This post is from my friend Katherine “KD” Saribay. Hope you enjoy! - Andrew

Parenting three kids under eight — including a newborn — means my brain is constantly juggling snacks, naps, and the general chaos of everyone’s calendar and daily schedule.

As much as I love being creative and hands-on with them, most days my brain is running on fumes. I’ve used AI here and there in my professional life and realized I could use a few tricks to keep my kids entertained or outsource some of my mental load. I would never say that tech could replace good parenting or connection but I’ve found that using a few smart tools can make the daily grind a little easier.

Here are three real-life ways I’ve used AI lately to keep my kids engaged, fed, and happy… and maybe save a little bit of my sanity.

Create “homework” for my bored summer kid

It’s the end of summer and we’re somewhat out of creative non-screen ways to keep my 7 year old entertained. All toys have been exhausted, and there are only so many times we can listen to Moana on the Tonie box. We’ve been writing “homework” ourselves in a notebook for her — also a big mental load that’s sometimes fun, but sometimes we could use a break from. Here was my prompt for ChatGPT:

“Write a homework sheet for a child going into 2nd grade with math problems, silly sentence prompts, and a scavenger hunt they can do indoors.”

The result was pretty good, and I only had to change a few things before printing and handing it to my delighted almost-2nd grader. She was occupied for a good 20 minutes. Then we expanded the Mad Lib–style paragraphs it came up with using ChatGPT, and I prompted her to draw pictures that went with her stories. She was busy the whole day with some breaks in between.

Create a packed lunch menu for camp

My school district does many amazing things for our kiddos, including providing breakfast and lunch. So I was really out of practice when it came time for my kid to go to camp this summer. Here was my prompt:

“Create a packed lunch menu for my 7-year-old for 5 days. Make it healthy but also kid-friendly and easy for me. I have ice packs to include, but there is no refrigeration or microwave access. Create a grocery list to go with it.”

Then I made it printable since my kid also likes to preview everything — even her school’s menu. This was pretty helpful, and I didn’t have her asking me what was for lunch every day. Plus, it saved me some mental capacity. I think in the future, using the menu, she’d even be able to pack some of it herself!

Write a bedtime story

Sometimes we get tired of reading the same books over again, even with frequent library visits. There’s also something fun about turning off the lights and telling a story, having the kids close their eyes to imagine the story. Here’s a recent prompt from my 7-year-old:

“Write a silly bedtime story about a pigeon who has babies in the middle of the night. Make it sweet and only 3 minutes to read.”

It gave me a very cute and silly story, Penny the Pigeon’s Midnight Surprise. There were a few strange parts, so I recommend doing a preview scan if you’re like Ron Burgundy and automatically read everything on the prompter.

Try it out! Give the prompts to ChatGPT or Claude and see what comes back. And, reply with what you’re using AI for.