4 Toddler Hacks for When You Have No Energy Left.
So we have a 20 month old. He’s insane and he climbs on everything and jumps on everything, and touches anything… firstly, anything that he is sure he is NOT supposed to play with. And then we have me… SUPER pregnant, third trimester, ridiculously exhausted and while I get bursts of motivation, they seem to be getting fewer and farther between as this pregnancy progresses.
I was getting really, REALLY overwhelmed and feeling almost defeated when I started making little tweaks to my day and to our toddler Cole’s day that would help us both to have a less stressful day.
- PREMAKE FOODS!
We have lovely food trays.. they’re made from recycled milk cartons and they’re awesome… I found out early not to leave tomato sauce in them, but for any other meals, they haven’t stained yet and have been great! They have three compartments… I pre-make Cole’s foods while I make dinner (or even during breakfast, depending on my energy) on Sunday and I freeze the trays with the foods after putting it into large ziplocks, or sealing it with Saran. This was a game changer, because I’m putting out slightly more effort when I have energy, and then I’m just thawing or re-heating when I have no energy at all.
- PROTECT HARD TO CLEAN SURFACES
Next, I put music on for Cole and I make a “breakfast picnic” for us in the living room. I lay a big blanket out over the rug I used to spend hours scrubbing each week, and I put pillows with washable covers all around the base of the couch, and I give him his breakfast on the blanket in the living room where we sit together. I have to wash the blanket and pillow cases more (two more loads of laundry a week), but the savings on energy and time from not needing to scrub the rug and carpet from things he brings into the living room and spills, is astronomical!.
- TV TIME
I turn the TV on! I hear people say all-the-time not to have the TV on, but our little guy doesn’t usually sit and watch TV for a long duration. He has cars to play with and Mommy makes an excellent vroom sound, so he generally has better things to do. What he DOES enjoy is the Raffi video Mommy found on Youtube that lasts just over 40 minutes. I put it on EVERY morning… he pretty much watches the entire thing…. He dances and claps along. I don’t feel like its hurting him. What it is doing is allowing me to rest my bones for another forty-or-so minutes while I try and grow another human. Is it bad parenting? I doubt it. Is it perfect parenting? Probably not. Will our son still turn out well adjusted? Probably?
There are worst things he could be watching. Starting the day on SUCH a happy note though, has to be good for something.
- KEEP A SCHEDULE!
We keep a tight schedule! Nap time was once a “when Cole was ready” type situation. We don’t do that any longer. Nap time is now like bedtime. It has a start time between Noon and 1pm (a tiny bit of flexibility) and it lasts until he’s been asleep for two hours. We switched to a video monitor, so we would have a more accurate idea of when he is actually asleep, and its paid off. It has taken some time for him to learn to go down when he’s put down for his nap, and sometimes we still have two hours of straight jumping and talking to contend with before his nap even starts, but overall, he’s been doing much, much better with falling asleep at least 3 of 5 weekdays/ week.
If I remember any other things that I’ve changed, I’ll update here with an asterisk at the bottom, but I feel like these few changes have made a WORLD of difference
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