5 tips to make parenting easier and more fun

I love the start of a new week.  It gives you the opportunity to move past the mistakes and goofs of last week.  On that note Daddy Mojo made a couple basic parenting mistakes last week.  We know not to do them, but my lack of schedule or planning made them happen.   They may have wasted time, resources or caused Baby Mojo to melt down unnecessarily.  

Park the car beside the shopping cart holder 

If you park the car beside the holding bin for the shopping carts then you don’t have to leave your child in the car or the cart in the parking lot.    Even before I was a father one of my pet peeves was people that simply left the shopping carts in the middle of the parking lots.   The carts can roll and hit other cars, which causes damage to the customer’s property and raises the insurance rates for the stores.    Plus your child loves to ride in them anyway.  The extra ten or twelve spaces further from the store is easily worth being beside the holding bin for the shopping carts.

Close the top to the baby wipes

If you don’t close the top to the baby wipes then the next one out of the gate will be dry.  It’s just wasteful and will cause to you to purchase more wipes quicker. 

Always have a toy in your pocket.

If you’re in a jam then that toy in your pocket will help entertain your child in a pinch.  This isn’t the toy that will occupy them for an hour; this is just a band aid toy to entertain them for five or ten minutes.

Always have more toys in y our diaper bag

These are the toys that could keep them entertained for more than ten minutes.  A book, puppet, truck or something more engaging will help you keep that fussy baby from having a meltdown during those unexpected long trips.  I had a doctors’ appointment that should have taken 30 minutes.  Two hours into waiting we had looked at all the trees and cars in the parking lot and had to ask the nurses if they had any crackers for the meltdown that was happening in my arms.

Always have snacks and toys in your diaper bag-for you and the baby

See the above example.  Daddy Mojo andBaby Mojo were hungry.   Guess who got the crackers?  Pack a snack in your diaper bag for everybody and check the bag before you go out.  In the future we’ll try to check the bag the previous night, that way we can add to it in a more relaxing fashion.