Hi Reader!

We’ve reached the final tip in our series! I hope the previous tips have been helpful and brought some ease to your daily life. Today’s tip is about embracing the chaos that naturally comes with raising young children by experimenting to find what works best for your family.

10: 🌀 Embrace the Chaos by Experimenting

Life with young children is unpredictable and constantly changing, which can be especially challenging for parents who thrive on order and control. Instead of resisting the chaos, see it as an opportunity to experiment and transform “I have to” into “I get to.” By embracing the chaos through experimentation, you can try new things, learn from the process, and potentially find solutions that make your family’s life significantly better.

Here’s how you can embrace the chaos by experimenting:

• Start Small: Begin with a single specific pinch point that occurs often in your days. Make one small change and see how it works for a few days.
• Observe and Reflect: Pay attention to what’s working and what’s not. How does the change impact your stress levels? How are you and your partner coordinating on it? Are your kids responding well to it?
• Adjust as Needed: Based on your observations, tweak again to better fit your family’s needs. Don’t be afraid to try something new if the first attempt doesn’t work out.

Examples (with actual experiment results from my own family!):

• When plans are canceled last minute: Try a new family activity, like an impromptu picnic in the living room or a spontaneous dance party, and see how everyone reacts. (Turns out, even us awkward introverts like dancing!)
• If bedtime routines are getting chaotic: Test different wind-down activities each night (e.g., reading, quiet play, guided meditation) and note which helps your kids settle down best. (We discovered the hard way that playing before bedtime of any form causes meltdowns when we have to end playtime before bed, so we stick to reading.)
• If your usual morning routine isn’t working: Use a visual checklist for the kids to guide their own getting ready routines, and tweak as needed. (I’ve heard this is a slam dunk for many families, but just did not work for our 4-year-old. We’ll try again in a few months, but for now one of us plays drill sergeant to guide him to get ready.)
• If you have trouble keeping living areas tidy: Try a ten-minute tidy every day at the same time before or after the kids go to bed, or keep a basket handy for things that have to be returned to other parts of the house and empty it once every few days. (The ten-minute tidy is a game-changer for us, and the basket was an epic fail—it just sat there until it overflowed.)

The goal is to find what works best for your family through small, manageable experiments. This way, you’re not just enduring the chaos but turning it into an opportunity for improvement and connection.

Ask yourself: How can you run small experiments to embrace the chaos and improve your family’s routines?

Thank you for joining me on this journey. Embrace the chaos and enjoy the beautiful, messy moments with your family!

Cheering you on,

Leslie Newell
Founder, Bright Violet Home

P.S. My soft launch ends tomorrow, Friday, August 2. Thanks for all your support during this launch! It means the world to me. 💜 If you’ve been waiting to book your session with me, book now—I’ll honor the current pricing through the end of August if booked by EOD Friday. Look forward to a relaunch on Monday, August 12, with new ways we can tame the mental load together.