As a parent, you may often find yourself thinking about the best and worst-case scenarios your family may face. One way to worry less and enjoy parenting more is to have a ready-to-go list of resources at hand, so you don’t need to frantically search for things in a panic when something goes wrong. Developing a personal parent information and resource center can give you peace of mind, and make resolving stressful situations straightforward. Here are some ideas for resources that can help you stress less as a parent and save you from being unprepared when you’re tired and overwhelmed.
Working With Local Resource Providers
Developing a good relationship with reliable local suppliers strengthens your household and helps avoid inconvenient or even dangerous service disruptions. It might not matter so much when satellite television goes out, but what happens if your HVAC system fails during a heatwave? Temperatures don’t have to get too high to be dangerous for children and the elderly. If you heat your home with oil, have you thought about where you might get an emergency oil delivery from in the dead of winter? If you get snowed in by a major storm and your oil supply runs out, you could be in serious trouble.
Creating your parent information and resource center can help you be able to handle these situations promptly before you or your loved ones begin to suffer. Be sure to take the time to think about what’s essential for your family’s health and well-being, and what would you do if you couldn’t access it. This can include things such as emergency power sources, first-aid kits, necessary medications, and drinking water. If at all possible, find local suppliers who can provide deliveries in emergency situations.
Property Upkeep and Maintenance
Every parent information and resource center needs some resources for lawns, gardens, and property maintenance. In the suburbs, this might be more about lawn care services and trimming hedges, but apartments and urban living situations need property upkeep and maintenance, too! In an apartment building, you need cleaners, window washers, and possibly a number of elevator repair services should you live in a building where the elevators may not be fully reliable.
If you are a renter, don’t just trust your landlord to take care of everything. Having a good relationship with your landlord is a good start, but they might not always be there when you need them and shouldn’t be your last resort. A good parent information and resource center includes contacts who can help if your door breaks and you can’t unlock it, your sink clogs, or a tree comes crashing through your roof. All of these situations could happen and some local professionals can help address these issues should they arise.
Lawn care is a start, as managing your lawn with a professional service can help prevent problems from occurring on your property. If you have a lawn, you might not always have the time and energy to take care of it, so it’s good to have a reliable person to outsource that too. Ask your neighbors, family, or friends which services they recommend, as this can allow you to find a dependable company quickly.
Finding a Pet for Your Family
If you’re looking to add a furry new family member, you should add some additional information to your parent information and resource center. A cat or dog can be an invaluable addition to your life, but these adorable pets are a lot of work and require their own essential resources.
Finding the perfect pet for you will depend on your needs. If you want a low-maintenance companion, a fish, rat, or guinea pig might be the right choice. A cat takes quite a bit more work and attention but also provides some additional snuggles. Dogs can be your best friend, but they have the most physical and emotional needs, requiring daily walks and lots of love.
If you’re ready to commit, look for local German shepherd breeders in your area. German shepherds are famous for their intelligence, loyalty, and ability to protect those they love. No matter what kind of pet you choose for your family, add a veterinarian and a pet babysitter to your parent information and resource center. Be sure to also find a pet hospital that provides emergency services in order to ensure they’ll be able to get help when they need it the most.
When a Family Member Is Injured
You have a first-aid kit at home, but eventually, an injury will come up that requires urgent care from a trained medical professional. You don’t want to be fumbling with your phone and trying to figure out what to do when that happens, which is why you should have a plan in place as part of your parent information and resource center. Have the number for a local emergency room ready and know where the nearest hospital is. You might consider packing a ‘to-go bag’ for possible hospital visits, especially if someone in your family is elderly, pregnant, or you have young kids. That way you’ll have comfortable clothes, snacks, water, and information at your fingertips without needing to gather all of this en route to the hospital.
If you don’t need to go to the hospital immediately, a local walk in clinic will do. These may be located in or near a hospital, but many local walk in clinics around spread out in your local community. Figure out where the nearest and most convenient local walk in clinic is so you know just where to go. No one likes to think about what to do if an injury, allergic reaction, or illness occurs, but if you plan ahead you can react more quickly and get through the situation with a level head.
Supporting Local Businesses
Your parent information and resource center doesn’t just need to be a great resource for emergencies. Including everyday information that helps you live a happier and more comfortable life with your family can also be beneficial. You can even include menus for great local restaurants that provide takeout.
When you are too tired and worn out to cook, you deserve a rest. Going online to look through menus can take a long time, and lead to frustration and indecision. You can make it easier for yourself by figuring out which local takeout restaurants you like best and keeping their menus nearby so you and your family can choose an easy meal, quickly.
Finding a Location for a Celebration
When a special occasion comes around, you need to know where to find venues, accommodations, and maybe even dance floors! Your parent information and resource center should include planning for best-case scenarios as well as worst-case scenarios. If someone close to you is celebrating something major, you want to know the local businesses that can help with space, services, and equipment. You should know in advance what the best wedding venues, concert venues, and auditoriums are.
Look for hotels, bars, and restaurants that offer bookings and ask about their rates. You don’t need to have anything planned to ask some questions and write down some notes in your parent information and resource center. You never know when you might have something to celebrate!
Honoring a Family Member
When a family member passes away, it’s always difficult and overwhelming. The spectrum of grief can make daily tasks and organization challenging. That’s why you need to have local funeral homes in your parent information and resource center. As dark as it may seem, having this information on hand might make things much easier someday.
There’s a lot to work out when someone passes away. You need legal resources to manage the estate, someone to talk about your grief, and inevitably, you’ll need to arrange the funeral and memorial services. It’s hard to do all of this if you are grieving or in shock. Knowing what to do and having the right resources on hand can make it much easier when you really need help.
Ways to Make Additional Income
Providing for a family can be expensive, and it’s by no means getting any cheaper. However, there are more opportunities now than ever before for passive income and side hustles. One way to get some extra cash to cover family vacations, medical bills, and growing grocery costs is to install a cell tower on your property.
Cell towers are an important part of our communication infrastructure and they need to keep being built to expand and improve cell coverage. If you live in the right area and you have some extra space on your land, you could earn regular income from a cellular company by allowing them to build a tower there. > Adding a cell tower lease to your property could be a way to pay off debt, get ahead of the rat race, or even increase your standing of living. There is a lot to research here, but if you qualify, it could be a vital source of passive income for your family.
Addressing Issues
People’s lives and their finances have their ups and downs. If you’re working a steady job and have stable finances at the moment, it might seem strange to include a bankruptcy attorney in your parent information and resource center, but economies falter, companies lay off employees, and circumstances can change. As a parent, you’re responsible for maintaining your family’s standard of living. If the worst happens and you find yourself without a job or income, the bills will keep arriving, and you might not be able to downsize your way out of the problem. To get away from your creditors, reduce your debt, and get your life back, Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy can help.
A bankruptcy attorney can walk you through the legal steps of declaring bankruptcy, a measure that could actually protect your assets. With the right legal help, you don’t need to be stopped forever by a drop in income. Instead, you can consolidate your debt, find new opportunities, and move on with your life in a positive way. Be sure to read online reviews of local bankruptcy attorneys, as these can give you a great sense of a lawyer’s level of professionalism, their communication style, and their level of experience handling bankruptcy cases.
Relocation Assistance
Moving your family is a huge step that can be stressful and overwhelming. There is so much to think about, from choosing a community to move to, to finding the right local realtors who can put you in your new home, to making new friends and meeting new neighbors. You can research realtors from your current location and get in touch with them about real estate opportunities without committing, which can make the process a little easier. Once you’ve spoken with a realtor, found your dream house, and figured out a new work situation, you’ll need more relocation assistance, including moving services, insurance, and a whole new binder filled with information about services and resources in your new home!
It’s never a good idea to wait until disaster strikes to have a plan. Assembling a comprehensive parent information and resource center can allow you to keep all of the essential names, addresses, and phone numbers that you need in a single location, so you’re never scrambling. Life happens, whether or not we are ready for it. Kids are born, people get married, relatives pass away – and, all the while, lawns still need to be mowed, bills still need to be paid, and heating oil needs to be refilled. Your personal resource center can be a hub that guides you through all of it with less stress and more joy.