Ten time saving tips with Tots

We all know that babies are incredibly time consuming little creatures,  and we all know that better organization is the order of the day. This has never been a particularly strong point of mine but here are a few pointers I have learnt in my trial by fire as a new mom.

Accept all offers of help  from family,  friends,  neighbors,  husbands and  older siblings (the latter will probably have to be more cajoled but you can at least kill 2 birds with this one too and teach older kids responsibility).  Delegation becomes a key skill when you have a baby.

Cook in large batches where possible and freeze dinners for future use  (I like to keep these for when I know my husband is travelling for business or going to be late home).  If you don’t have a large freezer,  you may want to invest in a separate one for the garage.  I put this off for a long while but wouldn’t be without it now.

Keep a well stocked diaper bag at hand to grab and go  (see my blog on what to pack in the diaper bag), as well as emergency supplies of diaper,  wipes,  spare clothes and toys in each car.  There is nothing more annoying than having to make six trips back into the house to collect forgotten items  (she says having just come back from a trip having forgotten the stroller – whoops!).

Write lists – for everything!  I have lists on my computer that I print out if necessary.  These include emergency phone numbers  (including all doctors,  hospital,  poison control,  babysitters,  take outs etc), ongoing grocery store lists for places like Costco,  Target etc,  a packing list for trips away,  lists of collected birthday/Christmas presents for people,  you name it,  I keep a list for it!

Storage.  I got this idea from a mommy website and have since adopted as my own.  Keep a chest in the lounge or any room in the house for that matter,  where you can dump all the clutter and clobber In a last minute tidy up - when you’re too tired to find real homes for things,  or when someone comes around unannounced! 

Wear hats, big sunglasses,  ponytails and carry big bags!  For those days when you don’t have time to wash,  blow dry or even brush your hair,  put on make-up,  cover up bags from a sleepless night and hide away all the baby clobber,  the above items cover up a multitude of sins!

Shop online.  Of course we can’t do this for everything but I now seem to use Amazon more than I ever did before.  A couple of other baby specific websites I love to shop with include Zuliliy and Totsy (member sites that have changing deals on super cute clothes and other baby and mom related items) .

iPads and other tablets.  I know I already wrote an ode to my iPad,  sorry blog.  But really,  this gift for having my daughter has been my number one time saver.  I keep it with me on my other hip and do little jobs as I go along and before baby brain makes me forget.  Tap out email replies,  pay the amex bill, renew my library book,  oh yes,  and shop online.

Don’t sweat the small stuff.  Ok,  so the dusting doesn’t get done quite so often,  and maybe you become slightly less discerning with what clothes really need ironing.  Maybe baby even stays in her onesie or sleeper suit on certain days.  Three little words.  Lower your standards!

Get an Au Pair from AuPairCare!

Let me know if you have any great time saving tips you would like to share.  I would love to hear them…!

One of my friends recently told me that the only vacation a working mom takes during the summer is a guilt trip. Visions of mellow afternoons at the pool or long days at the beach made her feel like her kids were missing out, and she was responsible. Having been on both sides of the working world, I can say that guilt is a mom's constant companion whether or not you have a job with a paycheck. It was, however, a chaotic summer than prompted me to check out the au pair option.

I'd cobbled together a series of camps for my kids. Soccer camp, nature camp, science camp, swimming camp, art camp... (They're not even really camps -- no mosquito bites, no camp fires -- well, maybe at nature camp.) But all three of my kids didn't want to go to every camp, so sometimes I made them go anyway, and some weeks I drove all over the valley in the morning to get them to separate camps before I went to work. By August, no one wanted to go to camp, and I was frantically calling college students in the hope of getting babysitting for the last few weeks before school started. 

The following summer, I hired my first au pair, Alice, and the insanity just melted away. Ali took them to the pool, the park, or the zoo. Sometimes they just stayed home, and she made them Italian food. There was a week or two that they did go to a camp, but it was one that they'd chosen and Ali drove them there. Everyone was much happier, and I think it cost less overall than an endless line-up of camps.

We did get in some of those days at the beach, on the weekend, and we managed a decent family vacation. Ali came with, which made it much more relaxing.

So no more guilt trips! Take a real summer break. We're all doing our best to juggle the mom and kid thing. And thanks to the au pairs who step in, help us out, and join our families... especially during the summer. 

For the last few weeks, our au pair has been working on vacation plans with a fellow au pair.  They chose the date, cleared it with their host families….and then discovered their tour was full.  The girls went back to the drawing board and chose the only other time this summer their tour was offered, which just so happened to be the same week our back-up childcare would be on vacation.  Mia looked so disappointed and I felt awful, but clearly, this date did not qualify as “mutually agreed upon”.
 
What’s this, you ask?  “Mutually agreed upon” is what vacation dates must be – acceptable to both host family and au pair.  Just as an au pair should never book a vacation without consulting her host family, host families also do not have the right to dictate when an au pair can have vacation solely based on their schedules or desires.  The mutual respect that au pairs and host families should have for one another must extend to the realm of vacation time as well.
 
As much as I want Mia to have every experience possible while she is here, I also need to look out for our family’s best interests.  As I expected, she handled the news gracefully and understood our situation.  She and her friend plan to look for a different trip, or will consider traveling in the fall.  You can be sure we will do whatever we can to make her dream trip happen – finding a mutually agreed upon resolution is what being a family is all about.
 

School will be out soon for the summer of 2012 and the anticipation is growing.  Along with the expectation of long summer days is the anticipation of summer movies.  Each year the studios release some of their biggest hits during the summer and 2012 is no exception.

For my children it is a big treat in the summer to spend a hot afternoon in the cool air conditioning of a movie theater snacking on popcorn while watching one of these block busters.  This summer there are heroic princesses and ghost talking kids.  Also making it's fourth appearance is the nut chasing squirrel that we all love.

So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the summer smashes of 2012.  Here is a list of great family movies and their release dates to help you plan the upcoming months.

• Battlefield America, Release date:  June 1,  What it's about:  A young businessman hires an instructor to turn a group of misfit kids into a team on the underground dance competition circuit.
• Madagascar 3:  Europe's Most Wanted, Release date:  June 8, What it's about:  The whole gang is still fighting to get home to their beloved Big Apple and their journey takes them through Europe.  There they find the perfect cover:  a traveling circus.
• Brave, Release date:  June 22,  What it's about:  A young princess accidentally unleashes a beastly curse that she teaches her the true meaning of bravery when she battles it with her bow and arrow.
• Ice Age:  Continental Drift, Release date:  July 13, What it's about:  Scrat continues his nutty pursuit of the cursed acorn in his determination to return home.  A menagerie of seafaring pirates are determined to stop them and Sid reunites with his Granny.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  Dog Days, Release date:  August 3, What it's about:  Greg and his best friend are in for a terrible summer as they bounce from adventure to adventure at a country club, community pool, and a summer lawn mowing job.
• The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Release date:  August 15, What it's about:  A happily married couple who cannot have a child of their own bury all their hopes in a box in the back yard.  The couple is surprised when young Timothy shows up on their doorstep one stormy night.  The couple learns that sometimes the unexpected can bring some of life's greatest gifts.
• ParaNorman, Release date:  August 17, What it's about:  Norman has the ability to talk with ghosts and is shunned by the other kids at school.  When a centuries-old curse takes over the town, he is the only one equipped to save the day.