I and A Mag Dec19

Making Family Life Easier
Ever feel like you’re
trying to juggle too
many balls, half of
which are on fire?
Here are a few ideas that
might help…
Plan like a pro
If you have school-age children,
you no doubt find yourself wishing
they had their own personal
assistant at times. (And a cook,
cleaner and driver.) Between them,
my two have drama, yoga, maths
club, choir, piano, Taekwondo,
dance, computer club, youth club
and swimming lessons. And that’s
before you factor in play dates,
homework and school projects.
I find the easiest way to remember who needs what, where and on what day, is through a Google calendar that I share with my
partner. It means we constantly have notifications pinging at us, but we can remind the kids to grab their piano book or swim stuff
in the morning.
A wall planner is also handy, particularly a wipe-clean weekly planner hung next to the front door or on the fridge. Use it to keep
track of clubs, play dates, homework deadlines, whether they’re on school dinners or packed lunches and so on. I bought ours from
Amazon for £5. Now I just need to get my kids to remember to check it…
Encouraging children to put things away
Fed up of the kids dumping their bags and coats on the floor
when they walk through the door? Make it as easy as possible
for them to hang things up by installing extra hooks in your
hallway. If the hooks are low enough to reach easily, and only
for your kids’ coats and bags, it’s more likely they’ll get used.
Once you’ve reminded your children to go back and hang
their things up a dozen or so times, it becomes habit.
Help babies to sleep outside your home
When you’re a parenting journalist, you get sent a lot of press
releases. The one new product that’s really stood out from
the crowd for me recently is the POD Travel Crib. In short,
it’s a travel cot that folds up to become a changing bag. The
bag can be used to carry nappies, wipes and spare clothes,
and the cot mattress doubles up as a changing mat. Genius,
right? It takes less than a minute to turn it from bag into cot
(and we all know that every second counts when it comes
to sleeping babies). And, unlike a lot of baby products, this
one looks rather stylish. Think designer laptop bag, but on a
larger scale.
I ordered one for my sister the day I received the press
release, and it now goes with her pretty much everywhere.
My niece sleeps better in it than the car seat and it means my
sister doesn’t have to lug the pram around. It’s£65 from www.
bizzigrowin.com.
by Kate Duggan
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