Today I’m sharing a parenting shortcut that makes life with littlies much easier. This is something we learned in Egypt with both cats and a teenager – be more restrictive at first and then loosen up, not the other way around.

image source bmigaming.com

Going places with small children is a logistical, physical, and sometimes even an emotional challenge. To make life easier, we set rules and expectations with our children up front, to try to prevent misunderstandings or unreasonable demands.

An example. As we prepared to go to the zoo for the first time, I tried to think about what things we would allow/encourage, and what things we would disallow/discourage.

Before leaving the house, I ask my kids what they think. Would we, for example, play at a playground on the way to the zoo? Would we eat lunch at the zoo? What would they do if they needed to use the toilet? And so on.

I find the question and answer format works well for kids this age. If they guess something different than what I’m thinking, I can immediately correct the misperception.

Often, I will try to explain the reasoning behind these decisions. For instance, we don’t pay for the little merry-go-rounds because we choose to spend our money on other things. We hold hands so we can enjoy the zoo together. We don’t run or yell so we can show love to the people around us and also so we have a better chance of seeing the animals instead of frightening them away.

When my children understand in advance what is expected of them and why, they have a much easier time complying, even if it looks like everyone else is doing things differently.

What do you do to make it easier to go places with your kids?

For the past six weeks, we have been working to memorize questions 72 through 104 in the Young Children’s Catechism; all of them relate to the Ten Commandments. Progress was slow until one morning I had the idea to create hand signals as memory prompts for each commandment.

Ben gallantly demonstrated the prompts on this silent video so I can share them with you.

For anyone interested in hearing Nikki answer the questions, I also created a six and a half minute slideshow of the relevant questions from the Catechism for Young Children. This video features audio of Nikki answering the questions and Michael chiming in from time to time.

In the spirit of doing less this year, I plan to periodically share some of the shortcuts that allow me to parent more efficiently and work smarter.

So I got really excited about making my own beautiful bread with very little effort and mixed up a batch of artisan dough (enough for four one-pound loaves) in the largest container I have in my kitchen.

Then I left it to rise for a couple hours.

Realizing my mistake, I moved the dough to a big stockpot and stuck it in the refrigerator as the next step.

After the older kids were in bed, I removed a grapefruit-sized pound of dough and transferred the rest back into the yogurt bucket to take up less room in my refrigerator. I formed the dough into a free-form ball, let it rest on my pizza peel, and slashed it.

Into the oven, and thirty minutes later – well, if I hadn’t seen myself make this bread I wouldn’t have believed it.

Ben sliced into the warm crusty loaf, and we each ate a delicious piece before going to bed. This was easy and fun, and after we devour this batch, I’m looking forward to trying the healthier version here.

In the spirit of doing less this year, I plan to periodically share some of the shortcuts that allow me to parent more efficiently and work smarter.

I love having only one bathroom, because that means I only have to clean one bathroom.

The downside is that we’re all sharing one bathroom.

Somehow I don’t find it restful to soak in a bathtub decorated with cat litter crumbs.

And as wonderful as it is to have a toilet trained preschooler, I could do without the little drips on the toilet seat. And did I mention that we plan to toilet train our son soon?

sanitizing frequently used surfaces

I like the vinegar cleaner I use in the kitchen. However, our bathroom demands full-on germ warfare.

Bleach would do the trick, but in order to use it frequently I want a safe, convenient way to store and dispense it in the bathroom. Clorox® wipes aren’t readily available here, and I imagine they would be expensive if they were.

So, I made my own using this recipe:

homemade bleach wipes

 

You will need:

• reusable red non woven wipes (colour-coded for the bathroom)
• an empty baby wipe container
• bleach solution:
1. 1 tablespoon bleach
2. 1 quart water

Method:

• Cut reusable red towels into baby wipe size (approx 18cm x 20cm)
• Fold the towels in half and place them in an empty baby wipe container
• Pour bleach solution over the wipes
• Pull out one wipe and use it to clean frequently used bathroom surfaces
• Throw the used wipe in a little flip-top plastic bin
• When you start to run low, wash the used wipes and repeat

I am well rewarded for the half hour it took to make these wipes when I sink gratefully into a marvelously crumb-free bath. Ahhhh.