Nap Time Chats

Shortly after baby Merp arrived, I started doing a little thing I liked to call “Nap Time Chats” with all of you on my social media channels. I had mamas submit pieces of advice - about motherhood and life in general - and at each chat I would share one.

Well Princess Merp now gives me the stink eye if I make even the smallest noise while she’s settling down for nap time, so I decided I would share my fave pieces of advice here in a blog post for everyone to use!

An extra big thank you to everyone who submitted their advice. I never really understood what the phrase “it takes a village” meant until I had kids of my own, and the Basic Ranch Mom community sure has helped me find the best village of fellow ranch moms there is.

So without further ado, here’s your list!

1) When you pick up kids from daycare or the babysitter, always greet the older children first. Samantha’s mom was a daycare provider, and she said that whenever parents would greet their baby before their older kids, she could always see their faces fall. Your older kids will remember when you greet them first, your baby will not.

2) The easiest way to get out the door on time is for mom to get ready first. Megan has six kiddos so I know she knows what she’s talking about! She said the very best way to ease the rush out the door is to get herself ready before she works on everyone else. I’ve since tried this and can attest to it’s accuracy.

3) Make a quiet time basket for your older kids when you have a new baby. Emily has a special basket that the older kids only get to play with when she needs to pay attention to the baby. They get excited for the special toys and it keeps them quiet while baby goes down for a nap or nurses.

4) Get the over the door organizers with five pockets for school clothes for the week. Randa is a pro mama if I’ve ever seen one, and one of her tips is that she has one of these organizers for each of her children. On Sunday evening they put their clothes for each day of the week into the organizer, and make sure to add labels to the pockets to remember which day is PE, library book day, etc. Each morning the kids can get themselves dressed and ready, and they know what special things they might need to remember for their backpack. I’ve linked an organizer option here: https://amzn.to/3K11o1X

5) Save your dryer lint. This is one I saw as a tip on Instagram and for the life of me I can’t remember who shared it. Instead of chucking your dryer lint, tape a gallon ziploc bag to the side of your dryer and put your lint in there. It’s the perfect fire starter for burn barrels, bonfires, etc.

6) Set a timer for certain tasks. Matraca is a meal prep queen and one of her tips for staying on task is to set a timer for the amount of time you want to focus on something. Until the timer goes off you can’t move on to any other tasks. If you’ve seen any of my reels about my inability to complete a task then you know I need this trick in my life!

6b) Set an Alexa timer for clean up/bed time! This one comes from Randa but I felt like it went hand in hand with the previous one. She has a timer set for 7:00 pm on her Alexa that tells the kids to clean up and get ready for bed every evening. That means Alexa is the bad guy and mom is not.

7) Change ‘nap time’ to ‘book time.’ Like many of us, Britt has a little one who isn’t too fond of nap time. So instead she changed the narrative. When it’s that time of day, she says it’s time for books and her toddler gets to choose three books. They lay down and read them together and then it naturally transitions into a rest. Talk about a parenting win!

8) Do something your future self will thank you for. And by future self, Brenna is talking about you tomorrow versus you today. She never wants to wash the bottles at the end of the night, but she knows tomorrow Brenna will be glad she did. I’ve tried to use this advice to reframe my thinking any time I want to leave a task for another moment.

9) Keep socks by the door where the shoes are, and keep a tote in the back of your car with diaper bag essentials. Randa hated sending kids up to their room for socks so she started keeping them by the shoes. And instead of repacking and hauling a diaper bag, she keeps a tote in the car for the essentials for all of her kids - then all she needs is a small cross body wallet to leave the house!

10) Use the EASY routine for new baby. Lisa is a stellar mama and food blogger and has a new baby herself. She said the E-A-S-Y routine is a game changer for new babies. Baby EATS when they wake, stays AWAKE for activity, then down for a SLEEP and YOU time. It makes sleep training later on much less painful.

11) If it doesn’t make you healthier, happier, or wealthier - just don’t do it! Krista is a wealth of knowledge on so many things, and she doesn’t let us down with this piece of advice. And the more life experience I get, the more I agree with this sentiment. Just say no to things that don’t make you one of those three things.

12) Replace time out with physical activity. One of my fave pieces of advice from Randa to round out the Nap Time Chats - if her kids are fighting, she makes them run a lap around the house instead of sending them to time out. If they come inside still fighting, they have to run another lap until they are done. If they don’t quit fighting, at least they got their exercise that day. That’s some discipline I can get behind!

This really was a great list of advice, and there were SO MANY others I wasn’t able to include. Life on the ranch and life as a mom sure is a lot easier and more enjoyable when we do it together. A big thanks to each of you for being part of my village!