Here at My Name Label we’re dedicated to making life that little bit easier for parents. Via our fun yet informative parenting blog, we have helped parents prepare for their little one’s first day at school, how to get little ones to eat healthily and how to declutter a busy life, and many other tips to help oil the cogs of family life. Here is a round-up of our favourite parenting hacks we’ve seen lately to give you a smile… because at the end of the school holidays goodness knows we need it!
1) Keep Your Toddler Busy by Letting Them ‘Paint’ the Fence
Giving your toddler a real life job to do will keep them busy for ages. They will have a certain pride in being trusted to do a grown-up job and enjoy the responsibility it brings. But they’re still only little so using water ensures that any ‘stains’ on clothes will quickly dry and disappear and spillages are fuss-free!
2) Use a Fitted Sheet to Keep your Blanket at the Beach Sand Free!
This is genius. We only wish we’d thought of it at the start of the summer! Noone enjoys sandy sandwiches or babies scooping handfuls of the sandy stuff into their mouths… using a fitted sheet cleverly minimises the avalanche of sand on your blanket which is otherwise inevitable when beaches and children combine.
3) Turn Jobs into Games to Make Them Fun and Engaging
Use your imagination to turn simple household chores into engaging and fun games. Using some masking tape to create a landing zone for sweeping bits is an example of this clever way of getting your kids to help, and the tape is easily removed once the job is done. When you’re washing up give little ones their own smaller bowl of bubbly water and some dishes so they can do their own washing up. You’ll be surprised how much children love ‘working’ alongside mum or dad and how much they enjoy being given simple tasks!
4) Use a Coffee Lid as a Drip Catcher
All of us are trying hard to be responsible citizens and cut down our use of single-use plastics so why not reuse your plastic coffee lid in this ingenious parenting hack? Using a coffee lid to catch drips saves sticky fingers and helps your little ones to enjoy their ice lollies mess-free! You can also use cupcake cases or slices of cucumber (it sucks up the juice!).
5) Reuse Toilet Rolls to Make a Car Garage
In the same vein as parenting hack number 4, repurposing cardboard toilet rolls into a car garage is a great idea. Making the ‘garage’ together will be a fun craft idea, and then the garage can be played with and reused for months to come. Just don’t let it get wet!
6) Create Monster Spray to Help Little Ones Sleep Soundly
If your little one is scared of monsters and won’t sleep because they fear the dark, create a ‘monster spray’ using an old (cleaned out) squirter and some water. Decorate the bottle in a fun way to encourage engagement and then explain how the squirter can repel monsters and ensures that they don’t enter the bedroom or house. This can be a great way of assuring children they are safe and in control (and a good way of repurposing old spray bottles!).
7) Stop Your Kids Getting Locked in the Bathroom
As children grow they like to test their independence and will start locking the bathroom door to show how grown up they are. This can inevitably end in them not being able to unlock it and panic from both sides of the door ensues! Putting a rubber band over the locking mechanism like in the image can stop this from happening and keep the bathroom door unlocked, giving peace of mind for parents and children alike!
8) Put Labels in Your Child’s Shoes
Have your children's shoes ever gone missing? Or is it difficult for your child to tell their shoes apart from others once they are off their feet and all lined up on the floor? A simple solution is to name them with shoe labels adorned with the design and font of their choice. It makes it easy for them to be found and is one less thing for kids to worry about.
9) Use a Roll of Baking Paper to Keep Art & Craft Time Neat
Yes white boards are great, but what if you want to keep your child’s artwork and use crayons, paint or other mediums? Using a roll of baking paper mounted on the wall is a great way of keeping craft time neat and accessible, and kids will find it a fun way of dispensing paper. Just be sure that you monitor them so that it doesn’t all get pulled out at once…
10) Use Household Items to Entertain Your Kids
Simple household items can entertain children for ages. A colander and a collection of brightly-coloured pipe cleaners can provide hours of fun for an inquisitive toddler, as can collections of buttons or coins - kids love to sort and count! Use sponges instead of paintbrushes to make interesting bubbly textures with paint, or try letting your child play with the leftover pastry or dough from your baking. With a little imagination kids can find entertainment in normal household objects for hours…
There we have it, our run-down of interesting parenting hacks designed to make your life that little bit easier. Naming your child’s clothing and belongings is the best way to avoid losing expensive uniforms and PE kits so remember to get your back-to-school name labels as September is just around the corner! You can see our collection of school name labels here https://www.mynamelabel.co.uk/collections/all-products