Polls and Tips for Family Life

I always have cheese zits for on the go, juice boxes, sliced fruits of their liking and also yogurt packets . Even a favorite cereal of theres put in a zip lock baggie.

Popcorn. We have a silicone microwave popper that my tween and teen use on their own when they feel like having a snack.

We try to make one-on-one time with our kids in the form of parent/child "dates." My husband and I each take one of our kids and plan some special time together. It doesn't have to be complicated...a trip to Starbucks or a simple spa night at home have been big hits!

Breakfast in bed on your birthday is a tradition from my own childhood that I have loved carrying over to our family. Every birthday, the birthday kid/teen/mom/dad gets woken up by the whole family singing "Happy Birthday” and bringing in a tray of their favorite breakfast, along with their birthday gifts. Then we all crowd onto the bed to eat and open gifts. It is the best way to start a special day!

Set up a little frisbee golf course in the backyard and use a laundry basket as the target. The player with the fewest tosses to get their frisbee into the basket wins!

We recently discovered creeking from our park center super fun and free lots of activities too. I found it on the events tab on Facebook I’ve never done anything like it before but it was fun for my tot and myself .

I remember having a lot of daddy daughter time at our local playground when I was little. It was such a simple thing for my dad to bring me there on the weekends, but it was our tradition and I think that's what has made it so memorable for me. It doesn't have to be expensive or over the top to be special!

Read-aloud books at bedtime has been a dad & daughter tradition in our house for years, and it's easy to make time for father daughter activities like this when you build them into your daily routine.

What did the shark say when it ate the clown fish? Tastes funny.

Why does a duck have feathers? To cover his butt quack

Picking weeds outside, watering flowers/plants/herbs and raking leaves is a chore that my kids find fun. (Added bonus if you buy their own gloves/watering can).

Pet care has many great options for age-appropriate chores for kids. Feeding and watering, taking the dog for a walk, cleaning the litter box and grooming tasks are all important.

I put together little gifts (think Dollar bin) wrapped up in bags with a time on them. My kids look forward to these gifts and it helps to pass the time on long trips!

Download an audiobook and/or pick a podcast that's appropriate for your kids' ages and would be interesting to the adults, too.

One of my kids is vegetarian. We have a meal box subscription (HungryRoot) that has a lot of vegetarian options. I let me child scroll through the list of ingredients and pictures and choose three things they'll eat. When the box comes, we unpack it together and my child decides what order we have those meals. All of the meals are simple to make, so when we find ones we like, we'll often buy the ingredients on our own and they become part of our regular routine. The meal plan allows us to skip boxes, so we only get it when we know we'll have a busy week or are out of ideas.

Have your kids look at cook books or online recipes, write grocery lists, go shopping with you, let them pick out any produce item that they want to try. When kids are involved they are more apt to eat!

My husband and I try to plan 3-4 meals for the coming week before the weekend is out, so we can make a plan for grocery shopping and actually cooking. We often invite the kids to each pick one meal for the week as well - they tend to eat it better when they've been involved in the planning in some way!

We have a binder of "greatest hits" recipes that we use almost exclusively for our family dinner rotation. My weekly meal planning involves picking recipes from the binder each weekend to meal plan for the week ahead, and I go to the grocery store once. I just have too many new recipe failures to bother wasting my time with trial and error on our busy weeknights. I'd rather cook something tried and true, and my kids would much rather eat something they already know they love. On the rare occasion that I cook something new and the family loves it, it gets printed out and added to the binder.

When they’re young, I think letting kids play a little bit or walk around before the food arrives helps them sit more calmly in the high chair when it’s time to eat. Of course, feeling comfortable letting them play is a challenge! So even though we don’t typically eat early meals, sometimes going to a restaurant earlier in the evening or lunch time avoids the rush. I think just having a little extra space with fewer people can make the entire experience calmer and totally worth the off hours!

I always try to have something in my bag to entertain the kids quietly when they get bored. The paper kids menus and crayons they hand out at many restaurants often work great for a while, but books, a few bristle blocks, or wax sticks are also nice to have on hand for continued entertainment!