
Being a parent is, at the same time, one of the best and most overwhelming roles we have. Even though there is a lot of helpful technology developed with the aim of making our lives easier and more optimal, it seems that now it’s even more difficult to be a devoted and organised parent. Parents face a lot of challenges, and they have many obligations both at home and at work. It’s definitely not easy being a parent, but kids make it all worthwhile. To get a grip on your life, you need to learn how to be more organised and fun as a parent. Keep reading to learn more.
You should start with a morning routine; the idea is to create a functional and optimal morning routine. Then, you should make a menu plan. Moreover, creating a clearing routine involving the whole family makes things much easier. There are other things you can do as well, such as scheduling family meetings, and using a digital family organiser, to name a few.
Create a functional and optimal morning routine
From your own experience, you probably recall that mornings tend to be pretty hectic. There’s almost always some fuss and rush. To be a more organised parent, you should get a grip on your mornings - that means creating a functional and optimal morning routine. When you have your mornings under control, you are able to start your day calmly and without a rush - which is a huge benefit for your mental health. What helps in creating a consistent morning routine is creating and printing out morning routine cards for your kids. In that way, everyone knows what they should do, so the chances are higher that everyone will be ready for childcare, school and work on time.
Make a menu plan
When you have your morning routines under control, you can move to the next aspect - which is meal planning. Even though meal planning takes up some of your time, it saves you time and energy in the long run. Having a meal menu for the whole week, all worked out, takes the pressure off as you know what you’ll cook every day. It takes some time to get used to planning the weekly menu, so we suggest that you start small, with just a dinner planned for the week. When you master that, you can include breakfasts and lunches as well. Planning meals ahead helps you also stick to your budget and optimise your shopping.
Create a cleaning routine that involves the whole family
Cleaning and chores are also a big part of everyday life. However, they don’t have to take up a lot of our time necessarily. With good habits and organisation, doing the cleaning and completing chores is a piece of cake. For starters, it’s a job for the whole family, so find a way of including them. Everybody should do something around the house to help out, not just the mom or dad. When it comes to kids, they can do different things depending on their age, The important thing is to start introducing them to chores at an early age.
Make priorities for your family
Every family has some priorities, and they can differ from family to family. It’s essential to know what your priorities are to be able to organise yourself better. When you know your priorities, you can do your best to organise and make them work. Also, you can choose the right organisational tools. If you’re not sure what your priorities are, you should think about how you want your kids to feel about their home and growing up. Some plausible priorities can be to be kind, hardworking people, to make an effort, to work as a team, to do things on time, to be organised, and so on. Children learn all these valuable lessons at home and start learning them from an early age.
Schedule family meetings
Family meetings are great; you should start practising them if you don’t already. It would be a good idea to have a family meeting once a week. That way, you can check up on everybody and see if they are struggling. You can track everybody, and they can give their opinion about different things. You should treat your kids as active family members, which means that you should include them in some decision-making processes relevant to the family. They can also suggest some new, better or improved organisational methods that can come in handy.
Engage in fun activities and be active
The organisation doesn’t necessarily have to revolve around tedious tasks and chores - it can also include some fun activities. You should organise some fun activities every week and engage together as a family. They don’t always need to be complex - even the simplest activities, such as taking a walk, cycling, or going for a picnic, can do the trick. You should teach your kids to enjoy some meaningful activities. Additionally, you should teach them to be active and enjoy sports as it is suitable for their physical and mental health. Besides the things we’ve previously mentioned, you can also take trips, go to the movies or go bowling, for example.
Try some 10-minute family projects
There are probably many things around your home that you need to tackle. However, with some of them, it seems that they will take forever to complete. Luckily, there is a way you can surpass this. For starters, you should make a list of all the things that need to be done. Then, do them together with your kids, one by one, each day. You can divide them so that they last about 10 minutes. In that way, you’ll end up completing them, but they won’t take up a lot of time at once.
Use a digital family organizer
Another great thing that the modern era offers us is a lot of free useful apps and tools. One such tool is a digital family organiser. By having such an organiser, you can keep all the essential information in one place. You can have your grocery and shopping list there, you can track the progress and completion of chores. You can also use it for meal planning as well as to-do lists. Find the one that works for you and start using it.
Getting organised as a parent can be tricky, but once you get a grip on it, you’ll be unstoppably organised and efficient. This will lead to a happier and more fulfilled family life.