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5 Parents Share Their Secrets For Fitting Special Moments Into Busy Weeknights

by Amy Jamieson

A kids' dance recital is a stress-inducing event on its own. But throw in two weeknight dress rehearsals, with full hair and makeup done by yours truly, and I fully morph into Mom-zilla.

Bouncing back to normal family life from the chaos of fistfuls of bobby pins and way too much hairspray is tough for me AND my kids, but I have one secret to salvaging some family time in the midst of the weeknight chaos: “Cereal for dinner!”

When I say these words, you’d think I just told my kids that they won the lottery. Their faces beam as they deliberate over which cereal to choose and help each other pour their milk without splashing.

I’ve started suggesting easy dinners like these more often often just to make weeknights less about spending hours cooking and cleaning up, and more about creating special moments together before bedtime.

Because we’re all on this ride called "after-school activities" together, we teamed up with DairyPure to ask five parents how they manage to fit meaningful moments into busy, jam-packed nights. Their ideas are creative, fun, and most of all, very effective.

Read on to be inspired.

Tracey:

“Being a working single mom of three young kids could definitely be overwhelming at times. To make sure we still fit in special moments, we made it a Wednesday night tradition to build a tent in the living room — we’d put our jammies on and have a snack and a snuggle in the tent before bedtime. My kids are older now and those times in the tent are still one of our sweetest memories.”

Charleen:

“My busy family schedules time together weekly by playing dominoes. It’s a fun, fast-paced game and it helps us stay connected during the week, no matter what’s going on — and, believe me, between cheer practice for my daughter and baseball and bass practice for my son, there’s a lot going on! Weeknights can be crowded juggling all these activities and there are very few moments for my family to enjoy each other, but we all make an effort to NEVER miss our dominoes games.”

Neil:

“I can’t think of a better — or simpler — way to create special moments with your child than over a good book. My eldest and I make time to chug through a book each weeknight — after we're done with soccer, dance, whatever. With each page I read, the OMG-when-will-this-day-end struggle becomes a distant memory. The act of reading a book together instantly transports us to a place far away, and it’s the most amazing feeling. And later, when we’re driving to one of her many activities and she spots a person or place that reminds her of our book, I consider that the ultimate parenting reward.”

Amy:

“Between all of our obligations and activities, busy weeknights can easily fly by without any valuable family time. Since we got a chicken coop, though, we've made a point to carve out time every night to collect the eggs, sort them, and clean them as a family. We even find ways to make it into a fun activity, like playing guessing games about how many eggs we'll find. My girls love it, and this ritual keeps us accountable for spending *actual* family time together, no matter how simple our task is."

Sarah:

“In order to cut down on dishes, work, and stress when my husband is working late, we sometimes have what the kids call a ‘cutting board meal.’ It’s basically a charcuterie tray that we eat off of, usually while playing a board game or watching a movie. I’ll add cheese, deli meats, crackers, nuts, raw veggies, hummus, and fruit. The kids love it because it’s different and they consider it ~fancy~. I love it because I don’t have to cook, they eat healthy foods, and there is minimal clean up!

‘Cutting board meals’ aren’t often, so they're fun for the kids, and oh-so-special for this mom who can't believe how fast her family is growing up."

DairyPure supports creating pure memories with families and is proud to sponsor this post.