Has anyone actually found AI useful for everyday mum stuff?

[JennaMadeAU]

Feeling like I'm late to the party but I've been playing around with ChatGPT and some of it is genuinely useful. Not the weird sci-fi stuff, just practical things.

The meal planning one has been brilliant - told it what my kids will/won't eat, our budget, and it planned dinners with a shopping list. Saved us money.

Also used it to draft a politely assertive email to DS's school. Would have taken me an hour; solid first draft in 10 seconds.

Anyone else using it? Or am I going to get told I'm being replaced by a robot?

God that’s depressing.

They’re going to think we’re bots 😅

I'm surprised with some responses on here. There's no need to use AI to replace existing items that are perfectly fine to use, like books or diaries/organisers.

AI use should be ethical - use where it's necessary and it is truly improving efficiency. Use needs to be sustainable, there's a huge environmental effect to it.

Make hay while the sun shines. This is the (very short) golden age for coders. AI can now write complex code but poor or older versions are full of hidden faults. Lots of fix-it work about.

It won't be many years before coding is no longer a process that requires any human input though so unless he's close to retirement I'd be using some of that dosh to re-train tbph.

Jesus, some of you sound like you’re on the verge of calling social services on the mother who uses it for bedtime stories. I’m rubbish at making up stories, so if my son asked me for a story (as opposed to a book) I’d probably ask him what he would like the story to be about, and then ask ChatGPT to write a story that includes him and whatever he has asked for. And then read it to him. I cannot see what’s wrong with that. It doesn’t have to replace physical books. My son is in a high sleeper so as he’s drifting off to sleep, he only hears me reading, we’re not looking at the book together.

And those of you complaining about the PP using ChatGPT to research holidays instead of TripAdviser - do you not think that 25 years ago, there were people saying “why are you using the internet for that, just go to the library!”.

AI is here to stay, so we may as well make the most of it.

You're two years behind. We're not in the 're-wording things it finds on google' stage of AI anymore. We're so far past that it can't even be explained.

There will be limitless new content for AI because it will know everything that is or ever was.

Everyone has skipped by this though! How utterly amazing is this?
On holiday in Italy last year I met another person who was also using these glasses, he was tearful with how wonderful this holiday was for him because of his new meta glasses.

Not the only thing he does. He’s got lots of strings to his bow.

It doesn’t “know” anything.

It is not intelligence in any meaningful sense.

I have no idea if I'm behind or not, quite possibly I am. But I am fairly certain I am right when I say that anything it "creates" it's just bits and pieces it's found and turned into something else.

I came home with a newborn to a 4yr old a week after suffering a cardiac arrest during c section that left me in ICU for 2 days. I make no apologies for using AI to help me navigate the days that came straight after as my brain was easily overwhelmed and I found interactions with those around me quickly exhausting. It helped me schedule my pain meds and establish a daily routine around breastfeeding/pumping whilst trying to prioritise sleep/recovery and have quality time with my 4yr old.

I coped so much better in the aftermath of this birth than I did with my first which is astonishing considering my first was an unremarkable c section and I was home within 24hrs.

Now I use it for weekly family meal planning saving me a tonne of time (I never got my head around it before even though I was really trying).
I have dyscalculia and it’s also helping me find ways to work with numbers without feeling so much shame.

I have used it to help design my redecoration for my dining room....showing what different colour combinations may work.

To work out if worth trying to claim on the insurance following a leak (it us not)

I have used it to help analyse and improve my sourdough baking.

That’s amazing!

I’ve also used it to plan 3 birthday parties and a family brunch complete with grazing table without over catering or getting myself overly stressed out it all.

Doesn’t matter if she’s using the voice or not. Part of what makes bedtime stories/reading with your children so important is the act of sitting with a book, having the kids engage with the pictures, ask questions, etc. sitting there with your phone doesn’t cut it.

As someone writing children's stories, I would say to that poster - please stick to books. Of course we know it is one of the best things we can do to help our children but the point I want to make to the PP (and no judgement) is there is so much love that goes into writing for children. I'm always thinking of the child that might read the story as I write and imagining them and how it might impact them or shape them in some way. Its a very sacred tradition we have as humans. Especially as those characters and stories really are psychologically formative and remembered for most of our lives - they make up our interior landscapes. Please don't leave that to a LLM that just culls all the information out there and is just making statistically sensible patterns. There is no 'intelligence' in a human sense. Or emotion.

That’s a great question OP— and yes, quite a few parents (especially mums) are finding AI surprisingly useful in everyday life. It’s not a perfect replacement for experience, intuition, or emotional connection, but it can act like a super-organised assistant who doesn’t sleep and can help you think, plan, or create faster.

Very meta, responding with an AI generated post. They've not quite mastered realistic communication yet though.

It's true that a lot of AI-generated posts still struggle with the small human touches—like subtle tone shifts, lived-in anecdotes, imperfect phrasing, or emotionally specific reactions. They often sound:

• Slightly too polished
• Overly structured
• Vaguely enthusiastic
• Missing concrete personal detail

N'est-ce pas?

Yes they sound fake and people who pointlessly spam forums (which are supposed to be for speaking to other humans) with AI posts sound idiotic

The interesting question is - isn't that what human do anyway - build on past knowledge and experience to create something new?

I use it for emails, particularly ones to the school so I can get my point across without me ranting at them.
I've also used it when I've been helping with school work and I have no idea what the heck it is I'm looking at.
Meal planning is a genius idea, I'm definitely going to do that.

This is dystopian. Humans need human stories.

I used it to help me decide the size and colour of my new lounge rug. I uploaded a photo with room dimensions and it made suggestions, gave me shopping links and created images so I could compare various styles.

Also asked it to do my ‘Colours’ based on my hair colour, skin tone and eyes etc. Gave me suggestions for clothes colours to try and to avoid.

I’m pretty sceptical of how much to trust it though as it regularly spouts a load of bollocks. If you call it out, it apologises and agrees with you. IMO it often just says what it thinks you want to hear.

Thank you! I make children's books for a living too and I found this so depressing. We put so much love and care into these stories and it's appalling to think that AI could take this over, along with so much else. Children need real stories, not uncanny approximations. For the sake of paying £5 or less for a book.