Top Five Things that Keep me Sane as a Working Parent

What I do to not completely lose it and why I wish I had allowed myself to cave in to spending the extra money sooner. 

What in the world is our obsession with being able to do it all? Why are we embarrassed or feel like it’s tacky to pay for help with things? I realized a few years ago that just because I can (just barely) fit in cooking, managing a household, parenthood and working full time, doesn’t mean I have to. Why you ask? Because I was always on the go and it was killing me. Plus I was missing out on making awesome memories with my family over the weekends.

Having a Cleaning Person
I still feel weird when I tell people we have a cleaning person come twice a month. There’s just a stigma around it, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I don’t like looking entitled, or like I’m too amazing to clean my own house? Either way, I’m glad I broke down and did it. It’s helped with stress in our marriage and the feeling of coming home from work to a sparkling house twice a month is better than the best high. It’s also the only time our beds ever get made and I ain’t mad about it. I pulled Thea’s comforter up over her sheets the other day and when she went into her room she announced “MOM!!!! The cleaning people came!!!!!!!”. No child. I half ass made your bed. I know how, I just don’t LIKE to do it. You too can do these things when you are an adult!

Getting my Groceries Delivered
Well helloooo game changer! Being able to just use an app to order my groceries and have them show up on my doorstep has been the freaking BEST! I used to spend almost all day every Sunday meal planning and attempting to shop multiple stores with a small child, trying to get it all done before she was hungry or needed a nap. It was exhausting! Now I don’t have the stress of that, but I’m also able to shop even more stores and hit all the deals at once. The service basically pays for itself when used properly, and it eliminates the urge of putting all of those things in your cart that you really don’t need. Instacart is my jam- holler at me for a discount off your first order if you are interested in trying it out!

Cutting Corners with my Recipes
I get home around 5:45 from work every night, and was finding that almost all meals that can be done in under 30 minutes required some sort of pasta or were really unhealthy. That wasn’t an option for us. We eat a LOT of veggies and sometimes just the chopping can take 20 minutes! I started realizing ways I could cut corners around recipes that were high in veggies and lean proteins. Are they as delicious as the original recipes? Not always, but it’s better than not being able to eat healthy during the week. Partial meal prepping (usually lots of chopping) on Sundays has also really shaved off loads of time. Taking fancy pants recipes and making them weeknight ready is what really sparked my love for cooking.

Amazon Priming Everything
Thea needs new underpants? Prime it. I broke the crockpot lid? Amazon Prime it. I think we all know about this one. If you aren’t ordering everything from your pullups to your batteries here I don’t know how you are a functioning human. I have not gone to the toy store a single time to get a gift for a kids birthday party. Can we just talk about how that has shaved years off my life? Trying to go in the toy aisle while you have a child with you is the biggest nightmare of all time unless you have 3 hours to kill and brought a camping chair. With Prime I’ve been able to order a gift for little Jimmy in the middle of a meeting that could have been an email or while at the gym.

Buying Pre-chopped Vegetables
YOU GUUUUUUYS. Pre-chopped butternut squash and the bag of broccoli florets from Costco has literally changed my dinner game. When I realized how awesome it was, I also realized I was seriously missing out by doing my own chopping. A lot of recipes you can totally just use frozen stuff and there is no shame in that game. Why not let your ingredients meet you half way for a few extra bucks? I’m still venturing into all my options here, but I’ll keep you posted as I find more game changers out there.

So there you have it! My list of sanity savers that I’d pay twice as much for if I had to- they may honestly not line up with your needs. But whatever they may be, I can promise that you know what they are. You know every time you do that certain thing and you think “boy, I’d pay money to not have to do this”? I bet you there is a way to do exactly that. Except for paying someone to fold your clothes and put them away for you. That would honestly be my #6 if it was a thing.