Let’s face it, parenting today takes work.

Something’s gotta give. We’re trying to do too much with our kids, too soon, too often.

By today’s impossible standards of how to be a good parent, I’m a complete failure. I love my daughter, and enjoy our time together, but at heart, I’m a lazy parent. Which is why you’ll never catch me:

• following my toddler around on the playground
• trying to cajole her into eating dinner
• spending every waking minute fixated on her

I accept, and embrace, that she’s an individual. As an individual, she deserves the opportunity to make her own choices, solve problems for herself, and build awareness of her unique interests.

Which is why I’ve dedicated myself to be as lazy as possible, as often as possible, when it comes to parenting my child. I’ve embraced “lazy parenting” with all my heart.

Don’t misunderstand — I’m not negligent, or uncaring. My daughter’s not walking through broken glass barefoot, or watching seven hours of Spongebob a day.

We just try to avoid extremes. There’s no lengthy list of activities we participate in, no major demands we feel the obligation to meet. If we’re interested in something, we explore it; if not, we move on.

Rarely experiencing a #parentingfail feels great!

So, what does lazy parenting look like?

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It’s amazing how clutter just happens, especially when you have kids, isn’t it?

It doesn’t matter whether you work a job or you’re at home; if your kids are toddlers or teenagers –the to-dos and whatnots just keep piling up in corners, on surfaces and in that one special drawer.

Toys overflow their baskets and our feet painfully discover Lego bricks in the dark.

Mount Laundry grows like a volcanic peak — in the laundry basket, the corner of the bedroom and yes, even on the couch.

No matter how much we pick up, there’s always an endless supply of clutter. My husband and I, tired from our days, would ignore the piles. Then my keys would go missing. Or he wouldn’t be able to find his work badge. And we’d clean in a frenzy, snipping at each other about how we’ve failed yet again at the seemingly simple task of maintaining a clutter free home.

It looks like we were not the only ones struggling with this issue though.

According to a study conducted by UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families (CELF), clutter can lead to depression, anxiety and tension in the home.

Clutter starts small, but soon becomes overwhelming. We postpone decluttering until it niggles at our peace of mind a little bit each day, and eventually becomes a stressed-out frenzy that eats up an entire weekend leaving a trail of bitterness and exhaustion in its wake.

Last year my husband and I decided to break this cycle and take on the challenge of completely decluttering our home and keeping it clutter free.

At first it felt like a lost cause – no sooner had we freed up one corner of our home from clutter, new clutter piled up elsewhere in the home. It felt like a game of whack-a-mole.

Slowly though, we noticed something that changed the nature of the game and gave us the winning advantage. Most of the clutter in our home came from 5 specific sources. Simply by focusing on nipping each of these little sources in the bud, we have actually tamed the clutter monster.

Our home doesn’t necessarily look like it is from the pages of the Home and Garden magazine, but it sure is a far cry from where we were a year ago. Here are some of the secrets to having a clutter free home, especially when you have kids –

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