Personal Mom Hacks
My husband suggested that I start a blog because I love to write. If I can keep an audience, it will prove him right. Then I will have to say to him “ you were right” because that is what we do. We always make it a point to say you were right so the other can bask in the 2 seconds of glory of feeling superior. Although neither of us truly feel superior, we just like to pretend for a second that we don’t balance each other out perfectly. Because, if I truly wanted to feel superior, I would send him to the refrigerator to look for something that he would have to look behind the first row of items. Anyway, I digress. My first idea to blog was “ Mommy Hacks” so here goes.
As a first-time mom, I am constantly looking for any hack to make parenting easier. After all, I only have one child that was born when I was 42, so I had been living my way, you know, the easy way. Work smarter, not harder. These hacks came to me at different stages in my baby girl’s life, some may work now and some later down the road.
1 - The diaper change hack that saved me from changing and washing the cover to my changing table after every diaper change. Always place a clean diaper open (as if you were putting on over the dirty one) underneath the diaper being changed. This will help catch any loose poo balls for pee in action while in the process of changing diapers.
2- Make your own baby food. It is super simple, way cheaper and more nutritious. For anyone who says, “who has time for that” I say, “I do” It is quicker if you consider the time it takes to go to the store and pull the toxic jars of food from the shelf, wait in the check-out line and put it away when you get home. Shortly after noticing your baby takes one bite, they don't like it and refuse to eat it. If you make your own at home using Duo Meal Lite All in One Baby Food Maker | Babymoov. It's foolproof and you can make it quick, if they don't like it the first time, freeze it and try again in a month or so. (Please, only do this with freshly made food) Your baby’s taste buds change every month or so and are likely to like it later. Another trick is to make soup with it. Pureed butternut squash makes a fabulous bisque, as does, pea, sweet potato, broccoli and cauliflower. The list goes on…. we even have a book for great baby and toddler recipes. The Complete Baby and Toddler Cookbook | Shop America's Test Kitchen (americastestkitchen.com)
3- Keep frozen peas, carrots or corn…etc. on hand. This is one of my all-time favorite hacks. I still use it to this day. My girl loves soup with noodles or just chicken, vegetable, lentil and tomato. What she doesn't like is waiting for it to cool. Yes, I know, just put ice in it…well, I am particular and don’t want my wonderful broth to taste watered down. (Especially Pho and Miso broth) I use frozen vegetables, the soup will cook the vegetable, keeping its nutrients, while simultaneously cooling the soup. I know genius, right?
4- Can’t bribe your children to eat their vegetables? Do they love spaghetti? Pizza? Meatballs? Smoothies? Puree vegetables and add them to the sauce. I have an immersion blender, but you can use a regular blender, or food processor. My daughter won’t eat zucchini; however, she loves my spaghetti sauce and I put pureed Zucchini in it. Make a fruit smoothie and add spinach, carrots or avocado and also add flaxseed or pumpkin seeds. Super nutrient dense foods that hide well with banana, mango and pineapple.
5- Potty training? Everything I read told me not to use night-time diapers while trying to potty train. Yes, you can buy a mattress protector and just change the sheets, every, single, time they have a nighttime accident. OR you can buy some puppy pads and place them in layers between fitted sheets. If they have an accident, remove the top layer and underneath is a layer ready to go. That way you can get back to your precious sleep without having to bring them into your bed or by changing the sheets at 3am half asleep.
I know you’re thinking, “that’s it 5 hacks?” I have plenty of hacks, just not plenty of time to write about them. You can stay tuned to my blog and I will Easter Egg them here and there, so you won’t miss out on this brilliant journey of my mommy life and hacks that I use to make it easier.
As I get more comfortable with writing these blogs, I will share more, I will get personal, you might laugh, you might cry, you might just think I’m crazy. All I hope is that you find it entertaining and possibly informative. My journey as a mom has me feeling all the feels and hopefully some of you will feel the same. It is not an easy journey, but so far it has been well worth it. I have learned that writing is somewhat of a therapy for me. After my daughter and I have a day together that makes me question all my choices up until that moment, I write. This allows me to express my feelings without verbally assaulting her as some of our parents did. You know, breaking cycles, healing trauma, breaking unhealthy habits.
In conclusion, we are all just doing our best to get through parenthood. Raise good humans to hopefully make this world a better place, one tiny human at a time. If we share what we think of as “game changing” hacks and help other parents do it a little easier, let’s share! Feel free to comment and share some hacks, beat me at my own game.