Ok busy parents and caregivers....looking for your go to tips..

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sljjjembeca
sljjjembeca Posts: 40 Member
in Motivation and Support
Alright people , I need some of your best ideas here. I am a more than full time working mom of 3 who finds myself leaving for work most days 430ish and not making it home until my last child’s extra curricular is over, usually between 9 and 10. My only day to shop and prep would be today but here I am watching 10 kids swim. How does everybody pack enough healthy food for growing children and yourself and what are you packing? I generally try to fit in jogging between sports pickups but find that increasingly difficult as Im picking up 1 child in between practices etc... I know you folks are out there doing it all in style lol, what am I missing?

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  • lolly2414
    lolly2414 Posts: 186 Member
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    I also have 3 kids. We have a rule of one activity at a time per child. Right now my son isn't doing anything and my daughters have soccer (1 practice for each on a week night and 1 game for each on Saturday mornings). Thankfully, my son only does a couple of academic clubs at school through the year that aren't very time consuming so that helps, but we've had to tell our girls no to a few activities because it would just stretch us too thin.

    As far as the kids' lunches go, I aim for a sandwich (the type of sandwich varies each day), 1 fruit and 1 veggie (usually baby carrots, celery, or sliced green or red pepper) per day. Usually I'll add a cheese stick or a yogurt cup too. Then they also get some type of snack-y food (pretzels, fruit snacks, Goldfish, granola bars, etc). It's not fancy, but it's enough.

    Right now I'm not working so I'm not packing my own lunches, but I plan to go back to teaching sometime this school year (probably as a sub) and my lunch will be similar to my kids, but maybe with more salad. In the winter I often just have a microwavable cup of soup for lunch.

  • Famof72015
    Famof72015 Posts: 393 Member
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    All moms are amazing!! Keep up the great work!
  • sljjjembeca
    sljjjembeca Posts: 40 Member
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    Thank you so much for your ideas, really made me think for sure! I agree my kids do too much, the main issue is travel time for me, we live so far out and their activities are not in the same town but your ideas have given me much to ponder, especially having them help with the packing..
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
    edited August 2018
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    I agree with everyone else, that is too much. I would have made a "one activity at a time" rule a long time ago. Of course everyone has different priorities and having your children do all of that may be yours. I don't know if you've mentioned yet or not, are you married? Is the other parent helping with all of this? I found that one of my many down-falls is trying to be a martyr and "doing it all" on my own instead of asking for help and expecting my husband to take on half the responsibility.
  • Bianca42
    Bianca42 Posts: 310 Member
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    I order my groceries online and pick them up at 8am Sunday morning (usually before the rest of the house even wakes up.) That alone saves me a ton of time. My boys do karate 2x a week, so I signed up to do it with them. I figured I could either spend 45 minutes fiddling with my phone...or join them and get in a workout.

    We were also doing swim lessons 1 day a week. But then the kids were in different classes at different times...so I gave up the swim lessons because it was just too much.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    Ordering groceries is a HUGE time saver. Plus you don't make any impulse buys, so it also saves money.
  • kdbulger
    kdbulger Posts: 396 Member
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    We are a "one activity per child" family for the most part, but my other ideas (that you've probably already thought of) include:
    - arranging car pools at least for the older kids if they don't need a parent to attend the activity. This may give you every other week off from whatever activity.
    - I use my lunch hours for shorter jogs/workouts. It's not ideal but it's how I make fitness work when my spouse is away.
    - Spouse does his fair share of household/driving tasks
    - Use online ordering/pick-up for groceries. It might be more easy to curate a healthy cart online from your desk and pick it up than it is to drag 1-3 kids through the store with you.
    - Make a 4 week rotating meal plan and that generally gives enough variety, but keeps you from having to reinvent the wheel every month. Everything down to my grocery lists are pre-existing for these meal plans. i just have to do a quick kitchen inventory and then scratch off anything I already have.

    But yeah, nobody DOES do it all in style without losing their minds from busy-ness just a little. It's all about priorities and give/take. Some weeks fitness has to give. Other weeks it has to be priority. Some weeks we eat like model nutritionists. Other weeks we have fast food and freezer meals. Over all I feel like we're improving so that's something.
  • debrakgoogins
    debrakgoogins Posts: 2,034 Member
    edited August 2018
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    sljjjembeca wrote: »
    Alright people , I need some of your best ideas here. I am a more than full time working mom of 3 who finds myself leaving for work most days 430ish and not making it home until my last child’s extra curricular is over, usually between 9 and 10. My only day to shop and prep would be today but here I am watching 10 kids swim. How does everybody pack enough healthy food for growing children and yourself and what are you packing? I generally try to fit in jogging between sports pickups but find that increasingly difficult as Im picking up 1 child in between practices etc... I know you folks are out there doing it all in style lol, what am I missing?

    You can't do it all. Something has to give. When my boys were in school and had multiple activities, I had to let go of the guilt for not watching every single practice or personally taking them here and there. I used that time to hit the gym or do my grocery shopping. I tag teamed with other mothers. We traded off pick ups and drop offs. We started walking while our boys were playing lacrosse or football.

    Another thing I did was put the boys in charge of their own gear and food. They loved lunchables but they were too expensive so I created a way for them to make their own. I had bins in the fridge and they pulled from the bins to make their lunches/after school snacks. The bins had numbers on them 1, 2, etc.. That number indicated how many bags they could take from that bin. There was turkey pepperoni, deli meat, ham, rotisserie chicken etc., already measured into sandwich bags. There were snack sized bags of crackers, cheese, veggies, fruit, and trail mix. I had disposable 2 oz cups with lids that I got at Sams Club by the case with ranch dressing, hummus and ketchup (so much ketchup). As they got older and their tastes changed, they helped do the shopping and cut/prepare food for the grab and go bags. If they forgot their gear or they forgot to pack a lunch, they were out of luck. That only happened a few times before they realized I wasn't kidding.
  • MsWax
    MsWax Posts: 32 Member
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    My kids are still young, but I hire babysitters to take them to their activities after school. When they are not on sport teams, most of their stuff (swim lessons, gymnastics, karate, etc.) can be done before I even get home! Then evenings are for family dinners and such, and I can exercise after the kids go to bed. If you can't make that work, can you organize a carpool with some other families so that you are at least only carting them one way or once/week?

    Definitely get them involved in packing lunches, etc.
  • rainykatie
    rainykatie Posts: 91 Member
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    Hi, that is some schedule! I agree with the others that you might benefit from figuring out how to restructure.

    I am a full time working mom of 2, and I also live on and manage a small horse farm. We only have 4 horses, but still, it's a lot of work. So I'm pretty busy too. I also live outside of town, so taking my kids to school and activities is a drive each time.

    Like others have mentioned in the comments, I have a strict one extra activity at a time policy for each kid. They get to pick ONE thing they enjoy a lot each season. For us right now this means I've got two nights a week where the kids do something extra after school, with a soccer game on Saturdays.

    I order all my groceries through an app offered by my grocery store- does your local grocery store offer this? For a small fee ($5), I just swing up to the curb, call in, and someone brings my groceries out to my car. It takes only a few minutes and ordering online helps with planning too. Then as a commitment to myself for indulging in this service, I promise to get in a workout instead before I get the groceries- so I am using that saved time to workout! I've also realized that in good weather, I can fit in a workout with my kids, too. I'll let them ride their bikes around the track while I jog, and my older son can even run with me.

    Most days, however, I work out on my lunch break. This isn't ideal because there's not a lot of time, but it's better than nothing. I'm not a morning exerciser, have never enjoyed it, and long ago realized I'm happy not trying to fit that into my life.

    Family dinners are really important to me. I rotate cooking them with my husband. I try to make a meal plan on Sundays, and pick up my groceries on Mondays. Some weeks I splurge on a meal kit delivery service, especially if I know it's going to be a pretty busy week or that we won't be home the weekend before to have time to focus on meal planning.

    Good luck- I hope you can figure out some easy ways to save time and simplify!
  • jondspen
    jondspen Posts: 253 Member
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    Not sure about others, but when I was growing up (70s and 80s)...I did what my parents wanted, and if I didn't like it, I was told to shut up and quit whining. Today, we as parents let our kids run our life to the point where we can't even take 2 hours a week for ourselves. Guess it's just the pendulum swinging the other way...and I fervently believe our kids will be selfish and self-centered adults, and their kids will be like us and our grandparents (WWII era that sacrificed a LOT)!

    As far as OP....I worked, college/grad school, and raised two daughters. Shopping was done usually once a month, buying most of everything we needed (maybe a run once or twice more in the month if we ran out of milk or bread or snacks), and making sure I had flexible staples. Of course I got paid monthly, so kinda made sense to to it this way, but regardless, I had recipes that used some of the same ingredients. For example - chicken patties were a life saver; I was able to make sandwiches, chicken parm with Prego, or cut up into a salad...all from one frozen bag.

    Also, I had one day (typically Sunday) that I cooked for the week. I might make lasagna and chili (hamburger and tomato sauce overlap), put some in the fridge and rest in freezer. Then as we got tired of eating one, we could switch to the other, then back and forth till it was gone. Of course we had frozen pizzas and bag stir fry, so if we weren't feeling either, had something to mix in one night, but kept me from having to thaw, cook, clean every night of the week.

    As far as quick snacks to grab and go, nuts, fruit, crackers, and cheeses are healthy and easy to grab n go with...without the need to pay $$$ for excessive packaging. Again, on your cook night, measure out, put in ziplock back and throw in the fridge...then just pull them out and go. No need to by the prepackaged stuff when you can get the raw and make the exact same thing for much less.

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