Stressful Holidays

Holidays can be stressful on families with small children. Having to travel with kids and their gear in tow isn’t always easy. For us, we have to travel during the holidays to visit my husband’s side of the family. While it isn’t an 8-hour drive, it is still a significant time in the car for little kids. I pack tons of snacks, the iPad, and other toys for entertainment but sometimes that just doesn’t cut it.

Once we arrive at her house and unload all of the gear, we just need a break but we all know there is no break at the holidays. Also, our kids don’t sleep very good out of town so the next day, we are always zombies. I know there are other parents who travel for holidays with young kids. In looking for advice, I found his blog post. I am going to try incorporate some of these tips next holiday season. If you have advice on how to make the holidays less stressful traveling with children, please leave a comment.

The Laundry Game

The one household chore that I hate more than anything is laundry. Seriously, I feel like it is the bane of my existence since I have to do laundry for four people. I try hard to do a load every single day but that doesn’t always happen due to work, grad school, and raising the kids.

When I am unable to do a lot of laundry during the week, I end up having to do a massive amount on the weekends, typically anywhere from 3-4 loads on Saturday and Sunday. The backlog means I end up with a ton of laundry to fold, which I hate even more than sorting and washing. In fact, I typically fold it only to find that I have not put it up the next weekend and end up with no bins to put the freshly done laundry in. Ugh!

In reading an article from the Consumer Electronics Show in January, I learned that a self-folding machine exists! The FoldiMate claims to be so simple that even kids can do it. The FoldiMate is expected to be available in late 2019 and comes with a cost of $980. While I am not sure I can justify the price tag at this time, I can only dream of getting it one day.

I am curious, for those of you that have similar laundry issues, would you invest in a FoldiMate? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

About me

Mallorie Mendence

Hi, I am Mallorie Mendence, APR, a working public relations and special events professional at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I live in Maryville, TN, with my husband, two young children, and three cats. If life were not already chaotic enough between working full time and raising two children under the age of five, I decided to throw getting my master’s degree into the mix. Why be boring, right? Amid diapers, papers, work, endless amounts of laundry, and daily stresses, life is a chaotic mess and certainly never calm. In Mom Before the Storm, I will cover the daily parenting struggles that all parents experience but might be reluctant to share. I hope my chaotic life experiences inspire others to see that being present over perfect really is attainable even with you see no light at the end of the tunnel. Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy but fun ride!