Parents Are Sharing ‘One Simple Habit’ That Makes Life A Lot Easier

Parenting is hard, period. And sometimes, parenting self-help books or forums can offer solutions that are just way too time-consuming or drastic to even entertain. When you are incredibly tired, burned out, stressed about the world, and worried about money, it can be hard to try a whole new parenting philosophy or lifestyle. Hell, it can be hard to get through the day.

That’s where small parenting tweaks come in. Simple, quick changes you can make to your routine that just make life a little easier.

Over on Reddit in the parenting forum, one mom wanted to collect everyone’s best simple habits that create big change.

“I’ve been in my ‘simplify everything’ era as a mom, trying to make small tweaks that actually make life feel calmer,” the original poster writes. “It’s wild how little things (like prepping breakfast the night before or switching up screen-time rules can make the whole week feel lighter. What’s a small change that’s made a big difference for you as a parent lately? I’m curious what’s working for other families right now?”

We absolutely love all the answers. Here are some of our favorites.

• “Squatting/sitting on the floor with my almost 2yo twins instead of picking them up when they want me.”
• “I have stopped folding her clothes because she digs through the drawers and destroys the folds anyway.”
• “Setting up an activity for my 3 year old at night, so it's ready when he wakes up. It gives him something to play with when he's awake but still a little cranky, and it's usually an independent activity he can do while we get breakfast ready.”
• “One thing that I find helpful both at home and work is to say either out loud to a coworker or my partner or other parent, or inside my head, is ‘the noise is better than quiet, this is part of development.’"
• “Trying to leave 10 minutes before we actually need to.”
• “My elementary kids are in a bunch of after school activities. I basically have a big kid diaper bag in the car - snacks, extra water bottles, first aid kid, headphones, coloring books, hair ties, etc. I try to replenish the night before and it makes 2-5pm go much smoother.”
• “I ask myself, ‘is it dangerous or inconvenient?’ before answering a question. I find myself saying no because I don’t want to deal with the mess, which is still totally valid sometimes but not all the time. I want to say yes when it’s possible so that my no holds more value.”
• “I’m a therapist and there’s a motto in the field — ‘the slower you go, the faster you get there.’ I’ve been applying this to my time with my two year old. Any hurrying, frenetic energy just ultimately slows down the process. Slowing down and prioritizing connection makes a world of difference.”
• “We keep our home simple and minimalist, it gives the kids more space to play and fewer things to break or turn into hazards.”
• “Setting alarms for EVERYTHING.”
• “Honestly? Lightening the fuck up. I have a 4 year old and a 4 month old, it's easy to get wrapped up in sticking to a schedule I've made up. Lately though I've been reminding myself to lighten the fuck up. My 4YO wants to dress herself? Fine. She wants to ‘wash dishes’ after taking her breakfast bowl to the sink? Whatever. I've worked more time into our routines so that I don't feel so rushed.”
• “This might be controversial but we don't do pajamas. Meaning we have no distinction between daytime and night time clothing. Kids are 4 and 1. Before bed, I change them into clean clothes and those are the clothes they wear the next day. They don't have any clothes that would be uncomfortable to sleep in. Poor kids have a whole life ahead of them to wear hard pants, why introduce it now.”
• “We try to always have a container of chopped veggies in the fridge. Sometimes with hummus sometimes a favorite dressing sometimes nothing additional. When they ask to have something to eat, they go there first. If I’m prepping dinner I pull that out and put it on the table. They don’t pester me about when time dinner will be ready. If I’m making something my son doesn’t like as much, he fills up mostly on raw veggies and only has a little bit of dinner. It’s so easy to do and it’s is awesome I can’t complain that they’re eating veg.”
• “I just started making my bed everyday after purchasing a nice comforter to make my bed look nice and it really helps me feel like I’m having a productive start to the day!”
• “Cutting my hair short.”
• “Replaced all the kids socks with plain white whites so I don’t have to worry when one goes missing (bc we seem to lose a sock a week!) and keep them in a bin next to our shoe bin downstairs. Super simple to do and somehow has saved my sanity.”
• “Honestly I just say out loud to my kids ‘today is going to be a great day!!!’ as we’re getting ready in the morning chaos and somehow that seems to help keep my brain on track and positive, something I struggle with.”

Love how easy so many of these are to implement — and how some of them are just little mindset changes.