ChatGPT helps me feel like a better mom. I use it for meal planning, scheduling, and more.

• I was having a hard time managing certain aspects of parenting, and it was making me feel guilty.
• I decided to see whether ChatGPT could help and tried using it for things like meal planning.
• It's made parenting so much easier and relieved a lot of the shame I was feeling.

The daily challenge of navigating everything I need to do — and having enough time and energy to do it all — sparked my mom guilt, and the weight of it hit me hard.

I found myself trapped in a cycle of questioning whether I was doing things right, whether I was doing enough, and whether I was a good mother to my three kids. These doubts were suffocating and led to feelings of shame that were hard to shake off. It was as if the weight of my expectations for myself was heavier than what my shoulders could bear.

I was struggling to find some sense of harmony in managing my time, my energy level, my work schedule, and my kids' needs. It seemed my different roles were competing for my attention. Fortunately, I discovered ChatGPT.

ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, is the tech tool people have been raving about this year. This artificial-intelligence chatbot responds to a wide variety of queries, from simple questions to complex prompts around a given topic. People use it in a number of ways — some more controversial than others. While many people use ChatGPT for fun or business purposes, I've found it to be incredibly helpful in addressing my challenges with managing my kids. In fact, it has been a game changer for me as a parent.

At first, I was skeptical that an AI assistant could be of much service to me for parenting. But as I began to explore the tool, I quickly realized how it could make wearing my mom hat a lot easier. Here are some of the ways I've been using ChatGPT to achieve my parenting goals and move past mom guilt.

Designing a daily schedule for my kids

Before ChatGPT, I felt guilty for not being intentional with my time management. I felt as though I didn't have enough time to create a daily schedule for the family. One of the most useful features of ChatGPT for me has been its ability to put together a customized daily schedule for my kids.

To do this, I input information about my children's needs and activities. Then ChatGPT generates a schedule that keeps me on track. For example, I put in, "Kids have tutoring at 6 p.m. The kids return from school at 4:30 p.m. And snacks are taken before 6 p.m." The AI tool then makes a detailed schedule for me in less than 15 seconds, saving me a significant amount of time. And I appreciate that it also fills in the time gaps by including family-bonding activities in the schedule, such as watching a show together.

Creating recipes

As a busy mom, I find meal planning to often be a mental drain, especially when trying to cater to selective eaters. ChatGPT has helped turn this task into a time-saving one, and I can preserve my mental energy when meal planning.

It generates delicious recipes that incorporate my children's dietary preferences and the ingredients I have available. For example, I type in, "I have picky eaters that don't like spicy foods. Meal needs to be delicious for kids. I have chicken, rice, seasoning, oil. Create a recipe." Then it gives me the ingredients, instructions, and suggested additions for a recipe for golden chicken and rice.

I no longer have to spend hours sifting through Google results or trying to come up with new meal ideas from scratch. Now my kids are pleased with the diverse meals they get, and they look forward to what they'll have for dinner the next day.

Suggesting age-appropriate household chores

It was hard for me to come up with chores that were both age-appropriate and engaging for my kids. I knew that delegating household chores to my children was something I needed to do to develop their sense of responsibility, so I decided to see whether I could use ChatGPT to address this need.

I input a bit of general information about my kids' interests and skills — like, "Princeton is 5 years old and likes to organize colors. Martin is 10 and he is creative. Adanna is 12 and likes to declutter." Then I tell the AI assistant, "Make a list of 10 child-friendly chores for each kid." Then it would shoot out a list of personalized chore suggestions that mirror each child's specific qualities. Because of this, I'm better able to delegate tasks to my kids, while giving them chores they're more likely to enjoy.

Using ChatGPT in this way has saved me time and helped me manage tasks more efficiently. It has also mitigated my mom guilt and increased my peace of mind. I can now spend more time with my kids, and because the tool helps me handle parenting challenges with more ease and confidence, I'm less stressed and feel like a better mom.