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Parenting Life Hacks During A Pandemic

Things To Do For Yourself & Your Kids

By Courtney Daly-Pavone April 15, 2020

Find Your Happy

The dishes can wait! By now working moms and dads have realized that full time parenting is work. Being with your kids 24/7 requires endless amounts of energy and patience. Everything takes longer to complete due to constant interruptions, even a bathroom break or a phone call to a friend are hard to come by, but you need to do something for yourself everyday even if it's just for 30 minutes. Go for a walk, garden, personally, I like to sketch. Yesterday I went outside alone, and sketched a Naked Coral Tree. 


Twenty minutes into my "me time," I received a phone call from my son, but I stayed outside for a full hour undeterred. I realized that my work at home never ends, there is always something to do. Do one task at a time, and don't think about everything you would like to complete. By making time for yourself a must, you can at least achieve that one thing for yourself and find solace.

Return Home & Do Something With Your Kids!

Now that your mind is clear you can devote time to your children. 

Set up a hummingbird feeder, or make a homemade birdhouse out of items around your home. Encourage kids to take part in gardening. Don't have a backyard? No problem! We make the most of our balcony with bird feeders. The highlight of our day is seeing our friendly hummingbird fly over for a quick meal!

Hummingbird Nectar Recipe

Ingredients

  • Refined white sugar
  • Water

Directions for making safe hummingbird food:

  1. Mix 1 part sugar with 4 parts water (for example, 1 cup of sugar with 4 cups of water) until the sugar is dissolved
  2. Do not add red dye
  3. Fill your hummingbird feeders with the sugar water and place outside
  4. Extra sugar water can be stored in a refrigerator
  5. Change feeders every other day and thoroughly clean them each time to prevent harmful mold growth.

Create A Butterfly Garden

Popular butterfly perennials include milkweed, coneflowers, hyssop, asters, and liatris. These plants thrive in full sun, which butterflies need to maintain their metabolism. You can find these plants at Home Depot which is open during the pandemic.

Have Dolly Parton Read Your Kids Bedtime Stories!

“Goodnight With Dolly” features Dolly Parton reading a series of Imagination Library books all carefully chosen for their appropriate content at this moment in time. Once a week for 10 weeks at 7:00 PM EST, The read alongs will be a personal gift from Dolly to all families free of charge. To view past programs anytime visit: https://imaginationlibrary.com/goodnight-with-dolly/

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