Parenting short cuts - things you skip or do the bare minimum on

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You barely bathers. Yes they do smell, have crusty places, gross hair. C’mon.

They're disgusting. I can only imagine what their homes and cars smell like. Bathe your children and change their sheets! Also, to the mom who lets their kids sleep in the clothes they go to school in - you should find another hack. No one is that busy.

I'm the OP - will you two go away? There are plenty of threads for bashing people for their "inadequate" parenting or housekeeping. Or you can start one. This thread is dedicated to the concept that NO ONE can do it all perfectly, and hearing real world examples of people cutting corners. Your judgment isn't welcome here.

I agree, no one can do it all perfectly, but I personally don't think bathing your children or washing their sheets on a regular basis rises to the level of perfection. No one said they had to be perfectly groomed or the sheets had to match or whatever, but they can both be clean. And I am completely judging sleep in your clothes mom, that is truly ridiculous. Also the mom who doesn't brush their kids teeth - take the time to do that. There has been some useful advice here, but all advice isn't good advice.

I’m not the PP(s) who claim to do this but I don’t get why it is ridiculous? If the kids bathe/shower at night and get into clean clothes to go to sleep…its not that different from waking up, changing into clean clothes?

You sweat in your sleep — yes, even in the winter when the heat is on and/or you’re under blankets. That’s why you change out of your pajamas into actual clothes before going out to be around other people. Good lord. Who reaches adulthood without understanding this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I‘m blown away by the people who aren’t bathing their children daily. My children get dirty from playing, I‘m assuming these kids don’t play outside?

Playing on a city playground doesn't involve that much dirt...

Gross.

[Anonymous]

Me horrified reading this thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a rotation of 4 meals that we cycle through.

It makes grocery shopping easy, straightforward and cooking is very fast. We buy fresh fruits in season and minor variations in vegetables but 90% of the time it’s broccoli or green beans. Once or twice a week we get take out for variety, but the 4 meal rotation has gone over well with the family.

My husband has food trauma as a result of his mom doing this as a kid.

lol what is that? Like actual trauma or he doesn’t like lasagne because he ate it too much as a kid? NP

I am a new poster but had to laugh at this because my 20 yr old did will eat just about anything you offer her. She loves to try new food but she will NOT eat lasagne. She was 7 when our youngest was born. I was in the hospital for 5 days. The fabulous mom's at our grade school took turns bringing dd home that week. Each mom dropped dd off with a meal for that night and one for the freezer so we would have an easy meal once I got home. On the 4th day of my hospital stay my husband bought a stand alone freezer off of Craigslist. When I got home we had 8 trays of lasagna in the freezer. We ate that for dinner at least 2 nights a week for months. The other kids don't remember but dd will never eat it again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No travel sports or dance company nonsense that takes a lot of time and money.

No elf on the shelf.

Don’t care about anything that would be on Pinterest.

Kid handles their own homework

My husband does adult laundry and nanny does kid laundry. My husband will take kid laundry when we stop the nanny. I have no idea how often our sheets are changed — maybe every other month.

Don’t clean bathrooms at all in between every other week cleaning service unless we had a guest and then I would make sure their sink and toilet were clean. Doesn’t happen often.

Don’t care much what kid eats within reason of some fruit and veg each day. If she wants to make herself toast for dinner with a banana — who cares?

Don’t do field trips — my husband does them occasionally

No gift bags for parties we have. You can show up and run around in my yard and eat pizza and a cupcake. Kids seem to have fun.

How is not doing elf on the shelf a shortcut? Making lunch the night before is a short cut...for example

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is why I chose to stay at home. Inkmow mot everyone has that choice but man every day so just a hurdle for people to clear. Considering cleaning my children and brushing their teeth something that is negotiable. Nope. That’s no way for me to live.

I work and bathe my kids and brush their teeth… the most neglected kids I see usually have SAHMs who spend their days at Target or Starbucks, the kids are carted around with an iPad for entertainment and they never get to go to camp or classes.

Oh yes blame ALL SAHM

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never used soap or high temperatures to wash DS's bottles or pump parts. Just rinsed with water (only) in the bathroom sink and air dried until next use

ew some of y'all are nasty

The "nasty" people getting shamed on this thread probably don't have intensely fragile kids with food allergies out the wazoo

I won't even begin to understand the correlation you're making here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is why I chose to stay at home. Inkmow mot everyone has that choice but man every day so just a hurdle for people to clear. Considering cleaning my children and brushing their teeth something that is negotiable. Nope. That’s no way for me to live.

I work and bathe my kids and brush their teeth… the most neglected kids I see usually have SAHMs who spend their days at Target or Starbucks, the kids are carted around with an iPad for entertainment and they never get to go to camp or classes.

Things you made up for 1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fact that the pearl clutchers showed up to this one just proves how American parenting is all about making your own life hard and difficult to prove you’re a good parent. I wonder what the French parenting hacks would be. Or if we’d even recognize them as “hacks”. Who cares how often someone washes their sheets, or if they sleep in their clothes! If you cannot smell them, it is all good. Put down your torches. Different strokes, man. And if we can parent good kids without their having matching socks, or if their teeth are fine without dentist visits at age 3, then… who cares?! (I don’t love the self-congratulatory tone of some of these posts, I must admit… don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back for training your child to carry their own bag. I mean, that’s good- but not the point of this thread!)

I remember reading that when different ancient civilizations encountered Europeans they considered them very smelly. This entire thread makes sense in that context.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who are you awful parents on here making the hack-sharing parents feel bad? Go away! More tips, please, everyone else. Mine include- no helping with HW, very few if any play dates when they were little, never cleaned the car, sheets get washed about once/month or so. Cleaning a bathroom now means doing things with bleach wipes and nothing more. Baths twice a week is fine in the winter. One pair of nice shoes/one pair of sturdy sneakers per child. In the days of potty training, I would throw away anything too gross. I also felt pretty good about throwing away stray socks. No more hunting for a match for a 2$ old navy sock.

One hack I found out wasn’t so great was buying my two boys the same style of underpants. Trying to keep the L’s and the XL’s separate was insane. I ended up throwing them all away and starting over.

Not bathing your kids or brushing their teeth is not a life hack. That's just gross.

If these posters were poor and POC someone would have called CPS on them.

[Anonymous]

Here is a hack that makes it easier to dress my kids in the morning.

Before dressing them for the day, I spin their clothes in the clothes dryer to warm it up. My kids do not fuss to change if their clothes are warm and toasty.

[Anonymous]

My kids are older now 13-20 but here are a few things we have always done.
Most meals include uncooked veggies. My kids will eat almost any veggie raw so I never bothered to cook them. The one exception is a steam broccoli for a few minutes in the microwave. Frozen peas are also served frozen.

Dishes are stored in a cabinet that is counter height. The kids are in charge of setting the table and emptying the dishwasher (since they were 5)
Every person in the house has responsibilities to the house and family.
Kids do their own laundry starting at 8. Everyone knows how to switch the loads. Wool socks and bras with underwires do not go in the dryer. Yes my 8 year old boys knew this. They also knew not to leave laundry with baskets with clean clothes down in the basement because sprickets like clean warm clothes!

Run the dishwasher every night

No travel sports

Cook extra and freeze enough for another meal.

When I make meatballs I make enough for 10 meals. 5 Italian, 5 Swedish
Why do all of those dishes more once!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is why I chose to stay at home. Inkmow mot everyone has that choice but man every day so just a hurdle for people to clear. Considering cleaning my children and brushing their teeth something that is negotiable. Nope. That’s no way for me to live.

I work and bathe my kids and brush their teeth… the most neglected kids I see usually have SAHMs who spend their days at Target or Starbucks, the kids are carted around with an iPad for entertainment and they never get to go to camp or classes.

I'm a SAHM. Today I took my kids on a mile-long hike to see an historic tree. On the way there, my kids learned to recognize a new species of fern, in addition to the ones they already know from previous outings, which we do 1-2 times a week. My 2yo can read and my 5yo does algebra for fun (his choice).

I'm also the PP who lets Amazon do all my grocery shopping, serves the same meals most weeknights, and sends my kids to camp at school without even researching other options. Like everyone on this thread, I have learned that you will burn yourself out if you spin your wheels overthinking and overdoing kid stuff. I love the idea of cutting corners and finding ways to make parenting easier. I might not adopt all the previous suggestions, but I truly appreciate hearing what others are doing and invite the Judge Judys on the thread to unclench.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll start -

No toddler music/gymboree classes
Wash sheets monthly
No elf on the shelf

+1 to all these
I wish i could say no club sports, but i got suckered into it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is why I chose to stay at home. Inkmow mot everyone has that choice but man every day so just a hurdle for people to clear. Considering cleaning my children and brushing their teeth something that is negotiable. Nope. That’s no way for me to live.

I work and bathe my kids and brush their teeth… the most neglected kids I see usually have SAHMs who spend their days at Target or Starbucks, the kids are carted around with an iPad for entertainment and they never get to go to camp or classes.

Oh yes blame ALL SAHM

Woah woah woah I’m a lazyish mom about many things and it has nothing to do with working or staying at home. I stay lazy regardless of my situation, it is an internal force that guides me, not my employment status.

I do pb&j sandwiches for dinner, baths only a few times a week and there is no way I’m folding toddler clothes on the regular.