By Pam Moore

While the world portrays summer as fun and relaxing, we parents know better. The days are long, which means kids are up way too late. No school means scheduling camps, playdates, sitters, etc. Then there’s all that sun, which means coercing kids into putting sunblock on. You can make summer easier by embracing some hot trends. Maybe you stopped caring about trends when you gave in and bought a minivan, but trust us, there’s a reason these parenting hacks are big right now …

Co-sleeping doesn’t make you an attachment parent, a helicopter parent, or a hippie. It means you’re probably sleeping better than everyone else, never leaving your bed in the middle of the night. I regret not co-sleeping with my kids when they were babies. I also regret that they thought co-sleeping was a slumber party. Specifically, the kind of slumber party where the first girl to fall asleep would wake to find her underpants hidden in the freezer.

Baby-led weaning is a fancy way of saying you feed your baby regular food. Instead of spoon-feeding your baby purees that you have to make or buy, you give them soft foods they can eat with their hands. I scoffed at baby-led weaning. I’m ashamed to admit that this cloth-diapering, home-birthing, chicken-raising mama thought it was “too crunchy.” I wish I’d considered how much easier (read: lazier) it would have been to set a few mashed pieces of my chicken and sweet potatoes on my babies’ high chair trays and let them have at it.

Waldorf Principles emphasize connecting with nature and creative play. Sending your kids to the backyard and shutting the door behind them is a great way for them to discover the natural world. Letting kiddos create a rich imaginary world means fewer toys to trip on in the house and less time spent inventing ways to make clean-up fun (or sighing loudly while shoving toys in bins after bedtime).

Try minimalism. Fewer toys mean less time spent sorting and tidying. A smaller wardrobe means less laundry. A smaller house means less cleaning. Principles of minimalism apply not just to your material things but to your emotional and spiritual life as well.

Minimalism asks us not just to weed out material clutter but the obligations that clutter our calendars as well. Don’t feel like meeting up with that preschool mom you’d never be friends with if you didn’t have kids the same age? Don’t. You’re not a terrible human. You’re just a minimalist, protecting your greatest asset — your time. (She doesn’t need to know your “prior commitment” is binge watching Netflix.)

As parents, we are busy. We don’t have time to check out trending hashtags on Instagram. Hack the hashtags. Do whatever is easiest and you’re sure to be in vogue this summer.

Pam Moore is an award-winning freelance writer, intuitive eating coach, and host of the Real Fit podcast. Get her free guide to improving your body image at pam-moore.com.