10 Ways to Simplify Your Life with Kids

6. Coordinate and Limit Your Kids’ Extracurricular Activities

For those of you familiar with our travel soccer schedule, I may come across as hypocritical on this one. (If I believed in the statement, “Do as I say, not as I do,” I would insert it here.) However! I do draw the line, albeit further down the chaotic highway than I was planning. That’s why neither of my girls will get to take gymnastics despite their incessant pleas. Also, to mitigate having two girls on separate soccer teams and in separate girl scout troops, I do have their music lessons scheduled at the same time. No small feat, but it has definitely simplified our lives.

7. Feed Your Baby Without Any Clothes On (The baby that is.)

As you can see from this photo, I definitely practice what I preach on this one. It is seriously easier to wipe down a baby’s skin after a messy meal, when she’s taken off her bib for the umpteenth time, than it is to try and “shout” the stains out later.

8. Use Lots of Baby Gates

Shortly after my youngest started getting into everything walking (yes, it took me three kids to discover this tip!), my Dad asked me “Whatever happened to playpens?” He knew I spent the majority of my time chasing after my toddler who liked to run laps around our house. I of course said they were passé. But after he left I got an idea. I decided to create a large scale playpen by putting up gates at each hallway on our first floor. Now the gates essentially divide our home in half and limit my daughter’s play area to either A) what I can see while working on the computer or B) what I can see while making dinner.

9. Use Lots of Plastic Bins

After ten years of parenting, it kills me I didn’t have enough sense to buy stock in Rubbermaid considering all of the plastic bins I’ve bought over the last decade! But plastic bins definitely help simplify my life with kids. We have plastic bins in all shapes and sizes for all sort of items including toys, shoes, hair accessories, toiletries, first aid supplies, and even a small one in the fridge for teething rings. While I know these bins aren’t good for the outside environment, they do wonders for our home environment.

10. Play

While there are lots of tips on how to manage the craziness of having kids, I also want to focus on what slows it all down for me . . . playing with my kids. Whether it’s throwing the ball in the backyard, playing Little People on the rug, or doing a craft at the kitchen table, I always feel better when I stop doing and start playing. As they say, it’s the simple things in life that matter.

I’m a certified School Counselor who works with students on various issues including anger management, social skills, anxiety, divorce, self-esteem, study skills, impulsivity and bullying. If you have any parenting or school issues that you would like me to address, please leave me a comment. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have in my weekly Ask the School Counselor segment.