When picking your battles as a parent has nothing to do with your kids (Ep. 020)
Ninety-nine pennies. That’s all it costs per pound to have someone wash, dry, fold, and package my family’s laundry. It comes out to something like $8-10 per normal load, but frees up hours and hours of my time.
Time I can now spend on my family and more important things in my life.
It’s a battle I chose not to pick. It wasn’t worth my time and effort when I would otherwise be missing out on the little things day-to-day with my girls or when I could be making more money that that per hour working.
Extremely Good Parenting Podcast Ep. 020
Listen while you read! It’s a quick 15 minute listen that maybe you can enjoy while also getting something else done. Which is the whole point, right?!
Maximizing time with kids & prioritizing family
Where does your time go?
Really, it’s a question to sit and wrestle with.
I know some of you are just like me and think about how some weeks time just flies by and you didn’t accomplish what you that you would or weeks where you seemed to be constantly busy but didn’t get the most important things done.
Read more about the misguided notion of me time for parents.
What’s most important?
We have created a family whiteboard that is separated into 5 sections and is filled out each week after we have our Sunday Family meeting. (I keep “family minutes” in a journal to look back on each week and month even).
The top is a 2×2 grid with columns “important”, “not important”, “this week”, “this month”. The bottom is all for today. Each person has their own color and it works. Even for a family that’s not type A as a whole.
Ultimately it answers the question: “What’s best next?”
It’s a phrase that’s been used in the latest sermon series at our church that I thought was really applicable to our white board. It’s easy to see what needs to be done. But is it important? Can it wait? What literally needs to be done next and what can be accomplished after the important items are cross off the list.
Read more about juggling parental priorities.
How can you cut down on what’s making your life more complicated?
My husband has always said the reason we have money is to help us solve our problems. It’s not materialistic or a waste of hard earned money if it means paying someone less that what you could earn in that time or spending money to gain time together with your family. Listen to the rest of the podcast episode to dive into the following questions:
Listen to the rest of the podcast episode to dive into the following questions:
- Is your family glorifying busy?
- Where do you waste time and energy?
- Where are you turning your wheels?
- How can you better prioritize family?
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Kara is an author and advocate for positive, grace-filled parenting. She is homeschooler to her 6 children living on a farm in New England. She believes in creative educational approaches to help kids dive deeper into a rich learning experience and has her degree in Secondary Education & Adolescent Childhood Development. She is passionate about connecting with and helping other parents on their journey to raise awesome kids!
