Meet Your New Mom Assistant: How AI Is (Actually) Helping Parents

One of the (many) reasons I resisted AI for so long is that I am far from tech-y and the very concept conjured images of HTML code and judgmental error messages. Turns out, ChatGPT is just like texting a very helpful and knowledgeable friend. (Except it's a robot. Just try to forget that part.)

All you need is a phone or computer (ChatGPT is both an app and a website) and a few minutes of mental bandwidth. You can ask things way beyond “what should I do with my kid today.” (That answer is actually in our calendar of events! AI is still pretty terrible at local events.) With the right prompts, AI can help with everything from scheduling to chore charts to tweaking that email to your kid’s teacher.

I'm not the only parent who has been turning to AI for a little help. According to Menlo Ventures’ inaugural State of Consumer AI report, among parents with kids under 18: 

• 79% have used AI, compared to 54% of non-parents 
• Nearly 1 in 3 use it daily – nearly doubling the rate of non-parents 
• Top use cases include everyday tasks like homework help (44%), educational support (40%), and managing the logistics of childcare (34%) 

Here are the top prompts that will change your life.

The Best AI Prompts for Parenting That Save Your Sanity

1. Meal Planning

My #1 use for ChatGPT. The kids are picky, I’m a terrible cook, and someone always forgot to buy tortillas. AI can take whatever you already have in your fridge and turn it into a customized plan that can be easily modified for dietary restrictions or demanding children. You can even upload a photo of your open fridge and ask it what to make for dinner with what it sees in the photo. That’s Jetsons era stuff.

Try these as you meal prep:

Prompt: Act as a chef and create a healthy, high-protein dinner menu for two adults and two kids, including chicken and broccoli, that takes under 45 minutes to prepare. Additional ingredients on hand include pasta, rice, carrots, and chickpeas.

Or

Prompt: Create a week of kid-friendly dinners for a family of four. Mom is vegetarian, dad needs high-protein meals, one kid has celiac disease, and one doesn’t like sauce. All meals should be done in 30 minutes or less and include at least one Mexican-inspired meal.

Tweak these for your family. Keep tweaking until you come up with the magic prompt that works for you! And definitely try the photo version at least once!

2. Gift Giving

Meet your personal shopper. Tell ChatGPT your recipients’ ages, your budget, and any other stipulations, and it’ll make you a custom shopping list. 

Prompt: Suggest unique birthday gifts under $30 for a 4-year-old girl who loves dinosaurs, glitter, and slime. She already has a lot of toys. No noisy gifts.

3. Homework Help

Because by 9pm I am definitely not smarter than a 5th grader…but AI is! (See if you, or your kids, can answer these 100 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader Questions.)

Prompt: Explain 5th-grade long division in a way that’s simple, funny, and appeals to my kid who loves Minecraft.

With soccer, play rehearsals, sick kids, and parents' schedules, carpool can be a nightmare. AI to the rescue!

4. Checklists & Schedules

We love checking things off lists, but making them? Let the bots do that for you. Hot tip: while this first one is a personal favorite that will help out with your school year. I promise.

Prompt: Create a weekly carpool schedule for four families (Families A, B, C, D) for daily school drop-off at 8am and pick-up at 3:30pm. Each family should drive one day per week, and a rotating schedule is preferred. The parent who drives picks up all the other kids at (LOCATION) at (TIME) in the morning. Family A can not drive in the morning, Family C will not take part in carpool Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Only Family C and D participate Friday afternoon.

Or

Prompt: Help me make a weekly cleaning schedule that includes decluttering toys, doing laundry, and bathroom deep cleans that breaks it down to 15 minutes a day.

5. Make it Your Personal Assistant 

You’re heated. AI’s not. Rage-type that email or text in all caps, then run it through ChatGPT for a wordsmith sanity-check. 

Prompt: Rewrite this email to my kid’s teacher. I’m frustrated about how this assignment was communicated, but I want to sound constructive, not complain-y.  (Insert rage email here.)

Or

Prompt: My son didn’t get an invite to another child’s birthday party and I want to feel out whether it was an oversight. Help me compose a text to the parent that doesn’t sound intrusive or petty. 

6. Travel Itineraries

We recently used ChatGPT on a long road trip that we (silly us) thought we could plow straight through. Our kids melted down at the 2-hour mark, so we sought out some family-friendly pit stops from our handy AI friend, who led us to an awesome waterfall, a mini golf course, and what is evidently one of the world’s largest balls of twine. Caveat: make sure to double-check the accuracy of AI’s suggestions, as they’re not fact-checked (but our Mommy Poppins Travel Guides are; if we have a guide in the city you're visiting, definitely try those first, as real humans have tested, tried, fact-checked, and lovingly shared the insider tips!). 

Prompt: Create a 4-day kid-friendly itinerary in Sheboygan for a family with a two and five-year-old. Include alternate plans if it snows and downtime for naps. The two-year-old will be in a stroller. And make me a packing list for the trip. We will fly into Milwaukee, are renting a car, and want to take at least one day trip.

7. Party Planning

Who knew birthday parties were such extravaganzas? Streamline to avoid stress with the perfect party planning prompts.

Prompt: Plan a backyard birthday party for a 5-year-old who loves princesses. Need activities for 10 guests all around age 5, peanut-free snacks, and favors. Budget is $200. Provide links to any supplies that can be bought online.

8. Personalized Stories & Games

This one gives me feelings, as there are so many amazing books (check our book recommendations for all ages and interests here) and games (our 100 best board games for families are here). But for the novelty factor, it is entertaining to give ChatGPT a super specific story prompt with your kids’ names and interests and see what it spits out. You can also ask for trivia games and riddles tailored to your kid, which makes for a great time-killer on a road trip or while in the waiting room of one of your child’s gazillion appointments. 

Prompt: Write a short bedtime story about a 5-year-old named Ollie who loves pickles, bowling, the color orange, and is nervous about starting kindergarten. Make it funny and include his older brother, Charlie, and our dog, George.

Or

Prompt: Create a road trip trivia game for a 10-year-old who loves Harry Potter and Sephora. Throw in a few easier questions about Bluey for her 6-year-old brother.

Pro Tips for Getting the Best Results With ChatGPT

Specifics are the secret to setting up your bot-bestie for success. Details like ages, budget, location, and any other parameters help to customize your answer. You can also begin by telling AI the role you want it to play–ask it to answer as a chef, a pediatrician, or an event planner. 

For example, you could just ask:

Help me plan a party for a 5-year-old who likes princesses. 

You’ll get a generic plan that’s helpful but still leaves a lot of work for you.

Or you can level up:

Answer as a professional party planner in Los Angeles. Create an overview and checklist of things to do to host a party for a 5-year-old girl who loves princesses. Her favorite princess is Moana, but she doesn’t want a Moana party, she wants all princesses like that. We would like to host this party in our backyard, which is a little small. Include party games and favors and food suggestions. One of the guests has a peanut allergy. There will be 20 kids, ranging in age from 2 to 7. The budget is $200. Include links to things to purchase and recipes.

Then, use follow-up prompts to refine your results. You can even ask it to create an invitation for your guests.

Using AI as a Parent: What About the Ethics?

Yep, we’re with you. Misinformation, biased algorithms, unoriginal content, and AI’s environmental impact are just some of the deeply valid concerns we share about its ethical implications. As with any emerging technology, we need to educate ourselves about its benefits and pitfalls and approach it critically and responsibly, especially since it appears that AI is here to stay.

Acting with intention is key to integrating ChatGPT into our lives as a tool rather than as a crutch. Only with an awareness of its shortcomings can we thoughtfully use AI not to replace connection, but to help make space for more quality time by streamlining the logistics that dominate our over-scheduled modern lives.

FAQs About Using ChatGPT as a Parent

Q: Do I need to pay to use ChatGPT with these prompts?
A: Nope. These work just fine with the free version. There is a paid version that can get you more complex and advanced answers, but you'll do just fine with the free ChatGPT. That's what I use.

Q: Can AI really understand my family’s specific needs?

A: The detail that you get in your answer depends on the detail that you put in your prompt. Tell it about your family’s unique needs, and it will respond accordingly.

Q: Is it safe for kids to use ChatGPT?
A: Nope, nope, nope. Kids under 13 absolutely shouldn’t use ChatGPT, and after that, it’s every parent’s personal judgment call (it’ll be a NO in my home!). But you can use it for kids to make up stories, activities, routines, etc.

Q: What are the environmental or ethical concerns?
A: There are quite a few, from AI's carbon footprint to biases in the information that's generated based on how and by whom AI was trained. Generative technology uses real data and energy. Educate yourself and be intentional in your use, and especially in how (or whether) you introduce it to your kids. 

Photos courtesy of Canva