AI — do you love it or hate it? Or have you yet to form a strong view?

If you’re unmoved, maybe it’s because you haven’t started using it to reduce the mental load at home?

I’ve been starting to use it to share the load in parent life and automate some of the more tedious tasks, and my conclusion so far — when it works, wow, does it work!

So I wanted to share 3 ways I regularly use AI at home with the MAMA.coder community in the hope that it can help you too.

Disclaimer: AI doesn’t always get things right, think of it as a timesaver/​starter for 10 and always check the details before relying on it!

Meal planning made easy

We have gluten and dairy sensitivities at home so we cook fresh and I spend a LOT of time looking for new recipes. I’m also pretty busy working full time and find meal planning quite a strain. I ask ChatGPT to plan 2 weeks of recipes for me and then pick and choose what appeals and ditch the rest.

Prompts to use: ​“Please give me a 2‑week meal plan for my family of 4 excluding gluten and dairy ingredients and suggest dinner recipes that take 40 minutes or less to cook. Do not duplicate with previous meal plans.“

I then review the recipes and copy the ones I want to try in to a list. Copy that back into chat GPT and prompt:

​“Now make a shopping list of the ingredients I need to make all these recipes”

I still browse recipe books and Pinterest for higher effort meals but the basics are done 😅

Keeping track of term dates

I find it hard to keep track of these, especially as my kids attend different schools. Now I simply ask ChatGPT (and then double check the school’s websites to be sure!)

Prompts to use: ​“Make a list of term dates for these two schools: ​“NAME OF SCHOOL” and ​“NAME OF SCHOOL” in YOUR LOCATION. Include start of term and end of term dates and times, plus any inset days or special closures planned for each school. Also list any U.K. public holidays. Start with today and list dates for the next 12 months.”

Holiday and free time planning

Now we’ve got our diaries straight we can make the most of our downtime.

Prompts to use: ​“Help me plan a week’s holiday for a family of four (or 48 hours in…) in CITY/REGION/COUNTRY, with a budget of XX and a hire car. We are interested in [….] and like to see the main historic sites in a place then go off the beaten track. List anything we should book in advance ”

Have you been using AI to help reduce the mental load? I’d love to hear your tips! Email us at hello@mama.codes and we’ll share the best ideas with the MAMA.codes community.