Parenting tips that aren't shit

[Rory786]

Hi all, Im loving the household tips that aren't shit thread, so here's a spin off. I'm desperate for parenting tips.
I have 2 teen boys doing GCSE's and 3 girls 4yrs, 22 months and 8 months. I'm being pulled all over the place, helping with algebra while changing nappies and doing finger painting.
At the moment I'm relying heavily on the iPad. Leaving the house seems so hard, we live in the country, can't walk anywhere and trying to defrost the car with the little ones seems so hard. The boys take the bus to school.
dd1 will be starting school in Sept and I'm dreading the school run.
Any tips appreciated, thanks.

Baby socks are the devil. If you have a winter baby (or spring or autumn really) you can get away with a babygro under an outfit. Built in socks (and mittens) that won't fall off.

If you like to get small children dressed before breakfast and teeth...then pinnies are a life saver! No breakfast or toothpaste on school uniform. They often wear their pinnies to eat dinner too. (Pinnies = apron)

Anyone that asks me to help look for something they have lost has to agree to the '10 second challenge' before I help. If I find the lost item within 10 seconds of beginning to look for it they get a forfeit (50p, or a small job depending on how mean I'm feeling...) Helps to make them look properly first!

These are fab.
Keep them coming!

As said before - pick your battles.

Beans on toast is a perfectly acceptable dinner.

When the DCs come downstairs in the morning they are not allowed back upstairs. I keep travel in one direction in the morning - out the door.

Try to maintain a good relationship with the school secretary - helpful for those times you are late/completely forget to send in forms or money.

Don't be afraid to limit your DCs extra curricular activities, as much as kids need opportunities they can be overstretched.

Tired kids are harder to manage - get the sleep routine sorted and life will flow easier.

Have a picnic blanket /throw that lives on the Lego box. Spread it on the floor when they want to tip it all out.
When they're finished just pick up the corners and pour it all back in the box.
( Obviously only relevant for those who don't keep Lego in labelled tupperware of complete sets)

I don't think "stick your kid in front of a screen" is really a parenting tip. More a non parenting tip really.

More of a household tip, but if school permits more than one colour socks, dc1 has all navy, dc 2 all black... if school allows white or red, white or black... always buy not-white.

Anybody who gets me up before 8am on the weekend can expect to help me do the dishes, tidy the house, get some extra times tables work in... anybody who quietly helps themselves to a banana and a glass of milk and plays in their bedroom until 8am gets left alone.

If you want them to practice spellings 3x, say you want 8x, if you want them to fold the laundry, say you want folding and ironing, if you are allowing 3 sweets, say you are allowing 1. Leave room for compromise, so they feel they can win a little bit. They'll happily do what needs doing whilst thinking they got off lightly.

When leaving a party or playground, find other parents who are also leaving, and go with a "wave". Look, DS, everybody is going, Jimmy, Sam and Nat!

And pick your battles, is that one glass of coke or lolly really going to be such a problem? Can you really not stay for another ten minutes?

Have 2 or 3 strategically placed baby mats round the house in places where you may need to put the baby down for a bit but still want him\her to see you. D's was a Velcro baby and I didn't really get to grips with a sling so this helped me to go about my day!

If you have a puking child, put a large soft bath towel underneath them in bed. This should catch most of the puke and you can just gather it up and replace.

I agree with pick your battles, and only say no if you really have to. There are enough times they really have to hear no, that giving them a break won't hurt.

Agree with not asking them questions all the time! When I hear people asking their children "darling shall we get dressed?" Or "you're tired, shall we get you ready for bed?" The answer you hear back is always, always, always, alwayyyyys a resounding 'NO!'. Battles then follow. It's time to get dressed! Or. After XYZ(things with time limits) it's bedtime! Don't ask them, tell them. Less arguments, less tantrums, you are the boss. People will say that children need to have choices. This doesn't work, and is the reason they can't vote or have sex, they can't make good choices for themselves. They are children. Choices can be, we ARE having jacket potatoes for dinner. For a topping you can choose between this or this. You ARE going to wear a hat, because it's cold. You can choose between hat A or hat B. Colour coding, especially underwear, is really good too! Or if that fails use a completely different brand so that when you are sorting clean clothes you aren't looking through all the labels. Make them responsible for something. Anything at all. Even a small thing means that they feel good about being helpful and responsible, and saves you a job. Using the same tidy up song IS totally Pavlov's dogs, and works! They should learn to clear up after themselves anyway, makes them aware of looking after things - and also helps you! Everyone's a winner

It's an investment, but the Lakeland heated airer is a bloody godsend in the winter. I've got two under 5 and without it, my clothes airers and radiators would be constantly covered in tiny clothes.

I've got enough duplicates of school uniform that I only do a kids wash once a week on a Friday evening (rock 'n' roll). Then it all goes on the heated airer covered up overnight and it's ready to put away on Saturday morning.

Oh, and colour catchers. Saves me having to divide washes any further than whites and colours.

I have a kallax unit in living room all uniform, PE and socks, tights, undies go in it.
I have an ironing pad and travel iron on top for quick touch ups.
I have a basket in hall for school shoes. They go in there immediately on returning from school run.
I have over the door hangers on back of living room door. All bits of uniform that can get an extra wear get hung up.
I keep a kallax drawer full of trackies, tshirt, leggings etc for them to change into so no excuses.
No tv laptop etc until all letters pinned up, reading done and homework finished, lunchbags emptied and wiped etc.
We have a Friday night "meeting". Junk food is allowed. They take it in turns to pick our dinner and we have a civilised chat about the week. If someone is talking you don't. The kids love it and it gives them a sense of maturity. They can talk to me at anytime about anything but I find they like to save it for Friday (if it's not of prime importance). My 7 year old even writes notes. :o

Bumper I have a spare (pink) lego sack thing if you want it? Same thing you describe except it's a drawstring bag that flattens out into a playmat and then easily gathered up again. Let me know and I'll dig it out.

When you have several in nappies together, just use the bigger child's size of nappies and pull the tapes a bit tighter.

Leaving the playground say " we are going in two minutes. What do you need to have one more go on?"

If you have several sizes of uniform or hand down clothes between kids put one dot on the inside of the collar for the first child, two dots for the second etc. Then put the laundry sharpie up high out of sight and out of reach!!!!

Avon where did you get the lego sack thing from? Would you recommend?
I have seen one online but is was really expensive and the ones on eBay look a bit cheap!

AmyAmoeba I use that nappy tip! My 22 month old and my 8 month old both wear size 5 nappies. No more faffing about with different sizes.

A tip to get them off the dummy, make a little slit. It will look the same but will "taste" different. They will reject it themselves!

Avon the Friday night meeting sounds like an ace idea. I'll be doing that when DD is older

Another dummy tip here

Don't rush to take it away. It's a comfort for children and sometimes they do need it. We don't rush potty training, so don't rush dummy weaning. Do it at their pace and ignore people criticising.

They won't use it forever

Similar to Avon's tip, I have a Sunday night "meeting" with my DH. We sit with a bottle of wine and go through the coming week - who's picking up who, who will be home late, etc. We also only talk about boring house-y admin stuff then too - so if I want to talk about the car insurance renewal or whatever, we keep it until then - that way the boring stuff doesn't end up taking over our conversations during the week.

Don't be afraid to let your children watch a screen for a while so you can get stuff done/get some downtime. Ignore the shitty little remarks from posters on Mumsnet about iPads etc. The remarks are unhelpful and malicious.

Eza I got it from Amazon. They accidentally sent two. They are around £13-£14. The quality is good. Choice of colours too. I chose a blue one. It now have a pink one too. :o

Heres the link if you want a nosy. It's dropped in price to £9. www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01KV9RXFO/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485786441&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=lego+sack+mat&dpPl=1&dpID=61B-erP4T0L&ref=plSrch&tag=mumsnetforum-21