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Skipping meals is not necessarily a problem, if it doesn't provoke problems with appetite/overeating. The "eat many small meals to rev metabolism" idea has been mostly debunked, at this point. You can eat on a schedule that works for you - compliance (being able to stick to a routine that supports your goals) is more important than any theoretical advantage of any given eating schedule. To put it different, your personal preferences/needs trump theory.

People here have lost weight successfully on everything from one meal a day, to all-day small-snacks grazing. As long as it's satisfying and sustainable for you personally, reasonably nutritious and calorie-appropriate in total across the day on average, you'll lose weight fine.

As far as tips:

* Don't try to lose weight super fast. A slow loss you can stick with consistently can get you to goal weight at an earlier calendar date than an extreme attempt that has compensatory over-eating or even makes you give up for periods of time. That can be an important issue for a busy mom: Fast loss can sap your energy!

* Don't demonize foods. Sure, try to get some nutrient dense foods, meats/fish, veggies/fruits, etc. But you don't have to split the world into good foods and bad foods, with so-called bad foods forever off limits. Even most so-called bad foods (junk food, treats, whatever) can contribute some nutrition to your day. Log your food, see where your average daily totals may be less than ideal, and think about ways to change your eating patterns/habits to improve the averages over time, while eating foods you find tasty and practical. You don't have to revolutionize your eating overnight.

* For me, it helped to find some shelf-stable snacks I could stick in my purse or put in the console in my car - things that were filling for me, reasonably nutritious, tasty but not so profoundly tempting that I'd gobble lots in a weak moment. This will differ for everyone, but some things that I relied on were crispy chickpeas or broad beans, nuts in the 100-calorie packs, mini Kind bars, those little pouches of applesauce. At home, refrigerator things that worked were string cheese, other calorie-efficient individual mini-cheese, plain Greek yogurt with frozen berries with some peanut butter powder mixed into the yogurt, hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese. These are all things you can grab in a spare moment. You can also grab something like an apple on your way out the door to eat when you have a moment.

* Consider whether you can find time to do a bit of food prep. Some people benefit from skipping breakfast, but I'm one who does better the rest of the day if I get a solid breakfast with some protein. There are lots of recipes online for egg muffins/mini-quiches, breakfast burritos, and that sort of thing that can be made in a batch, then frozen and microwaved when it's time to eat. It takes that prep time, but when you're in a rush, you can pull one out, zap it, and eat - not just for breakfast, but any time.

You can do this. No need to be extreme, and being extreme can even backfire. Just keep it simple and practical, and keep chipping away at the overall nutrition picture as you have time and energy to devote. Stick with it, you'll reach your goals.