Parenting hacks

In my whopping 15 months of motherhood I’ve adopted a few tricks of the trade. Some I stumbled upon in my own child rearing journey and others were inspired by outside sources, but in the end these have all struck me like little light bulb emojies. I thought they might bring another desperate parent good luck in their time of need and depending on your parenting strategy you just might adopt some too. It takes a village. Share your secrets.

1. If you let your baby play with your phone (like you said you wouldn’t) but freak about the possibility of baby unknowingly speed dialing a work client or ex, then use airplane mode.
I find this works wonders when I need to bribe Lea into the car seat. I let baby play with airplane mode for a tear-free commute, meanwhile I’m not driving with my phone tempting me from the passenger seat. Everybody wins.

2. I.. I mean, Lea has fallen in love with frozen grapes during teething season.. which is not a season but rather the life span of infancy. Poor babies. Help them cope with these healthy, mini popsicles. Mom can volunteer to bite the first half in order to avoid a full grape shooting down into your infant’s throat like a cannon ball. (Sorry. Mom visions…)

3. We’ve become toothbrush hoarders since our kid started teething.  By one year, my daughter was already obsessed with brushing her teeth, or rather chewing on a toothbrush, because she always saw us doing it and it felt damn good on those tortured gums. I couldn’t say no to her grunted requests so I just started buying Lea her own adult-sized tooth brushes. I’m confident that it’s instilling good habits, toothbrushes are cheap, and peace and quiet is priceless.

4. Between the ages of say 6-9 months, when baby was crawling but neither of us were very confident in her abilities, we took great comfort in the Bumbo seat. And when mom realized she could no longer take a five minute shower without the threat of baby crawling under the kitchen sink and ingesting a package of dish detergent candies. (Another vision) we decided that Bumbo bathes, too. While I finally dismounted my hair from the mother bird’s nest on top of my head, baby got to play, in mom’s shadow, in the warm water and enjoy a snack. I strategically feed her the messy foods during shower time so that she stays happy and easy to clean.

5. Speaking of mom’s washing their hair (Myth). Dry shampoo has seriously become a best friend of mine. She’s seen me at my worst and somehow brings a little life back when I need it most. I found this brand on sale one time and it’s kind of saved my self-image.


6. It’s no secret that little ones will often choose bags and boxes over the fancy toy inside. I almost recently convinced myself that I “needed” to drop 20 bucks on some better bath toys for Lea. Then I thought twice and tossed the plastic purse of colorful Velcro curlers into the tub. She likes them more than I do, and they float. As new parents, it’s important to exercise the imagination muscles in preparation for the preschooler parent years. Start now and turn everyday objects into the next best toy set.