Of course, you love your kids, but chances are that on occasion they drive you nuts and you find yourself struggling to stay patient with them.

If you want to keep the peace with your children, you’ll need to practice the art of patience. When you do, you’ll also be helping your children to learn patience – a skill that’ll benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Here are some ways to learn patience with your kids:

What are your triggers?

Be as specific as possible. Once you learn to understand what causes you to lose patience, you can try to avoid these situations, or at least you’ll know when it is time to start practicing your patience skills.

How do you respond?

What happens when you lose patience?

Do you get sweaty palms, or perhaps experience an increased heart rate? In the future, these warning signals will alert you to react positively.

Step away from the situation

If you do find yourself about to lose patience, it’s best that you walk away from the situation rather than reacting negatively. Take a moment to yourself and practice some deep breathing exercises to calm yourself down.

You must control your temper! (#beautyandthebeast)

You must be patient, not just preach it. Actions speak louder than words. Also, it takes action to practice your patience skills.

Patience is an intervention

Patience as a tool that can be applied to any situation. Once we understand its value and apply it correctly, we will no longer react in anger to frustrating situations.

Have reasonable expectations

You can’t expect your toddler to learn to potty train overnight, just as you wouldn’t expect your five-year-old to learn calculus. It’s important to understand that many things just take time (and patience).

Think about your relationship rather than results

It can be easy to become side-tracked by results. However, if you focus on your relationship with your child, results will become less important, but may improve anyway as a result of the improved relationship.

Restate, rethink, reevaluate, relax and regroup

Instead of reacting with frustration when your child fails to complete a task, use these 5 “R’s”:

1. Restate. Tell them what your expectations are.
2. Rethink. Think about your timetable.
3. Reevaluate. Is the task reasonable?
4. Relax. Think about how you are approaching the problem and whether you would change anything.
5. Regroup. Actively work on the situation instead of losing your temper as you would in the past.

Be prepared to apologize

Some may think that apologizing to your child will lessen your authority, but nothing could be further from the truth. You are the role model, so it’s important to take responsibility for your actions when your own behavior is less than stellar.

When you apologize, you are teaching your children how to take responsibility, too.

Take care of yourself

Look after your own needs as well as those of your kids. Sometimes we put ourselves at the back of the queue when it comes to care, but this can be to your detriment and your family’s.

Take time for yourself, get a hobby, or just have an hour off occasionally. This will give you time to recharge.

Give yourself GRACE

We all lose patience occasionally, and while it may not seem like a positive thing at the time, it may show you that you’re feeling overwhelmed or under-appreciated. Perhaps there is something you can do about that issue too.

Kids can be frustrating, but practicing patience can strengthen your bonds, lessen your frustration, and teach your children valuable skills.

You know you can lose weight by running each day or playing full-court basketball, but what if you tend to avoid physical activity? Maybe you think it takes up too much time or you feel uncomfortable when you exercise.

Cheer up. There’s plenty of middle ground between being a couch potato and training for the Olympics. Try these 14 lazy ways to burn calories.

Lazy Ways to Burn More Calories While You’re Exercising

Exercise really does become easier once you make it a habit. While you’re discovering what works for you, use these tips to make your initial efforts less taxing.

Play Fast Music

Save the slow dance for later. Tunes with a lively tempo make you work harder, but you’ll be having so much fun you probably won’t notice.

Increase the Resistance

Gradually use heavier weights or raise the resistance setting on your treadmill.

Bicycle uphill or lower the air pressure in your tires.

You’ll expend more energy in the same amount of time.

Add Variety

You may have noticed that you tend to eat more at a buffet because additional options create greater temptation. Apply the same principle at the gym. When you’re tired of running laps, go for a swim.

Be Social

Buddying up with a workout partner turns pushups into playtime. Bring a friend to the gym or sign up for a group class.

Lazy Ways to Burn Calories Between Workouts

What you do between workouts affects your weight, too, since most of your time is spent outside of the gym. Some of these tips are so easy they’ll quickly become second nature.

Stand Up

Standing burns about 30% more calories than sitting down. Ask your boss for a standing desk or get up out of your chair for a few minutes every half hour.

Walk and Talk

Studies suggest that the average smartphone user is spending at least 3 hours a day on their device. The miles will add up quickly if you pace around during those conversations.

Related: 8 surprisingly easy ways to cut calories

Break for Commercials

When you watch TV, do pushups or jump rope during the commercials. That way you can stay fit and still keep up with your favorite shows.

Lengthen Your Stride

Since early humans couldn’t be sure about where their next meal was coming from, our bodies quickly adapt to moving as efficiently as possible. Just walking a little faster than usual can help you slim down.

Related: Simple ways to eat mindfully and keep the weight off

Wear an Activity Monitor

Maybe you feel more engaged when you have data to analyze. Strap on a bracelet or pedometer.

More Lazy Ways to Burn Calories Between Workouts

Fidget

Frequent fidgeters burn about 300 extra calories a day. That’s about 2 shortbread cookies.

Eat Whole Foods

Chewing and digesting food uses up energy too. Choose an orange instead of juice. As a bonus, spicy foods rev up your metabolism, so munch on some wasabi peas along with your fruit.

Related: 91+ Tips For Moms That Want To Cook Like a Pro

Drink Coffee

Caffeine is another metabolism booster. Most experts agree that up to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day is safe, which translates into about 4 cups of coffee.

Manage Stress

In addition to causing chronic inflammation, stress hormones can interfere with digestion. Relaxation practices like meditating daily make it easier to lose weight.

Take a Nap

Similarly, adequate sleep helps you to stay trim. Go to bed and rise on a consistent schedule, and take a nap if you still feel drowsy.

Burn calories the easy way!

While you’re searching for an exercise routine you can stick with, start with small steps that add up when it comes to losing weight. You may even find that you look forward to working out once you’re feeling more energetic and fit.

Related: Easy Weight Loss Tips for Achieving Your Weight Loss Goals

Marriage requires an effective balance of separateness and togetherness. The proper ratio varies from couple to couple. Too much time together can be as challenging as not enough. How do you manage all of this? And how are you supposed to do this during hard times like a pandemic, *cough cough*?

Divorce lawyers are reporting a huge increase in inquiries from unhappy people wanting a divorce. Luckily, there are steps you (and I) can take to decrease the odds of becoming a statistic.

Tips to avoid allowing the pandemic to crush and ruin your marriage:

Have activities you do separately

Odds are that you’re spending plenty of time together. In your previous life, you might have struggled to find time to spend with your spouse. It’s possible to have too much of a good thing, especially if you have a smaller home. Spend some time apart each day.

This is simple to accomplish. One of you goes to the store while the other one stays home. When the shopper returns, the person that stayed home can go for a walk or mow the grass. There’s a couple of hours of peace right there.

Avoid doing things that you know irritate your spouse (you know the ones)

You know what your spouse doesn’t like, and you might even do those things on purpose now and then just for spite. But, now isn’t the time for passive-aggressive behavior.

Why poke the bear when you can’t get away from the bear? Increasing the level of resentment is just foolish.

• Put a stop to any criticism. The same goes for criticism. It’s understandable that you might be frustrated with each other, but why take it to another level when it isn’t necessary?

Have you ever received any personal criticism that strengthened your relationship with that person? Doubtful.

Stay busy

Bored and annoyed is worse than comfortably busy and annoyed. Find something to do and put your attention on that task. It’s a more productive and enjoyable way to coexist. Idle minds have a tendency to become agitated.

Argue outside of the home

If you’re going to fight, do it somewhere else. The kids will appreciate not having to be part of it. It also avoids emotionally contaminating the home. It’s less comfortable in the home after an argument has occurred. Argue somewhere else and preserve the sanctity of your home.

Keep the house tidy

A cluttered home is more stressful for everyone. Encourage everyone to pick up after themselves and there will be less tension in your home. Everyone in the house should have a couple of chores to do each day. A tidy home is a more peaceful home.

Communicate

Communication is always important. It’s more important now than ever. Try to have at least one meaningful conversation each day.

What makes a conversation meaningful? Both of you are glad you had the conversation. You can have a meaningful conversation about the weather or garbage cans, as long as you’re both glad you had the conversation afterward.

Establish some routines

Keep a routine. It’s going to be a different routine than before, but a routine is still important. Get everyone out of bed by a certain time. Have a dinner routine and a bedtime routine. Keep everyone on some semblance of a schedule.

Be kind

Everyone knows how to be kind. Be especially kind during this challenging time.

Marriages are challenging even under great circumstances, and we’re not living in great circumstances right now. A little prevention can go a long way toward preserving your marriage.

Be sure to give each other the alone time that you both need. Place a premium on communication. Be kind. This is good advice for any marriage under any circumstance, and even more so during troubling times.