4 Ways To Take The Stress Out Of Parenting

Parenting can feel like an uphill struggle at the best of times. Although it is one of the most rewarding roles to take on in life, that isn’t to say that sometimes it can become stressful if not managed effectively. You can lighten the load by taking the stress out of parenting, and read below for ideas on how to get started.

Don’t Juggle Too Much

One way to easily burn out and find parenting stressful is by juggling too much. You may want to do it all, and by attempting to do it all you will find you only end up struggling to get anything done. Do one thing at a time, and focus on one task at a time. Learning the ropes and prioritizing is all part of the job of parenting, and through trial and error, you’ll find a routine that works for you. That being said, it’s also important to be realistic; set out enough time if you know that teatime and bath time will take a certain amount of time, for instance, otherwise you’ll find yourself struggling to get your children to bed when they need it. The morning is a particularly important time to work out, so try and get a realistic routine in place, which you will only be thanking yourself further down the line.

Take Some Time Out

Taking some time out for yourself to mentally reboot is not a bad thing. If anything, your family will benefit from it as you’ll be back to your best self after having some time to let go of any stresses and strains you’ve been holding onto. This can be as simple as having a long hot bath, going for a run twice a week, or booking a massage. The mental and physical benefits on our mental health of having me-time have been proven time and time again, so counter this into your schedule pronto. Visit heavenandearthmassage.co.uk to get an idea of some of the massages and treatments available.

Get Enough Sleep

Getting enough sleep is absolutely essential if you want to be able to manage the day to day roller coaster of parenting. You want to be able to enjoy your time with your children to cherish all the special moments, and you’ll find you naturally have more energy and manage tasks better. Sleep deprivation is a common problem with new parents, but you can find tips online to help pull you through and get back on track.

Ask For Help

You are not failing if you occasionally ask for a helping hand to manage all your commitments. If you are running a household, or have a job, and are having to manage other responsibilities, realize that asking for help is okay. You could work with the other parents at school to help with drop offs and pick ups, or maybe give yourself an evening off and ask your parents or in-laws to watch the children. Accepting help from your network of friends and loved ones can help you mentally reset and take some time, so you don’t exhaust yourself. 

How Influencers Help Businesses Retain and Gain

In marketing, trust is key. Without it, it is hard to develop brand loyalty. Businesses that are not trusted can come up with exceptional service or products, but still stay stagnant because there will be customer churn from time to time. For you to succeed in your business and minimize customer churn, you need to get to your customers in a way that will build long-term relations and inspire trust.

One of the best ways you can market your brand and retain customers is using other consumers to gain the trust of your consumer target market. People will be more likely to buy products when the people they admire say that they have had a good experience with the company’s product or service. This form of marketing is called influencer marketing. This form of marketing provides incentives to consumers to share the company’s information on behalf of the business.

Because influencers are consumers, your target market is likely to find the information more trustworthy. Influencer marketing can help you to grow your business and retain more customers in the following ways:

Improves your social media presence

To have effective marketing, you need to get to customers where they are. The fact is that you will find 81% of the U.S consumers on social media. When you establish a social media presence, you will have a better platform for being successful in modern marketing.

In most cases, many businesses have social media accounts, but they post content to reach their audiences. There are those who pay for sponsored ads, and they get their word out. But when you use an influencer to propagate your business information with details of your social media links, you will open the door for the vast network that an influencer has to learn more about your business and connect with your brand. Check out some ways for how to grow Instagram followers.

Builds customer loyalty

There are different ways in which you can engage with influencer marketing; there are companies that pay influencers directly in different markets; others offer incentives like freebies, discounts, or tickets to concerts for people who share marketing information on their social media, or through email, or in person.

Due to the nature of incentivizing influencers, companies reap a two-fold rise in customer loyalty. Influencers who have earned commissions, won prizes or been positively affected because of their experience with the product or service, tend to be more loyal to the brands they market. On the same spin, new customers who jump on the bandwagon to use the company's products through influencer marketing trust the influencer and this stretches to the brand. This will increase the likelihood that they will remain loyal once they are satisfied with the brand.

Expands your reach

An influencer is someone who is socially active and has many connections. Ideally, influencer marketing is done online, and this requires an influencer who has a large following on social media. An influencer’s reach may depend on the demography of social media networks they have.

Since personal relationships are what influencers use to develop their social media networks, or by sharing similar interests with others, they have an easier time to reach users than a business. For example, most businesses only have a few likes or friends on social media, because users are there to socialize and not make purchases. Now, this makes influencers have a broader reach which businesses use to tap to attract consumers.

Identifies relevant leads and markets

Influencers have connections because of shared interests and personal relationships. Moms, for instance, tend to have their own network on social media. As a result, influencers build niche markets. When you want to use influencer marketing, you can reach a specific niche, and this will generate leads.

Author Bio: Adrian Rubin is a freelance writer and climate change advocate.

How to Make Your Home More Family Friendly

Your home is the center of family life, which is why you must ensure it is safe, functional and comfortable for your growing kids each day. While every family dynamic is different, there are some alterations that are a must in every home.

Whether you are set to move into a new home, or you simply want to make some simple tweaks to create a more practical space for your children, take the time to read the below advice on how to make your home more family friendly.

Protect Your Property Every Day

Nothing will be more important than the health and safety of your children, which is why you must aim to protect your property at all times. For example, you should install a burglar alarm to not only deter trespassers but to notify both you and the police if an intruder enters your home. You could also install outdoor lighting, which could prevent trespassers from stepping onto your property.

Create a Fun Playroom

If you want to provide your children with a space to play together in harmony, you should create a fun playroom for your kids. For example, you could covert a spare room, basement or attic into a fun space they can call their own. Fill it with craft items, comfortable bean bag chairs, a TV, desks, toys, and books, which will encourage them to have fun, learn, and create memories together.

Update Your Old Radiators

It is important to warm up your home to protect your family’s health, especially during winter. If your radiators are failing to produce enough heat, or you don’t have many located throughout your home, it might be worthwhile investing in stylish, efficient column radiators, which can effectively heat up your home. So, when the cold season strikes, you will be able to keep your family nice and warm.

Buy Flexible Shelving

Mess and clutter can quickly creep up on you when raising children. Shelving could, however, be the perfect solution to a problem, as it can ensure every item in the home has a place. For example, a bookcase will provide plenty of space to store your kids’ books, trophies, toys, and proud possessions. While living room shelving can keep heavy, sharp decorative items out of your kids’ reach.

Pick Durable Materials

If you want your furniture to stand the test of time, you would be smart to pick durable materials that can withstand everyday family life. For example, a leather sofa, thick drapes and dark fabrics are the perfect choices when raising children.

Find Double Duty Furniture Solutions

Add space and function to your home by finding double duty furniture solutions. For example, you could buy a beautiful dresser that could also be used as a changing table, or you could buy a luxurious dinner table that can convert into a fun pool table the kids and your other half will love. It will create a more practical, family-friendly home, which will reduce clutter and add floor space.

Why Making Time For Weightlifting Pays Back In Dividends For Parents

I get it. We all do. You’re a parent. You didn’t get much sleep last night. Your job is really adding to the stress this week. After you drop off one of your kids for soccer practice you have to go and pick the other one up from their friend's house. By the time you get home from that, practice is over and you're back on the road.

You're tired. You're stressed. You already skipped the gym once this week, so would it hurt to skip it one more time? I mean, all you want is to kick your feet up for a little bit and relax for once this week. Is that so bad?

Well, although I don’t blame you, you may want to do your best to endure and hit the gym anyway.

Why, you ask?

First of all, if you are willing to cut the gym out of your schedule today, it becomes easier and easier to do so in future situations. And we all know how hard it can be to get back into a fitness regimen once you have fallen off the wagon.

But here is why it is so important.

The time you save by skimping on squats today you are losing in the long run.

You see, weightlifting does a lot more than just increase how “swole you are”. It provides an immense amount of health benefits. So much so that one study found that doing some light training for 20 minutes a day actually reduces the risk of early death by as much as 32%.

It doesn’t stop there. For those 65 years of age and older, hitting the weights has shown to be incredibly important. In fact, those in this age group who strength trained twice a week actually had a 46% lower odds of all-cause mortality.

Getting to the gym will save you time by earning you time. All by helping you live longer, which I am pretty sure everyone would enjoy.

On top of this, the quality of that time as we live is much better. By this I mean the quality of life is improved. Firstly, by reducing overall levels general aches and pains as well as pain associated with certain disorders. On top of this, lifting helps you to maintain and improve your functional capability and therefore functional independence.

While you are still physically able to move about and enjoy yourself, your cognitive and mental health also continues to be maintained and improved through weightlifting.

Combine this all together and you are getting more time. You are also getting more time in the sense that you will lead a more engaged, active, and fulfilled life in your later years because of the benefits of weightlifting.

I know it is hard with the hectic, crazy world that is parenthood and adulthood but remember this one thing. Just 20 minutes is enough to make a massive difference grand scheme of things. And your worth that time!

Getting Your Family Home Ready For Buyers

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If you like the idea of moving your family to a new town or city; it makes sense that you will want to get
the most amount of money possible for the property you own at the moment. The best way of doing
that is to ask lots of different real estate agents to come and value your property. You can then work
out the high-end value of the house and target that amount. Of course, it helps if you ensure the
property is ready for buyers, and there are some excellent tips and ideas on this page. So, read this
post and create your plan of action before pushing ahead. With a bit of luck; you will get the asking
price for your home and find the perfect new house in which your family can relocate.

Clean the entire house

The first thing you need to do is clean the entire house from top to bottom. You can recruit your partner
and children to help with the task if you want to make light work of the idea. The last thing buyers want
to see is dirt and grime left over from your family. So, make sure you clean everything and consider
giving the walls a fresh coat of paint if you think they would benefit. Again, nobody wants to see dirty
hand prints all over the walls, but that is something that tends to happen a lot in children’s bedrooms.
Don’t overlook any of the rooms in the house in case buyers want to spend a lot of time there during
their viewing. You could even employ professional cleaners if you have the money.

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Get the AC and heating fixed

If the heating or AC system in the house doesn’t work properly; you will struggle to impress even the
least demanding buyers. So, do yourself a favor and search online for firms that specialize in heating
and AC repair, and take the time to inquire about their services. You can get lots of quotes from
multiple companies if you want to make sure you don’t overpay. However, in most instances, AC
repair experts will charge a flat fee for their assistance plus the cost of any replacement parts. So, it’s
not a job that is going to break the bank, but it will help to ensure buyers can’t find too many issues
with your property that might prevent them from making you an offer.

Remove your family photos

You need to help buyers imagine themselves living in the house, and that is always going to be difficult
if you have photographs of your family all over the walls. You need to take them down as soon as
possible and replace them with some cheap art prints or something similar. Don’t leave the walls bare
because that will look odd. You can place all your family photographs in storage to ensure they remain
safe which you negotiate a deal on the house. You can also get hold of cheap art prints online for next
to nothing these days, and, so there is no need to spend a fortune on high-end products. You might
even decide to leave the prints on the walls when you move as a gift to the new owners.

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Improve the garden

If you want people to purchase your family home; it makes sense that you will have to ensure the
property is suitable for families. That means you should work in the garden to ensure it is tidy and
functional. Kids love to spend time outside, and so you need to make sure the area is safe for children,
so the new owners don’t have to undertake lots of work the day after they move into the home. Plant
some colorful flowers, dig a pond, and erect a Wendy House if you think it will help. At the very least;
you need to make sure the grass is cut and looking well kept.

Boost curb appeal

Just as you need to focus on the back garden of the property; you also need to think about the front
too. Human beings create their first impression of something in a matter of seconds. They will form an
opinion of the property long before they knock on the door and you let them inside. That starts the
moment those people pull into the driveway, and that is why you need to improve the front yard to
boost curb appeal. Again, make sure the grass is short, there are flowers, and you get rid of any
mess. You might also think about cleaning the exterior of the house or giving it a new coat of paint.
If you don’t want to go that far, maybe you could buy a new front door?

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Make sure the house smells appealing

Lastly, you need to think about scents and the way they make people feel. Have you ever noticed that
you smell fresh break when you walk into your local food store even though the bakery is at the back
of the building? That happens because psychologists understand what makes people feel comfortable
and encourages them to spend money. Supermarkets pump air from the bakery to near the front door
to ensure the smell helps to entice people into the building. You need to do the same thing if you want
to impress buyers. Maybe you could have some bread cooking in the oven when they arrive? At the
very least; you need to ensure the house smells welcoming.

Now you know how to get your family home ready for buyers; you shouldn’t have to stress too much
about your house sitting on the market for months. Use the suggestions from this page, create a plan
of action, and put one foot in front of the other. Hopefully, you will manage to sell the property within
only a few weeks, and you can then make an offer on a new home in the place you want your family
to relocate. Good luck with everything!