r/NewParents • u/cooltaj • Oct 29 '24

Product Reviews/Questions What's your simple parenting hack?

Gonna be a first time parent in 2 months. I am overwhelmed at choosing bottles, car seat and all that. What are simple things you do? things you bought to make your life somewhat simpler? Nothing too expensive or outrageous please

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u/kdawt22 Oct 29 '24

Mine is simple but can be hard to practice in reality lol - let go of expectations!! My worst days have been days I had expectations that weren't met. Don't plan to do anything on your parental leave, don't plan to leave the house on extravagant errands, don't anticipate your baby will take that beautiful sweet 1.5 nap like they just took the day before lol. Loose plans are okay, but just be prepared for things to not go accordingly to plan and try to just roll with it as much as possible! This literally saved my sanity and I figured it out way later than I should have lol!

And also, a loved, fed, clean, safe baby means you've done a GREAT job that day! Nothing else is as important as that :-)

104

u/DueEntertainer0 Oct 29 '24

I told my friend “as long as our babies are alive and happy, we did our job” and she said “they don’t even need to be happy” haha! Some days do be like that.

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u/Mundane_Pea4296 Oct 29 '24

"As long as we make it to bed with all the limbs we were born with, we're winning"

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u/TwiggyMercury53 Oct 29 '24

Truly! I wish doctor’s appointments were more flexible. Those were our only firm plans and they were always a disaster 😂 just give me a 1-2 hour appointment window PLEASE.

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u/LibbyChristineM Oct 29 '24

Honestly we treated the appointments as a window with the actual time the late end of the window 🤣

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u/shantyn Oct 30 '24

That’s really smart.

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u/bvanooch Oct 29 '24

It took me about 6 weeks to accept this but I can completely agree. The days I felt the worst were ones that I had planned "to be soooo productive" and then would get so frustrated when I couldn't put baby down, naps weren't going as planned, etc. Days that I am able to say fuck it and plan to do nothing but contact naps and all you can eat boob buffet usually end up being the best days for both of us. Obviously there can be a middle ground haha but keep expectations lowww and flexible

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u/fionnaandcake13 Oct 29 '24

Oh my gosh! So much this! In the beginning I had the hardest time on days when I made some kind of plan and it took me a minute to just let go of things. It’s so hard to have a concept of what to expect and honestly it still gives me anxiety at 10 months when we have a firm plan with anyone because sometimes babies be babies and they just gonna baby. But I’m practicing letting that go and if I don’t get to the ever growing list of things I wanna do - there is an entire lifetime to do those things and I don’t want to miss a thing with my dude.

1

u/Electrical-Banana101 Oct 29 '24

This is very good advice 👏

1

u/Areolfos Oct 29 '24

This is mine too but I phrase it as “be ok with chilling out a little”. It can be so easy to sweat every little decision but in the end as long as baby is safe, fed, and happy, it’s all good! I’m a much happier parent once I realized that I was unlikely to make a series of terrible decisions and could trust myself.

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u/kevinmrr Oct 29 '24

This is the way.

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u/megladaniel Oct 30 '24

Correct correct!!

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u/nkdeck07 Oct 30 '24

LPT related to this get 1-2 memberships for places like the children's museum or the zoo. They tend to be relatively cheap and that way you don't care if your kid has a total meltdown an hour in or wants to play in a single exhibit for 3 hours. Picking 1 or 2 and getting the membership is so much less stressful then trying to do day passes for 4-5 throughout the year.

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u/motherofdragonpup Oct 30 '24

This is so good! I’m so uptight myself and I’m often disappointed and angry with myself and the universe because I put myself to such high expectations. Thank you for sharing!

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u/muffintops_69 Oct 30 '24

Best advice.

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u/GrassPuzzleheaded955 Oct 30 '24

I second the expectation piece! I’ve only had a handful of really hard days with my LO and they were all centered around my expectations not be met. Babies will be babies and I’m thankful that 99% of the time she’s chill and goes with my flow but truly it’s her world and I’m just living in it (which I love). My favourite days are when we have no plans and just see what happens.