The Blogfathers

After my first child I thought life got a little hectic at times. After the second one came along, the most active baby on earth by the way, things suddenly got complicated. Having a fun family life with the kids and combining it with friends, travel, work, hobbies, and workouts was still possible but it required a lot more planning, shortcuts, and tricks. I just found many of my favorite tricks to handle family life over on Zenhabits. If you want to avoid going crazy with the kids you should definitely check out their list of 25 Ways to Simplify Your Life with Kids. It should be required reading for anyone with children. It’s a great list.

Some of my favorites:

One calendar. If you have more than one kid, you might have a lot of activities going on that you need to track, from school events such as Christmas performances and parent-teacher conferences to extracurricular activities such as soccer practice, dance classes, or Spring concerts. Organize your life with a simple calendar (I use Google Calendar) and enter all activities and appointments on this one calendar, from kids’ stuff to your own goings on. When they hand you papers from school, or soccer schedules, immediately enter everything onto the calendar. Then a quick glance at the calendar each day will help you plan your day.

Can’t live without this one. We use two iPhones, an iMac, and a Macbook to keep all our appointments, activities, workouts, and meetings synchronized. It’s been incredibly helpful, especially for Foxy Wife.

Prep the night before. Mornings can be a hectic time for parents and kids alike, but they don’t have to be. Instead, prep as much as possible the night before, and have your mornings be a little more relaxed. I like to prep lunches, get their clothes ready (and mine as well), and have them shower, get their homework and school bags ready. Then the morning is simply eating breakfast, a little grooming, getting dressed, and gathering everything together before you head out the door. It’s a great way to start your day.

This one ties in very closely for me with 10, 11, and 12 (Always prep early, always bring snacks, and baby wifes and emergency kit. I never leave the house without enough food for a whole day with the kids.

Create alone time for your spouse. It’s easy to become so busy with your kids that you forget about your significant other. Don’t let this happen — it’s a sure way to drift apart and lose that bond that led you to having a family together. Keep the relationship alive by getting a babysitter (maybe once a week) and doing something together, just the two of you.

I do this all the time. I know how great it feels with some private time so I try to give it to my wife as much as possible. During the weekends I often go on advenutres with my kids during the whole day.

Have dedicated family times. Try to find regular times in your schedule when you do nothing else but spend time together as a family. For some people, dinner time works well — everyone sits down to dinner together as a family, and no other activities are planned at that time. For others, weekends, or maybe just one day of the weekend, work better. We reserve Sundays as our Family Day, and try our best not to schedule anything else on that day. It’s something we look forward to. Weekends in general are for our family, as are evenings — all work gets done on weekdays, before 5 p.m.

I spend an insane amount of time with my kids. Breakfast and dinner together every day and I also often pick them up at day care at 3 pm. It’s hard work at times but who knows how long I get to enjoy my family? I could die tomorrow so I want to see them as much as possible.

If you have a busy family life I’m sure you’ve got some helpful tricks as well. Anything that should be added to the list?

Blogosphere, Parenting Challenges, Parenting