Parents Making Time with Anthony & Jennifer Craiker | Intentional parenting ideas & time management tips to reduce parenting anxiety and help you stop feeling overwhelmed.
Parents! Feel like you’re missing out on your kids’ lives while also never having enough time for yourself? Want to embrace intentional parenting but don't quite know how? Career pressures, shuttling kids around, volunteer commitments, and the endless tasks of caring for your home all place enormous demands on your time and energy, leading to mom guilt, dad guilt, stress, and ultimately regret. And while you’re trying to tend to your own self-care while also being a present parent who prioritizes family connection, your kids are growing up way too fast.
Sound familiar? If so—help is here! Unlike other parenting podcasts that just give you techniques for raising children or tips on childhood development, Parents Making Time focuses on helping YOU, the parent, prioritize YOUR life so that your parenting aligns with your values. Motherhood, fatherhood, marriage, and family are what we are all about. In 15-minutes or less, this weekly podcast helps busy parents like you learn to prioritize their relationships, be more present and intentional with family time, and build a lasting legacy of love—without neglecting their own well-being or feeling regret later in life. It's not just about learning to prioritize tasks or mastering time management, it's about becoming the parent you want to be so that you can stop feeling overwhelmed, learn how to have more time, and create lasting family memories.
Leveraging their 20+ years of parenting experience raising three thriving kids and leading and mentoring hundreds of children, youth, and families in volunteer church positions, hosts Anthony and Jennifer Craiker teach parents on a tight schedule how to balance work and family, create unbreakable family bonds, prevent parent burnout, and find JOY in parenting. In other words, we help you stop being busy and start actually applying the concept of intentional living.
If you’re ready to prioritize family time each day without feeling overwhelmed, you can count on this show to teach you how to be fully present with your kids, build lasting memories, prioritize your spouse, make dinner time count, connect with your kids after work, stop missing precious moments, savor family time, discover intentional parenting ideas, and so much more—all while learning how to implement quick self-care tips, create an intentional family legacy, and parent with no regret. So, hit PLAY, and let’s get started!
Parents Making Time with Anthony & Jennifer Craiker | Intentional parenting ideas & time management tips to reduce parenting anxiety and help you stop feeling overwhelmed.
The 1 Parenting Tool You Can’t Live Without
Have you ever hit a point in parenting where you thought, “I literally can’t do this alone”?
Parenting is always demanding — but there are certain seasons when it feels like everything is too much, and trying to handle it all by yourself just leads to burnout, resentment, or feeling like you're failing.
In today’s episode, we’re sharing the one parenting tool we’ve come to rely on — the thing we honestly don’t think we could parent without. It’s not a hack or a gadget… but it just might change everything.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- The effort it takes to put the right things in place for you as a parent is always worth it.
- True self-reliance doesn’t mean going it alone.
- Having the right tools around us can help us physically AND emotionally.
So if you’ve ever felt like you just can’t do this parenting thing alone, tune in to hear the one tool we rely on that could change everything.
00:00 Introduction to Parenting Challenges
00:32 When Jennifer Needed Help
01:26 Building a Support System
02:35 The Importance of Asking for Help
04:57 How to Find and Develop Your Support System
07:32 Emotional Support and Personal Experiences
09:57 Conclusion and Free Resource Guide
11:03 Preview of the Next Episode
When you finish listening, we’d love for you to connect with us on social media!
Follow the show on Instagram and like our page on Facebook to keep the conversation going. It’s the best way to get quick tips, encouragement, and resources to help you make time for what matters most—your family.
Get our FREE resource, "30-Second Micro Moments of Intention with Your Kids", by going to: parentsmakingtime.com/freeresource
Parenting is hard. Intentional parenting can seem even harder. Motherhood, fatherhood, marriage, and all that goes with those important aspects of life can make it difficult to prioritize tasks, embrace intentional living, focus on present parenting, and build family bonds. We're here to help ease your parenting anxiety so that you can stop feeling overwhelmed, find joy in your parenting journey, and build family bonds that last for generations. Here at Parents Making Time, we are all about that parent-child connection, self-care for parents, and helping you overcome mom guilt and dad guilt. If you have a question or would like to share an experience about your own parenting, please feel free to reach out to one of us! Please note, we may use your question and/or comments as a part of a Q&A Parenting Advice segment on one of our episodes.
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Jennifer: [00:00:00] There's no way around it. Parenting is demanding, but there are certain times that we all go through as parents when the demands are greater than we can handle on our own. In today's episode, we're talking about the one parenting tool. We've realized that we absolutely cannot live without.
Anthony: This is parents making time. The show that helps busy parents put family first without burning out. We are Anthony and Jennifer Craiker. We don't just give parenting tips. We help you become the parent you want to be.
Jennifer: Now, several years ago when our kids were small, I got sick and I don't really get sick, but I was sick in bed for two weeks and it was so bad that I couldn't even walk my own daughters to the bus stop.
Anthony, at the time, was traveling a lot and most weeks he wasn't home and I was really stuck. So I sent my girls, they were kindergarten and second grade, to walk to the bus stop alone, and a neighbor happened to be walking by, and so I asked her if she could look after the girls at the bus stop. She did, and after the bus [00:01:00] came, she stopped by to see what else I needed.
Over the next two weeks, friends brought me groceries, came by, did my laundry. Brought me meals and they checked on me. It was a lifesaver for me.
Anthony: And it made me feel better knowing that you were in good hands since I was out of town with work. That support system was really, really key in that moment.
But also it's become key throughout our lives as parents.
Jennifer: Right. So Anthony and I don't live near any family. We're about, well, I guess now we've had my, one of my brothers move close to about four hours to the nearest family member. But our day-to-day lives, we don't have a family support system here, but we have created one through friends, through our church, through other parents that we've met at our children's events.
It just really has saved us in so many things.
Anthony: We used to be close to family and that was nice when our kids were really young. When I was going to law school in Oklahoma, we were five minutes [00:02:00] away from your parents. My mom lived three hours away or so in Dallas, so we could see her somewhat regularly and she could come up to see us.
But then in 2009 we made a big decision to move out to Florida for a job opportunity. Nobody was here that was our family. It
Jennifer: was scary because we were leaving our support system and so we could have made the mistake of just keeping to ourselves, not making that support system. That would've been a huge mistake.
Like we wouldn't have been able to stay here for as long as we have. We've been here over 15 years now, we've. Created a family outside of blood,
Anthony: and I think a lot of times parents have this mentality of they need to be able to do everything on their own, right? We wanna be self-reliant, we wanna take care of our families, we don't wanna have to burden other people.
There's this idea that you're supposed to be able to do it on your own. And self-reliance is good. I think it's something to strive for, but the reality is there are going to be times where you just can't do it on your own, especially as a parent, and even more so [00:03:00] for single parents, right? I mean, that's really challenging.
Jennifer: Yeah. I wouldn't even say being self-reliant includes asking for help when you need it. I think one of the issues is not asking for help when we need it. We, we come up for, with every reason not to ask for help.
Anthony: Yeah, we don't wanna be a burden on others, but the reality is that most people are willing to help out if they have a friend or family member who's in need.
Jennifer: For sure. And you know, there's lots of consequences for not having that support system in place. And we should say we understand like, you aren't listening to this episode and you're like, oh, tomorrow I'm gonna get a support system. Like it takes time, it takes effort, but
Anthony: Right. This isn't an overnight solution for
Jennifer: sure, but But the effort and the goal of that, and it's worth it, it's worth that effort that it takes, because one of, I would say, one of the biggest things that I see, and I felt myself at times in parenting is loneliness.
As, as a parent, we think no one else understands what we're going through. We just feel lonely. We feel unseen. When you let yourself and open yourself up to a [00:04:00] support group that really can go away. You can feel more seen, you can feel less lonely and less exhausted because you've had somebody else that supports you, that hears you, that listens and steps in when you just really need help.
Anthony: And also, if you don't develop a support system as a parent, inevitably your kids are going to miss out on things. They're gonna miss out on events or activities because of you. Right? We talked a, an episode or two ago about a, a time where we had all three of our kids had something that they had to be at, and we needed a friend to step in and go with our oldest daughter to her activity so that I could take our youngest daughter and you could take our son to the activities that they had.
Had we not had a support system, one of the kids would've had to miss out on something. So there are many reasons that you should have a support system. First and foremost, it's so that you don't feel that loneliness and you don't feel that exhaustion. You need help to help you sustain the everyday challenges of parenting.
Jennifer: So how do you find this support system? Where do you [00:05:00] look? Your support systems all around you meet your neighbors, talk to the parents at your kids' school or events, meet the parents of your kids' friends. Go to church, create a community there. Maybe you do have family around you. That is definitely a place to start.
Identify your support group. Be willing to call on them when needed, but also don't abuse it because if you start abusing your support system and asking them to do things you could do for yourself, you're gonna burn them out real fast.
Anthony: And as you develop those relationships, you feel comfortable that it's somebody that you can entrust your kid to if it's taking your kid somewhere when you can't or something like that, have that conversation with them. Say, Hey, every so often I need help with this. Would you be willing to help me out on occasion?
Jennifer: Yeah. Can I put your name down as my emergency contact on my kid's form at school.
Anthony: Right.
Jennifer: That's an easy question. Right. And I think it's not just about stepping in when we need them to take a child somewhere.
For me, one of the ways I reach out to my support system is [00:06:00] I say, Hey. Friend, do you wanna go on a walk with me? 'cause I'm a talker. I like to talk through my feelings and emotions and a nice three mile walk with a friend really helps me get exercise, get outside and feel supported at the same time.
Anthony: Yeah, that's true that the support system is more than just doing things for you or getting your kids to and from place.
It's an emotional support as well, right?
Jennifer: It's supporting you through the difficulties of parenting. 'cause parenting is not easy.
Anthony: Yeah, and this doesn't have to be difficult, right? This isn't some big project that you need to feel overwhelmed by. This is just something you need to start being intentional about.
If you feel like you don't have a support system, or you feel like you don't have a strong enough support system, start identifying those key people in your life that can be there to help you. Whether it's bringing you food when you're sick, taking your kids somewhere, or even just being an emotional support going on a walk like Jen does. Identify those people and develop those [00:07:00] relationships little by little. When we moved here in 2009, we didn't have a huge support system, but we got involved in our church, we met people, we made friends, and over time we were able to grow I think a really strong support system, and that's been tremendously helpful.
And we've reciprocated too, right? I mean, we've had friends that have had needs with their kids. And we've been able to step in and help them. It's a reciprocal thing.
Jennifer: It's being a friend. You were gonna be a friend for someone else and hopefully you can count on them to be a friend for you. It's, it's totally a two-way street.
Anthony: And Jen mentioned a minute ago about having emotional support. I'm typically a pretty private guy. I mean, I talk to Jennifer about my feelings, but outside of that, I don't typically share my deepest concerns with other people.
I'm just naturally kind of a private person. But there was a time a couple years back where we were going through a difficult time with our youngest and he was just going through some really [00:08:00] challenging developmental changes in his life and there was a lot of tension, in our home because of some of the struggles that he was having.
And I got to a point where I needed emotional support beyond just talking to Jennifer. And that's pretty rare for me, but I decided that I would open up and share with my mom and my sisters, and, also a couple of friends and that really helped me get through a challenging parent time with our youngest just being able to talk and share it.
It wasn't that they had some amazing wisdom or insight to magically solve my problem. That wasn't possible. But they were there, they listened, and I felt supported, and I felt heard. And even though that's not something that I normally need, in that particular moment of time, I did need it. And it was really helpful.
And my mom and my sisters live in Texas, so they're far away. So [00:09:00] having that support system, at least from an emotional standpoint, doesn't mean that you have to have people physically close to you. You can have a support system outside of your neighbors and the people that live around you.
Jennifer: For sure. And you know, for me, that support system that emotional support is so important, and one of the things I always say is I'm, I'm really an open book. I'm, I'm very open. I like to share. I like to talk, but that's because it helps me to find other people who understand, who want to help, who just can be that listening ear.
My problems seem to become smaller when I go to my support group and share with them and let them help carry that load, and I really appreciate that. So I really think this is the one tool that every parent needs is to find that support system and use it.
Anthony: So start today. Don't have a support system.
Start working on it. If you do have a support system and you feel like it's not strong enough, look at ways that you can strengthen that support system. It's it's gonna be worth it
Jennifer: for sure.
Anthony: You know, as we've been talking about this today, it reminds [00:10:00] me that one of the reasons we started this podcast is because we know how busy life gets as a parent. Sometimes it just feels impossible to slow down and create those big, memorable moments. That's why we created a free guide called 30-second Micro Moments of Intention with your Kids.
It's filled with quick, simple ideas that you can do anytime in 30 seconds or less to strengthen your connection with your kids without adding more to your plate. Now, some of these ideas may seem basic or like no-brainers, but when you do them intentionally, they can make a real difference in your relationship with your child.
So just go to parentsmakingtime.com/freeresource, enter your email and we'll send it right to you. You can print it out to keep it where you'll see it. Or save it on your phone to reference whenever you need a little inspiration so that you can start building lasting memories one micro moment at a time.
Jennifer: So if you like what you heard today. Go to Apple Podcast, go to Spotify, wherever you're listening to us. Leave a rating.
Leave a [00:11:00] review, and bonus points if you share this episode with a friend.
Anthony: And in our next episode, we're gonna have a guest on this show. I'm really excited about this. We're gonna go back to a topic from a few episodes ago where we talked about how we can get 10 hours more a week with our kids by significantly lowering our time on social media.
And our guest is an expert on use of digital devices, and she's gonna be sharing specific, easy to implement strategies for minimizing use of our devices. This expert is literally writing the book on how to stop scrolling.
Jennifer: Awesome. I can't wait until next time. Make time to become the parent you want to be.