At Keystone Counseling we often hear parents’ frustrations about being overwhelmed, not having enough time, being too busy to focus on what is important to them, and not knowing how to juggle all the priorities in their lives.
With that in mind, this list of parenting resources represents some favorite suggestions we recommend for busy parents.
Cleaning Services
- A1 Quality Cleaning – A uniformed, insured, and bonded professional team will come to your home as frequently as you request. They provide all the cleaning supplies, except a vacuum. Eco-friendly products are used upon request. They use “report cards” in which they request your feedback each week in order to address any concerns or mistakes.
- Deluxe Maid – They are streamlined and convenient in their booking and payment methods, which are all online. This makes managing your cleaning services very easy. They offer a flat rate pricing without a contract, which can be convenient if you need to cancel a cleaning or suspend them for any reason.
- Care.com – If you do not want to trust your home to a larger company, then you have the option of interviewing and hiring your own individual from this service. Care.com is not just child care. They offer pet sitting, house sitting, house cleaning, personal assistant, and more.
Grocery Delivery
- Peapod – They are similarly priced to grocery chains like Kroger. Though there are delivery fees, the overall grocery bill remains the same due to more meal planning and less impulse shopping.
- Green bean – As a company, they emphasize sustainability and community. They are a network of locally grown organic food sources. They stand out in mission and values to better the world around them.
Childcare
- Care.com / Sittercity.com – Both require you join for a fee in order to check out and hire a sitter. However, they allow you to cancel any time and to pay your provider online if you would like. Care.com has the option of finding last minute childcare called “Date Night”.
Shopping
- Amazon Prime – It costs around $100 for a year-long membership. With that fee you get free two-day shipping on a lot of your purchases and access to a wide range of movies, tv, music, and e-books.
- Amazon Family – This particular branch of Amazon offers great deals on diapers, toys, baby shower gifts, gifts for kids, etc. You have the option of subscribing to different items so they will arrive at the approximated time in which you would run out, so it’s a way of always being stocked on the items you need the most.
- Once Upon a Child – Kids grow and change so quickly. This store is great for changing out your equipment, clothes, toys, etc. as your child matures. The store will buy your gently used items and you will find great stock to replenish your child’s closet at a reasonable price.
New Parent Specific
- Meal Train – This is a great website to organize friends and family wanting to be of service when the baby arrives. Everyone signs up for a day and time to bring over a meal, allowing everyone a chance to visit with the family and be helpful.
Products
- Bumbo Seat – Parents’ arms, hips, and backs get tired from holding a baby constantly. This product allows baby to sit upright independently while parents engage them in play and feeding.
- Boppy Pillow – This feeding aid helps a baby and parent maintain their feeding position comfortably, which encourages the baby to eat or nurse. It also gives those parent arms and backs a chance to relax with its ease of adjustment.
- Infinity Nursing Scarf / Nursing Cover – This fantastic creation allows breast feeding moms to feel confident and discreet during feeding times. It wraps completely around the mom with full coverage, so no bare back or impromptu exposure. It’s easy to use and rearrange as needed.
- Moby Wrap – The Moby Wrap allows parents to carry baby hands-free and comfortably. It fits a wide range of body sizes and can be worn in multiple manners allowing each parent to find what fits and works best for them. It’s also washing-machine safe.
Books
- Baby Makes Three – Relationship experts, Dr. John and Julie Gottman discuss skills needed for couples to maintain a healthy relationship during their transition to parenthood. They give practical tips on maintaining an intimate connection, paying attention to appreciating one another, preventing postpartum depression, and creating a well balanced home environment for baby’s growing development.
- On Becoming Babywise – Robert Bucknam, M.D. and Gary Ezzo, discuss how order and stability of a parental routine effects a newborn’s development. They highlight how to use this knowledge as an advantage by managing an infant’s three daytime activities of feeding time, wake time, and nap time.
- The Happiest Baby on the Block – Karp’s method is based on four concepts:
- The Fourth Trimester:Why babies still need a womblike atmosphere, even after birth
- The Calming Reflex:The “off switch” all babies are born with
- The 5 S’s:Five easy steps to turn on your baby’s amazing calming reflex
- The Cuddle Cure:How to combine the 5 S’s to calm even colicky babies
Parenting Books
(Book descriptions come from Amazon.com)
- Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child – This parenting book’s focus is on teaching children how to understand and regulate their emotional world. This produces self-confidence, greater physical health, better performance in school, and healthier social relationships. It uses a five-step “emotion coaching” process:
- Being aware of a child’s emotions
- Recognizing emotional expression as teaching opportunities
- Empathetically listening and validating a child’s feelings
- Labeling emotions in easy to understand and child friendly language
- Helping a child create an appropriate solution or response to frustrating situations.
- Love and Logic – This parenting philosophy focuses on the goals of instilling self-confidence, a sense of responsibility, decision making skills, and character development. This strategy allows parents to establish healthy boundaries and authority with easy-to-implement steps without anger, threats, nagging, or power struggles.
- 1, 2, 3 Magic – This parenting strategy avoids too much talking and emotion, which leads to debates and energy drains. Instead, parents manage their anger and redirect the child’s behavior. It addresses common parenting problems such as:
- Whining
- Sibling rivalry
- Reluctance to do chores or pick up
- Refusing to go to bed or getting up in the middle of the night