Lately I've been really into making small changes to help our family function better and with less yelling / stress / chaos. I'm really interested to hear if anyone else has small tweaks they've made that have helped their family in some way!

Examples of what we've tried the past couple of weeks that are helping SO ridiculously much -
1 - Creating a "Getting Ready" chart/checklist for each kid (3.5 and 6) - I feel like I reached the maximum amount of lifetime sayings "put on your socks. put on your shoes. did you put on your socks yet?" as we are getting ready, so I made each kid a picture chart with checklist of what they need to do to get us out the door in the morning, and now I leave it up to THEM to manage their time and complete the tasks. This has been a total game changer for my 3.5 year old, he is SO ridiculously proud of himself when he finishes all his tasks and is getting ready super fast now!

2 - Serving our dinners family style, so they serve themselves --- and implementing a new rule that they have to put some of everything on their plate, but they don't have to eat it. My kids are kind of picky and we have fallen into the bad habit of making them their kid food dinner while my husband and I eat something else. Now I am trying to serve things they MIGHT like with a few options they DO like and making them put some of it all on their plate. They are willingly trying so many new things!

3 - Having them clear their plates and help put things away after dinner. I struggle with having my kids help with messy chores because they usually end up making MORE of a mess, but I'm really trying to embrace teaching them to clean up after themselves. We are starting super small - so right now we are just expecting them to bring their plate to the trash, scrape it, and put it in the sink, and then help put things away on the table. Again they are both really proud of themselves for helping, and it makes my life easier because I don't have to deal with a messy table after bedtime!