These mum hacks are brought to you in association with Jimmy’s Iced Coffee, but they really work for me. Honestly peoples.
Being a mum is joyous, terrifying, inspirational, infuriating; generally just chuck an adjective at your day, and you’ll find that part of being a mum involves it. That’s why the internet is chocful of mum hacks.
It’s blooming complicated enough without making life even MORE difficult by not cutting the odd corner here and there in your everyday mum life.
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE being a mum. It’s just sometimes I need a break from it.
And I don’t mean we all need to carry a glass of wine around in our handbags…though that might help some of us 🤣
Here are FIVE mum hacks I’ve learnt through the years that get you out of many a mummy-pickles with the kids and the chaos they bring
Drink Iced Coffee
We all know that mums and dads can never have hot coffee. No matter what happens, you are almost always going to find that as soon as you have poured yourself that nice, hot mug of coffee; something urgent will occur in the children department.
So embrace it and buy yourself some Jimmy’s Iced Coffee.
It’ll help to Keep Your Chin Up, and stop you from having to shove that tepid coffee back into the microwave post child-related incident moment.
And it comes in different flavours too; Skinny, Original Café Latte, Dairy Free and Mocha. These flavours are bound to find favour with your taste buds, and given that the Skinny is only 3 Smart Points it’ll also find favour with the wasteline! All the flavours have reduced sugar content too, and the Dairy Free version is rather cleverly sweetened with Oats, and it is the only one of its kind on the shelves currently. *gold star to Jimmys there*
The entire range is also Rainforest Alliance Certified™ Arabica Coffee, so those farms that produce for the product are being taught about sustainable farming methods, to help keep nature and livelihoods as harmonious as possible.
So all you are getting in the end is a perfect alternatively to the usual ordinary mum coffee, which generally just comes in one flavour; frickin’ freezin’.
Buy lots of pairs of socks the SAME colour
Is it just me that CAN NEVER FIND their socks in the morning, afternoon, evening. It isn’t just because I’m always rushing about, and never have time to get myself ready as I am grappling with the small people.
Well, actually, it probably is…and I really don’t want to have to go out yet again in odd socks.
So – I don’t – I buy all black ones, or lots of pairs of grey ones. At the moment, I have a load of emoji socks. These are black ones with a small emoji on the ankle so that if I do have to wear odd ones, no-one can tell. Unless they get up close and personal with my ankles, and no-one wants to do that.
Almost as bad as dangling my feet out the window to show off about my sock hack, right?
Better still, if you can do the same your your kids, babies in particular, when you lose their socks, or can’t find a pair when you are trying to get them ready…no-one cares! Get a pack of plain white baby socks, and you are done!
It becomes a little harder to do this hack as they get older, and want colourful feet; but rainbow ankle socks do a pretty good job here. They are colourful, and it might even be considered cool when your kids end up wearing odd ones!
Always carry card games with you
I go out with the kids all the time, and I used to have absolutely nada to do with them, until I decided that my mum handbag needed to be used more efficiently.
We have to have these mahousive handbags to fit all that kids paraphernalia in anyway, so why not use a small corner of these mum bags to keep emergency supplies for those un-foreseen situations when you have to entertain the kids at a moment’s notice.
Take a pack of cards, or a set of Top Trumps (or even both) wherever you go, so you can always magically pull them out when you need a break/to stop an argument/want is distract the kids.
Tailor the card game you carry for the age of the child of course, snap is a great one for littlies, or Happy Families, but as the kids get older and more able to read, Top Trumps, Uno, or a pack of playing cards is even more effective.
We have about seven hundred packs of vintage Top Trumps, and so we always use these. They are perfect for travel games as well, as they are so easy to play together in the back of the car.
You might even be able to get out of playing too if you can use the old “oh my neck hurts to turn around” trick….
Buy some dry shampoo
There are some mornings when you are o knackered because your kid had you up in the night, that you barely have enough energy to get into the shower, shake yourself, and then get out again.
You really don’t want to wash you hair, blow dry it, and get that “just stepped out of a salon feeling”, do you?
My solution is the wonderful world of dry shampoo, go and buy some today.
It will change your life, I promise.
Get a lint roller
We do a good amount of craft on this site; it is a fact that you will see more glitter in the toddler years of your life than you ever did on those disco balls before you had your kids.
It gets everywhere too.
I once spent far too long trying to get glitter stars out of the lining of my pants. *just don’t ask*
Clearing it up is impossible, unless you use a lint roller. They are amazing for cat hairs, but did you never consider using them to clear up your craft table.
Voila; you will now!
Hope these have been helpful for you; now you can finally indulge in a sit down in matching socks, with a cup of coffee you like and without the peril of getting glitter in your knickers as well! 😂
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See you next time!
Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!