Nanny to Mommy

Being a great parent can sometimes feel like an uphill struggle. There’s just so much that you need to get done in the day.

However, it’s not impossible. Shortcuts are available. Here’s what to do.

Use A Laundry Enhancer

Parenting can be a messy business, and keeping up with laundry isn't easy. A laundry enhancer can be a game-changer for busy parents, helping to remove tough stains, brighten colors, and leave clothes smelling fresh and clean. Look for a laundry enhancer that is safe for sensitive skin, environmentally friendly, and compatible with your washing machine.

Keep A Kneel Mat In The Bathroom

Giving young children a bath can sometimes feel like a choice between a rock and a hard place. You can either stand up and pour water over their heads and risk damaging your back, or you can kneel down on your tiled floor and trash your knees.

But there’s a third option: get a gardener’s kneel mat and simply keep it in your vanity. The soft foam will make your knees feel more comfortable, allowing you to pay full attention to your child.

Here’s how it works: get one of those standard plastic laundry baskets with holes in the side and then place it in the bath once you stop adding water. Then place your child inside it. What you’ll find is that they naturally love being in the basket because it makes them feel more secure.

It’s great when you want to bathe a toddler and much larger child at the same time. The basket acts as a kind of protection for the smaller child, giving them their own space to bathe and play with toys.

Regular beach blankets aren’t ideal because they don’t stop the sand from blowing onto them. By the end of the day, they are so full of sand that might as well have sat on the beach directly.

That’s where the idea of using a fitted mattress sheet comes in. As you’ll know, these sheets have fitted sections designed to fit around your mattress, instead of you having to tuck them in. So when you go to the beaches, you can place bags of supplies in each corner to replicate the shape of the mattress. This way, you can create a vertical barrier between your family and the sand around them.

Here’s another option you might want to try: put barriers between kids’ individual car seats.

Kids can get a little unruly on long car journeys and start fighting with each other. But if you place cardboard barriers between them, they can’t see each other, and so fights are much less likely to break out.

No more "he’s touching me" or "he’s ticking me." Just a serene driving experience.

So many childcare providers try to lock you into monthly contracts where you pay a fixed amount for using their services. Sometimes, the value proposition works, especially if you use them a lot. But other times, it just drains your budget.

But now something called hourly drop in child care exists. And it’s changing the game. Instead of paying a big fee upfront, you just pay for the services you use, up to the minute you use them. So, for instance, if you need child care for a couple of hours because you want to go to the gym, you just pay for what you use. That’s all.

"Are we nearly there yet?" You’ve heard your kids say this a thousand times. But it’s usually just because they’re bored, not because the journey is making them feel uncomfortable.

Here’s an idea: try putting a coloring book in the car and see what happens. Hopefully, it’ll entertain your child so much that they won’t even think of disturbing you again with their complaints. They’ll just enjoy the journey, giving you a bit of much-needed peace.

Keeping track of your kids’ medications can be a challenge, even if you consider yourself to be an organized person.

Here’s an idea: create a tracker on the side of the bottle, complex with check boxes that you tick off for each dose. So, for instance, if the doctor says your child should take the medication twice per day for a week, you just create a table with two checkboxes for each day, running from Monday to Sunday (or whenever you need to give the medication).

Some babies are climbers and love to waddle out of the highchair whenever they can. Unfortunately, it often leads to falls - not good. These days, however, you can buy special harnesses that fit over the back of the chair to hold your baby in place. Plus, they’re usually pretty cheap too - making them a bit of a bargain.

When kids develop a cough - especially a hacking cough - it can be an unpleasant experience for them. It’s painful, and they’re not entirely sure what’s happening because they haven’t been through it before.

The trick here is to make ample use of VapoRub. Just apply it to your child’s feet and then allow it to work its magic. Throughout the day, it’ll go into their nostrils and open up their entire airways, making them feel much more comfortable.

Lighting candles atop birthday cakes is tradition. But you don’t want your children munching on giant gobs of melted wax when they come to finally eat the cake.

This is where cling film comes in handy. First, bake the cake itself and allow the icing to dry. Then wrap the whole thing in cling film before putting the candles in place. This way, you can avoid any wax dripping onto the cake itself and getting inside your children’s bodies.

Lastly, bright lights at night from street lamps can keep your kids awake. Fortunately, you can solve this problem by using tin foil as a blackout blind. Just put it up against your child’s bedroom windows and it’ll block out any annoying light that might be keeping them awake. And the best bit? It’s way cheaper than installing regular blackout blinds.