Parenting Pointers - Five AI Prompts That Save My Sanity (and Might Save Yours, Too)

–by Abby Brody 

Mom of 2 humans, 2 divine dogs, 1 constantly-traveling husband, and CEO of a movement and company that runs on caffeine, Zoom and a hearty dose of humor. 

Life in the Brody house is a full-court press before the coffee even brews. Two kids who somehow run on entirely different schedules, two dogs who believe 5 a.m. is the perfect time for fetch, a husband juggling flight schedules, and me - wrangling it the best I can while running a career devoted to digital-parenting sanity. (If you hear barking on my Zoom calls, now you know why.) With that daily circus, I’ve learned to treat AI not as some futuristic toy, but as the on-call sous-chef, tutor, and family-counselor I never had. If you’ve been wondering whether the robots can actually make parenting easier - without feeling creepy or complicated - here are five prompts I lean on constantly. Copy, paste, tweak, and watch the mental load melt. 

First up: dinner. My youngest can spot a vegetable hidden inside a lasagna layer like a drug-sniffing dog, so I open ChatGPT and type: “Give me five dinners I can cook in twenty minutes or less that my picky eater will actually eat.” The trick is personalization. I usually tack on, “He’s allergic to tree nuts and needs extra protein on soccer days.” In seconds I’ve got a menu that would impress Gordon Ramsay, plus - if I ask for it -a perfectly sorted grocery list and a bonus vegetarian night for Meatless Monday. Suddenly, I’m the meal-prep queen without ever doom-scrolling recipe blogs. 

The second battleground is the morning tornado. I’m forever negotiating toothbrush time, dog walking, and my own need for two quiet minutes with a mug the size of my head. My prompt here is: “Help me create a playful morning routine that works for a six-year-old and two working parents.” If the dogs have vet appointments or my son is on his up-at-five kick, I add those details. I’ll often refine it with, “Include a two-minute meditation for Mom.” The AI returns a timeline with built-in wiggle room, a silly alarm-clock game, and even a soundtrack suggestion. Mornings stop feeling like a hostile takeover and start feeling - dare I say - peaceful. 

Homework comes next, usually just when I’m ready to log off for the night. My older son slides fractions under my nose, his brother is Googling Egyptian pharaohs, and I’m running on empty. So I snap a photo of the assignment and drop this into the chat: “See photo and create a three-minute lesson plan an eleven year old can follow, plus a printable worksheet.” I add, “He’s dinosaur-obsessed,” and voilà -the fractions are suddenly about velociraptor snack portions. He’s thrilled, I’m off the hook, and the worksheet prints before I can say “common core.” 

Then we face the screen-time debate, which in 2025 feels as inevitable as laundry. Instead of a shouting match, I ask the bot: “Write a one-paragraph family tech contract that sets developmentally safe screen-time rules for a six-year-old.” If weekend movie night matters or I want a joke in the mix so my tween doesn’t roll her eyes into next week, I specify those extras.

What comes back is concise, respectful, and -most important - collaborative. The kids sign it like a peace treaty, and bam! Roblox time has actual guardrails. 

Finally, the dreaded after-school “I’m bored” whine. Crafts are banned in my house ever since glitter Armageddon of 2021, so I ask: “Give me ten creative, screen-free ways to connect with my kid after school that aren’t crafts.” I usually append, “Make it for a thirteen-year-old who currently finds me mildly embarrassing, keep it low-energy because Mom’s brain is mush, and give me options we can pull off in ten minutes or less.” The list lands -everything from two-person karaoke battles to silent disco dog walks - and boredom disappears faster than a cookie near my husband. 

Fear not, my fellow worn-out warriors! You don’t need more hours in the day or a computer-science degree. You just need better prompts. Use these, tweak them, teach your kids why personalization matters, and let AI shoulder a slice of the cognitive load. Parenting is hard; getting help just got breathtakingly easy.