Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. I hope you're doing really well and are
feeling very refreshed now that the kids are back to school. All of my boys are at school
today and my youngest son actually started school this week. But to be honest with you,
I've taken it quite well. I've almost been more excited than emotional about him starting school,
which really has been quite a surprise. But anyway, today I'm actually going to be
sharing with you 20 mom hacks that I do almost every day. And in the past on this channel,
I've shared hundreds of mom hacks videos, and they've been viewed millions and millions of
times here on YouTube. But in today's video, I really wanted to share with you very simple
tips and shortcuts that just make my mom life that bit easier.
You don't need any fancy products for these hacks. Anyone could do them. They may even feel
a bit obvious, but I really feel like they're worth sharing because they're all things that
I've just picked up as I've been a parent. So I really hope you'll like them. As I said,
I make loads of hacks videos. So if you do like this kind of content and you're not subscribed,
please consider subscribing. I would love to have you as a viewer. And yeah, with all that said,
let's get into my easy mom hacks. My first tip is to always have an
old set of kid's pajamas in the car and also an old toothbrush and toothpaste. And that is because
especially over the summer period, we would be invited to a barbecue at say 2:00 PM. But then the
next thing you know, it's eight o'clock at night and you need to get the kids home. And of course
they fall asleep in the car on the way home. And it's so nice when you can just transfer them
into their bed. So what we do is we've got the pajamas in the car. We just change them
into their pajamas and also brush their teeth. And then you can just put them in the car, drive home,
stick them into bed. It makes life so much easier. Spare clothes in general in the car is just
something I feel like a lot of people do already. Matt and I joke about it being like the cardrobe,
because at one point we had hats in there, spare clothes when they were little. I used to also
have spare clothes for me in there when I was breastfeeding or even when the kids were weaning,
they would get food onto me. So it would be nice to have spare clothes. We've also got a towel
in the car that is really handy if we go to the park and it's recently rained, obviously living
in the UK, we can wipe down the play equipment. So we've got a blanket, we've got a towel,
we've got clothes, we've got a lot in our car. And while we're on the topic of pajamas,
I thought I would show you how I fold a set of pajamas. I have shared this on Instagram before,
but it's really simple, but just means a whole set is together. So all I do is lay out the top of the
pajama set and then fold the bottoms and put them inside the top and then fold that all together
so you have this little PJ bundle. And it looks really nice in the drawer all like Mary Kondoed.
I don't always do this in the summer because often in the summer, the boys only want to sleep
in the pajama bottoms. And I also do the same for my eldest son's football kits. He's football mad.
So often he's got the top and the shorts and the socks and I don't know if anyone else finds this,
but sometimes with football kits, it's not obvious what goes with what, or it's not
always obvious to me anyway. So now I fold his football kits the same way. I lay out the top,
lay the shorts on there and the socks as well, and then fold it all up into a little parcel.
And it looks really nice again, in his drawer. It makes it simple to find the
entire kit straight away. So I like doing that. And the next hack is so simple I wasn't sure if
I should even share it, but I was talking to a mom at cricket and she was talking
about how she struggles to always get to the school pickup on time. And I said to her, "Oh,
I actually have an alarm on my phone." So it goes off every day at 2:30. So no matter where I am,
if I'm caught up on a work call or if I'm having a coffee with a friend, or if I'm busy just doing
something and it slips my mind, I have an alarm go off to think, "Okay, get yourself together
and make a move soon." So I do that and I find it really helpful. It does actually go off on
the weekend as well, but I like it because when it goes off on a Saturday or Sunday,
it reminds me to book the kids' school dinners or school lunches for the next week because
we actually have to book them weekly. And the next mom hack is one that we use
every single day. And that is that I freeze kids healthy smoothies as ice lollies or popsicles for
the kids dessert. So pretty much every night after dinner, the kids will have one of these lollies,
but they're just fruit. It's just a fruit smoothie. Obviously in natural fruit smoothies
there's still a load of natural sugars. But the kids think it's this delicious treat,
but then I don't feel bad because it is literally just fruit and vegetables blended up. So that is a
really good tip. The only thing is it's actually a bit tricky to open. I actually have to use a knife
to cut the top off. But then you can pop it up and it's a really healthy dessert.
My next tip is to make the bed twice and I've literally done this from the minute I had a
newborn because it's so handy. So what I mean by that is actually make the bed with a mattress
protector and then a sheet. And then on top of that, put a mattress protector and then a sheet.
So when you have a newborn or a very small baby, it's great because as soon as they spit up or
leak, you can just take off the top sheet and the mattress protector. And then there's already a new
set. So if it's at 3:00 AM, it's not a big deal. While we've been getting out of nappies and
everything I do the exact same. I have a mattress protector, sheet, mattress protector, sheet. And
it's just so handy because often if someone's going to be sick or if someone's going to have
an accident, it is going to happen in the early hours of the night. So it's so nice that you've
just got like that, stick it in the wash. My next tip is to use a toothbrush timer
for your kids. And often their little electric toothbrushes will actually have a two minute
timer on them that will go off. But if you want extra encouragement, there are so many toothbrush
timers here on YouTube. We have used the Elmo toothbrushing song so many times with our boys,
but whatever they're into, there's probably a two minute toothbrush timer for them on YouTube. Like
there's even a little Luca one now because Jackson is really into Luca at the moment, but there's
Papa... There's so many different characters. And the next tip is how to get grass out of
your kid's Velcro on their shoes. I felt this was worth sharing because of the time of year.
All the schools are cutting their grass and it really is getting stuck in my boys' shoes. So
the quickest way to get it out is to get your tape dispenser and use the little scratchy bit,
to get it out. It takes seconds. It works every time and it's just the easiest way to get it out.
And my next mom hack is baskets. And I know that sounds weird, but I have baskets for everything.
And I just feel like they're so easy to just chuck things into. So we have baskets for kid's
toy storage. We have baskets for the shoes. We have baskets for even Fraser's Rubik's cubes,
because he has so many of them. We have baskets for the X-Box controllers because
it's nice to have a place for everything, but it's also super simple to just chuck things
into them. And I also like to run around with a laundry basket if I quickly need to do a tidy up.
So I'll just grab it, chuck anything into it that needs to go elsewhere.
Often it's things that need to go back upstairs. And it just makes our cleanup much quicker.
And this next hack is such a good one. And I use it every single time that the kids are unwell
and it's really helpful and really does work. So it's called the fluid challenge. So you use this
when your child has had a very bad sickness bug or tummy bug. They just cannot hold anything down.
So you just make up your little rehydration salts. In the UK they're called diralites,
and it just helps to rehydrate your child. So you just make it up with water and then use a little
medical syringe, which only holds about five milliliters of liquid. And you say to your child,
"Okay, we're going to do this fluid challenge. So every five minutes you get to have five ml
of the liquid, and we're going to see how quickly we can get rid of all the glass of water."
And because it's such a small amount of the liquid, but it's every five minutes,
they can manage to hold it down. But obviously over the course of an hour,
they actually take quite a bit down and it really helps to rehydrate them. And it just helps to get
them better. So I would totally recommend the fluid challenge and whenever my child is ill,
I just remember BRAT. So that means they can only eat bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast.
So if you could just remember BRAT, it just makes it easier to think, "Okay, what can they eat?"
And this next hack is a bit ridiculous and may only apply to a few people, but this really worked
for me and that is goggles in the bath. So two of my boys have not cared about having water chucked
all over them in their face and eyes. But one of my boys really hates it when we wash his hair. So
we got the goggles out, we literally wash their hair, put goggles on and then rinse it off that
way. And I know that sounds silly, but it really does work. Or also another thing that we do if we
don't have the goggles around is have a dry washcloth and just hold it over their face
and obviously make them lean back and rinse their hair that way. And then use the wash cloth
to wash the rest of their bodies. I also wanted to share with you some
buggy hacks that I used to love. The first one is to have some really good buggy clips.
I'm sure you guys already do, but these are the ones that we use and they're just so handy to
hang everything off of your buggy. And also if you don't already have a little clip on coffee
cup holder, I would totally recommend getting one. I loved having one throughout the years for
my coffee, or even sometimes for the kids' drinks. It was just, I felt I was always
putting something into it. Sometimes even my camera or my phone. Just really handy.
And then another tip is to weigh down the front of your buggy. You can use ankle weights for this,
or you can put stuff in the bottom of your buggy, but this was so helpful with my first son. When
Fraser was little, we had the one car. So then we had to walk everywhere. So often every day
we'd walk up to town, but sometimes I would get a full on food shop and there would be so much stuff
hanging off the buggy that as soon as he would hop out as a toddler, it would just come crashing down
to the ground. One way that you can help that is to actually weigh down the front of it. As I said,
here with ankle weights. Sometimes you can still hang so much stuff off the back that it will still
fall, but this really does help for the amount of things that we hang off the back of our buggies.
And the next tip, I've shared so many times on this channel before, but it's such a game changer
and just such a good habit to get into. And it is to lay everything out the night before. So
everything that the kids are going to wear, you can also get them to do this as well,
but also everything you're going to wear the next day. Anything they need for clubs the next day,
anything they need for school. Take 10 or 20 minutes to do it in the evening.
And it makes your morning so much easier. And another little mom hack that I do is to
make everything into a race. I use the boys' competitive streaks against them to get stuff
done. So what I mean by that is pretty much every night, I don't know how this is still working,
I say, "Who's going to win to the bath?" To get them upstairs and to get them showered and
washed. And also say this morning when we were getting the boys ready and into their uniform,
we were like, "Right, who's going to win? Who's going to be the quickest to get their uniform on?"
Or sometimes if it's just Jackson that I'm trying to get dressed, I'm like, "Okay,
I'm going to time you." Get the stopwatch out on my phone and just make everything a race.
And the next tip is one for self care. I know I'm always talking about being productive and
getting stuff done on this channel, but it's so important to try and make a little bit of time
for yourself or for self care. So how I do that is I'll just have one non-negotiable self care thing
that I will do every day. So whatever it is, if it's literally just, "Okay, I'm going to get this
20 minute workout in today." I don't care what happens. That's one thing for me. Or if it's just,
"I'm going to have a coffee at the end of the garden with Matt," that is going to happen today.
Just have one little non-negotiable thing that you do for yourself every single day,
because it will help to keep you sane. And my next tip is to have a snack drawer or a
place where your kids can easily access their own snacks. And I feel like people might be divided
on this point because some people think you shouldn't have a place where they can just help
themselves. But I actually really like having it. The boys always ask before they just have a snack.
But when I do say, "Yes, you can," it's so nice that they can just go and get it,
especially during the lockdown. We also made those snack boxes, which was really great. It
was just like, 'Here's your snacks for the day, help yourself when you want one," but
we've always had a place where they can get to the crisps or the breadsticks or the biscuits or the
raisins easily. And I really like having that. And my next hack, I have shared in the past on
this channel and someone actually messaged me to say they thought it was unethical,
but I think it's genius. So let me know what you guys think. Basically, one of my boys just hated
having their nails cut. Some kids freak out when they have a haircut, and mine have always been
fine with the hair, but not always great when it comes to cutting their nails. So I would
just do it when they were asleep. When my boys go to sleep, I wait about 20 minutes and then
cut their nails and they're in such a deep sleep they don't move or wake up at all.
And I feel like it's actually quite kind, because if it's something that causes them distress,
I can just wait until they're asleep, just quickly cut their nails and their toenails, and it's just
done. And it's only like once a month I have to do that. And it just makes life easier.
The next hack is one that I use quite often, and it's a very simple way to change your mindset.
And I don't know where this originally came from. I saw Hannah Michalak share this on Instagram,
but then she'd seen it somewhere else. And I don't know what source she saw it on,
but let me know in the comments if know. But it's literally just flipping your mind from thinking,
"Oh, I've got to do something," and changing the words to, "I get to do something." So say,
if you're like, "I've got to do the food shop, I've got to do the school run,"
just flip it and say, "I get to do the school run. I get to do the food shopping," because lots of
people don't necessarily get to do those things. And it instantly changes your way of thinking.
And the next tip is something that I do to help with mum guilt. I feel guilty so often, it is a
problem. And I'm sure some of you guys have the same thing as well. But when I'm feeling like I
haven't spent much time with them, I try to give each child 10 minutes of undivided attention and
actually across the three of them, that's still 30 minutes. So it does take up a bit of time.
But if I say talk to my eldest son about something that really interests him, like Roblox or football
and just play football with him or even play Roblox with him, he loves that when I do that.
Then I just feel like, "Hey, he's been seen. He feels like he's had some time with me as
well." And with the other boys, I do the same. Or sometimes after school, I'll go on the trampoline
with all three of them for like 30 minutes. And I feel a bit silly going on the trampoline all the
time with them, but they honestly love it. And I feel like it's the kind of thing that they'll
remember when they're older. And I just feel then they just have had that time. Or if something's
on their mind, maybe we can talk about it. I do find that they open up a lot at bedtime as well
when they're trying to avoid going to sleep. And my next tip is a great one if you have
siblings, and one that I use pretty much every day. So my school age children,
they need to read every night and my younger child needs to be read to every night. So I
just put the two together and it works amazingly well. So I just get my older child to read aloud
to my younger child. So he's getting a book, well he's actually getting extra books. And then I
read to him as well and often I'm in the room. So say if I get one of the boys to read to Jackson,
I'll often be getting their uniforms or school stuff ready for the next day. So I'm still there,
I'm still listening to what's going on, but it is great. And it also helps to bond them together.
And for my last hack I actually went downstairs to get my handbag because the hack is these pens
on a string. I love these things. We've had them for years. They're just so handy because the caps
are on a string you can't lose the pen caps. So they're great for just having in your bag
for restaurants. We had them on the plane. If I'm waiting for one of my kids to do gymnastics class,
Jackson will often color with these and this little coloring book.
And they're great. Especially at the moment, a lot of restaurants that you go to are not actually
giving out coloring pens and stuff because of the coronavirus. So I'm like, "Don't worry, I got
these in my bag." I just find I use them all the time. And I have done for years and I love them.
So that is it. And I hope you liked this video. I hope you liked these hacks. I actually have so
many more like this that I could share. So if you do like this kind of thing,
let me know in the comments below or give this video a thumbs up. That's a
really good indicator to me to be like, "Okay, make more of that." But anyway,
thank you so much as always for watching, and I'll see you in my next one. Bye guys.