want to get out!
31. Pool Noodle Blocks
Instead of wooden blocks, try cutting up a pool noodle into some circles for your child to stack them.
It won’t make a loud noise when it falls, and it won’t hurt them at all!
32. Put Magnets on Cups
Put a magnet on the outside of your toddler’s cup and hang it on the fridge. This will help them gain independence and keep them from losing their cup all the time!
33. Give Two Choices
Instead of telling your toddler what to do, offer them two simple choices. For example, instead of saying, “put on your shirt,” you can say, “do you want to wear the blue shirt or the red shirt?”
They will be happy knowing they are making the decision, and this will lead to fewer toddler tantrums.
34. Inflatable Pool for Sensory Play
For an easy way to contain sand, water, and other sensory play items, keep it all in an inflatable pool!
35. Pool Noodle for Side of Bed
When your toddler moves out of a crib, put a pool noodle under the sheet on the side of their new bed.
It will act as a soft barrier so they won’t roll out of the bed very easily!
36. Paper Plates
Sometimes, it is easier to use paper plates, so you have fewer dishes. Plus, your toddler will love a change-up for meals!
Older Kids
37. Snacks with Homework
If your kids are struggling with doing their homework, give them a snack while they complete their assignments. This will help them associate doing homework with something they love!
38. Trade Candy for a Toy Halloween
After you go trick or treating, your kids will come home with a huge bucket of candy.
Allow them to trade a certain amount of candy for a special toy or experience. This helps them not have too much sugar and gives them a choice to make on their own.
39. Experience Gifts vs. Physical Presents
Sometimes experience gifts where you do something together as a family is more fun than a physical toy or item for Christmas or their birthday.
Go on a road trip, to the trampoline park, or ice skating! They will love and remember that way more than a toy or new shoes.
40. Sibling Races for Mundane Tasks
If it is hard to get your kids up and moving in the morning or to go to bed, make it a competition between siblings. This usually will motivate your kids to brush their teeth, get their backpacks, and do every other mundane task they need to do.
41. Color Clock for Time Management
To help your kids learn about certain lengths of time, color in a clock. For instance, if they need to read for ten minutes, have 3:00 to 3:10 pm in all red.
This also works great for establishing routines!
42. Read a Book at Bedtime
A simple way to help your kids love reading books is to start reading to them when they are young. Make it a part of your bedtime routine.
Try to read a chapter every night to them. They will love to read and explore longer books when they are older.
43. Have a Code Word
One of the best parenting hacks for older kids is to establish a code word early on. A code word will help protect your kids from strangers.
Come up with a word together and be serious about it. They will learn to always ask, “what’s the code word” at the door before getting picked up from school, and this will help avoid dangerous situations.
44. Muffin Tin for Popsicles
An easy way to avoid drips and messy floors when eating a popsicle is to put a muffin tin upside down on the popsicle stick. It will catch all the drips!
45. Trace Child’s Foot for Shoe Shopping
If your kids don’t like putting on shoes at the store to try on, simply trace their feet before you head out the door. Then you can easily compare shoes to see if they will fit your kids. It will save you tons of time too!
46. Take a Picture of Your Child Before Going Somewhere
Before you head out the door, try to get a picture of your kid. If something bad happens to them, you will have an updated picture of exactly what they were wearing when they went missing.
47. Clean Up Glitter Spills with Lint Roller
There will probably be tons of glitter spills when you have kids. An easy way to clean up all the glitter is to use a lint roller!
48. Set a Timer for Chores
As your child gets older, they will not want to do as many chores. One way to make it easier is to set a timer for just 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Everyone helps to clean the house during this time.
While it seems like such a short time, the entire house can usually get cleaned in that time frame! This will also help motivate you when you don’t want to clean.
49. Listen to Music and Dance
There are going to be hard days and hard situations to deal with. One easy way to lighten the mood and keep things happy is to listen to some music and get up and dance.
It is a great way to release some tension and hard emotions our kids might be facing and it will help them get back to just having fun.
50. Spend Five Minutes at a Time Together
Focus on each individual child for just five minutes at a time. Listen to whatever they say or do something they really want to do. It doesn’t seem like much, but it will show them just how much you care about them.
These 50 parenting hacks will help make your life so much easier and help you enjoy being a parent! Change each of these up to fit your children and your own situation, and have fun creating more new hacks to use.
Comment down below your favorite go to parenting hacks!
