Melissa Joan Hart wants to help moms with some simple advice

Melissa Joan Hart shares her mom tricks that streamline her choices.

As a busy mom of three boys, Melissa Joan Hart understands that life might not always go as planned. Even with the best intentions, the days seem to fly by with a flurry of activity. Still, she has found a few ways to have everyone tackle that ever-growing to-do list.

Recently, Hart partnered with Lunchables to help busy parents. For many people, grocery shopping is not only time consuming but it is a significant budget item. Now through March 31, 2021, everyone can enter to win a year’s worth of groceries and free grocery delivery from Lunchables. For many families, this special giveaway would be a huge stress reducer.

Through this Lunchables partnership, I spoke with Hart about some of her tips that help to keep her busy family on track. During our conversation, we commiserated about being boy moms, the importance of instilling responsibility in our children and how to find some life balance.

Hart shared a very poignant analogy that many moms tend to forget. She mentioned referred to that statement on an airline that “parents should put on their oxygen mask before helping your child.” She referenced a parenting philosophy that takes a similar approach. Moms need to take care of themselves in order to take care of their family.

While some moms might forget to add themselves to the “to-do” list, that time away from the role of parenting is important. Hart mentioned from “time with her girlfriends to date night with her husband,” is important to appreciating what she brings to “the relationship of being a parent.”

For her, the small wins can make changes to that routine. One of the reasons why she appreciates working with Lunchables is those food choices help take one item off her to-do list. Having ready to eat food for her kids when they need it makes the kids a little more self-sufficient.

As a mom of picky eaters, Hart appreciates that mealtime can be a struggle for many families. Although her family has stopped the short order cook scenario in her house, she understands that kids have preferences. From the kids’ lunch to a quick snack, those Lunchables help to take one more item off her long to-do list. The biggest concern is ensuring that everyone has their favorite option, whether it is turkey, ham or pizza, sitting in the refrigerator.

Still, Hart shared that having some structure in her family life has been helpful. While her oldest son explored cooking after watching his grandfather on MasterChef, she has developed a new method to add a little bit of routine to their meal planning.

With the help of dry erase board, the family plans out some weekly meal ideas. It might not be recipe specific, but it is a general concept that helps to keep everyone on track and eliminates some stress from meal time.

More importantly, the kids help with some specific tasks. From clearing the table to doing the dishes, that sense of responsibility helps to keep everyone engaged.

Given that we were two boy moms chatting, it was clear Hart’s approach to instilling responsibility and ownership in her children is important. For example, she has her boys help with laundry and the dishes and my boys cook a weekly meal. Through those similar actions, it shows that many families can find ways to do things together and take the burden off just one person.

Like many other families, Hart has found ways to foster more family time. For example, she mentioned that she started a family show watching night. She started watching some old school, family friend shows that everyone can enjoy together. While it is a simple concept, it is that family togetherness that can spark some good conversations as a group and create some lasting bonds.

In the end, the biggest takeaway from this conversation with Melissa Joan Hart is that being a parent is about bringing together life lessons in engaging, lasting ways. Whether it is instilling responsibilities through chores, finding ways to navigate preferred food choices or just making yourself a priority, all of those aspects need to work together to make a family as strong as it can be.

What parenting tips help to make your family time less stressful?