I see you, a college and high school student who has to pair school and work with being a part-time mom or dad. I see your frustration when your pool party has to be replaced with babysitting. I see your exasperation because your siblings decided they don’t want to eat and mom or dad will kill you if they find out their babies haven't eaten. I see your fatigue when a long day at school and work becomes two more tiresome hours of homework and baby-watching.

I see you hanging out with your friend at the park but finding yourself at the edge because some kid’s mom is going to let him/her fall. I see you crying or mad when you think you are too hard on your siblings or feeling frustrated because you have no idea what the hell you are doing. I see you worried to the bone if they fall. I see your killer stare when some other kids or their parents are mistreating your sibling.

I see you wondering if this is the correct way to take care of a child and if this is how you’d be if you had your own baby—and later on, deciding maybe you don’t want your own kids any time soon because you want to be able to do the things you couldn’t do while raising your siblings.

I see you smiling proudly and lovingly when they learn or master something new. I see you laughing your butt off when they defend you or become your lil’ homie and partner in crime. I see you feeling unmeasurable love when one day they simply come, hug you, and tell you: I love you—somehow making it all worthy.

I see you and I understand you because I’ve been there—especially for those with very young siblings. 

So, to make it all a little more manageable, I’ve put together some life-saving hacks for you part-time moms and dads.

The most important part is to get your own children's survival kit, with your parents’ card of course because it is their kid after all. It varies depending on how young your sibling is and how much of a budget you have. 

For kids between 1 to 2-3 years, try your best to find very colorful safe, textures, paper, fabric, pudding, whipped cream, wool, among others, noisy toys or objects—you’ll hate them, but they’ll love the old clothes or table cloths that can get messy, and stuffed animals, blankets, or other objects that keep different scents. At this age, the most important thing is to find sensory-stimulating activities.

They find EVERYTHING fascinating. 

To keep them entertained while you do other things, set up a small place near you where the baby can make an easy-to-clean mess, change them into old clothes and put different containers with the textures on them. Remember that they will try to eat EVERYTHING so you have to pay attention and eliminate anything that may be harmful to them.

You can also make a similar activity based on sound. They will last way less time because you don’t want a headache so be prepared.

The scented blankets or stuffed animals will help you for nap time, especially if you are teaching them how to sleep in their own bed or rooms. Apply a little of your perfume on it or sleep with them once so they’ll catch your scent, and put them next to the slipping toddler. It will help them sleep an hour or so without any problem. 

Kids this age trust their olfactory sense to know how close you are while you sleep.

This kit can also be intangible: games like Simon Says, hide and seek, tag and ‘I spy’ are very easy and entertaining for little kids. They also tire them out so they can guarantee you at least an hour while they sleep.

Giving little siblings lunch, dinner, breakfast, or packing them snacks can be an absolute NIGHTMARE. Sometimes they don’t want to eat, sometimes they make a mess, and most times they don’t stay still. Here are some tricks:

For lunch, dinner, or breakfast, sit patiently with them and try to make them ‘talk.’ Tell them about your day, ask about theirs. It will keep them focused on you and avoid getting mad or cry because they’re not getting enough attention. However, be careful it does not distract them from the food, a balance is key. Opening your mouth at the same time they open theirs to eat will also make it more amusing to them.

Packing lunch can be a challenge too because there’s nothing worse than finding out they didn’t like it or didn’t eat, but this YouTube channel will help you with that!

Little kids respond to emotion so enjoy your meal and they’ll enjoy theirs. 

For kids between 3 and 5 you can try similar activities but with paints, sand, clay, play-doh, among other stuff. They start playing on their own and entertaining themselves a lot more. Musical and colorful movies will also become your best friends but remember they shouldn’t spend more than two hours on a screen.

Wish you the best! I’m out!