Who doesn’t want some help with running their household? That’s especially true if you work, your significant other works, you have kids in school, and you maybe even own a pet or two. You likely don’t need AI to determine that the two things you’re constantly short on are time and energy. Although there’s not much specific data on the number of families using ChatGPT for household tasks at the moment, the tool is gaining in popularity among parents seeking to streamline daily responsibilities. Let’s dig in deeper and explore how.
You might think artificial intelligence can’t make a dent in the demands of raising kids. Well, believe it or not, ChatGPT has a lot to offer in terms of eliminating some of the drudgery and mental strain you have to endure if you’re a parent.
Pro tip: Some of these tasks are also ones that adults without kids need to do, so I suggest you at least look over these nine ways, as they will continue to demonstrate all you can do with ChatGPT.
Nine Ways To Make Parenting Easier With ChatGPT
1. Fill Out Forms
Anybody who’s had to enroll a child in school or take them to a doctor knows that filling out forms is a time-consuming, boring, and repetitive task — especially when half the time the people you’re filling out the forms for already have most of the information. Well, here’s a case where ChatGPT provides a quick and easy fix. Simply copy and paste the form into ChatGPT and put in this prompt:
“Can you ask me these questions one by one and compile my answers into the form format?”
This won’t be life-changing, but it will save you some time and energy. ChatGPT can help you fill in details like emergency contacts or medical history without missing a beat, so you can reclaim at least a few minutes from your busy day. And ChatGPT will continue to store the information you’ve already fed it, so you don’t have to reenter everything for each form. I’ll show you in a little bit how that memory function works.
2. Do Creative Brainstorming
Your kids are tired of the same old tales in their storybooks. Maybe they can’t relate to them. Maybe they’re asking you to come up with your own stories. Well, sometimes after a long hard day, the creativity doesn’t exactly flow. That’s when you can use ChatGPT to be your own personal Brothers Grimm.
Let’s say I have a young daughter named Daisy who adores unicorns, jellybeans, and rainbows. I tell that to ChatGPT using this prompt:
“I have a young daughter named Daisy who loves unicorns, jellybeans, and rainbows. Can you write a very brief story about a brave unicorn named Daisy that involves those other things?”
Now here’s where it gets even more helpful: After you give ChatGPT this information, you might see a small note that says “Memory updated.” That means ChatGPT has remembered the details I shared about Daisy. Next time I ask for a story, it won’t need me to repeat them — it already knows who she is and what she likes. You can even view or manage what ChatGPT remembers by going into its memory settings, where you can review or delete saved details as needed.
There are tons of other family brainstorming projects you can perform besides creating personalized bedtime stories. For example, ChatGPT can suggest ideas for alternative activities when rain disrupts outdoor plans.
3. Generate Fun and Educational Quizzes
You can turn learning into a game by asking ChatGPT to generate quizzes. For example, if your child is learning about planets, you can ask ChatGPT for trivia questions such as “What’s the largest planet in our solar system?” Then, make it a friendly competition — winner gets to pick the next family movie or something similar.
4. Provide (and Adjust) Recipes
If you need a simple recipe for dinner, ChatGPT can provide it. Just specify all your wants in the prompt or in a prompt chain. You can even make it short and simple, like so:
“Provide a tasty recipe for apple pie.”
It gives you something great — but then you realize you’re short on ingredients. For example, you only have one cup of flour, and the recipe calls for two and a half.
Instead of giving up or running to the store, you can just ask:
“I only have one cup of flour for the apple pie recipe. Is there a workaround?”
ChatGPT will respond with creative substitutions or scaled-down versions of the recipe, often giving you multiple options to work with what you have.
This demonstrates how ChatGPT can help you problem-solve, even when it comes to cooking and baking. If your kids are old enough, they can even use ChatGPT to help them cook and maybe give you a break from the kitchen.
5. Make To-Do Lists and Instructions
Say you’ve got a new babysitter coming over and there are a few things you want her to keep track of, to keep your kids on your preferred schedule. All you have to do is dictate the tasks and instructions to the ChatGPT app, using your phone. For example, when preparing babysitter instructions, you could say, “Dinner is at 6, bath at 7, bedtime at 8. Snacks are in the pantry, but no sugar before bedtime.” ChatGPT will turn what you say into clear, bullet-pointed instructions grouped by category. Now all you have to do is get that babysitter to read them …
6. Organize Shopping Lists
What you just did for the babysitter you can do for yourself. Practice walking around the kitchen with your ChatGPT app open, looking in the refrigerator and pantry, and telling it what items you’re out of and need to replace at the store. ChatGPT will not only turn those items into a shopping list, but it can also organize them into categories such as “Produce,” “Dairy,” “Baking,” etc., so you can navigate the store aisles like a pro!
7. Manage Family Events
If you’re an overscheduled family, then you need someone to help you keep track of birthdays, sports practices and games, doctor appointments, and other time-sensitive obligations. So, let ChatGPT be your personal assistant. Tell it details like, “Jake’s soccer game, Saturday at 2 p.m.,” or “Dentist appointment for Belinda, Tuesday at 3 p.m.,” and ChatGPT can send reminders or even help you draft a weekly schedule so nothing slips through the cracks. And again, you can adjust, add, or delete entries with prompt chains.
8. Plan Family Trips
Overwhelmed by vacation planning? Share your destination, travel dates, and preferences with ChatGPT, and it will create an itinerary. For a trip to the beach, it might suggest, “Day 1: Relax on the shore. Day 2: Visit the aquarium. Day 3: Explore local seafood restaurants.” It can even make sure spots are kid-friendly and help you keep costs down with money-saving travel ideas.
9. Help with Homeschooling and Homework
Whether you’re teaching your kids full-time at home or just anxious to help them through some horrendous homework at night, ChatGPT has a lot to offer when it comes to educating your little students. For example, I asked it to explain adding fractions and it provided a perfect step-by-step answer along with an example:
You can also use ChatGPT to create flashcards and, as we already discussed, quizzes. ChatGPT can also be an engaging and interactive way to educate your kids. Just make sure they’re actually learning with it and not just using the app to supply all the answers!
There are also a lot of creative and exciting things you can do with ChatGPT to make family time more efficient and fun. You can ask it for topics to discuss at the dinner table, a poem about your family using the specific information you’ve provided about everyone, or, to keep it simple, simply entertain the kids with a groan-worthy knock-knock joke.
To sum it all up, AI isn’t just for techies or office tasks — it’s a powerful, practical tool for making everyday family life smoother, smarter, and a little more fun. With the right questions and a little creativity, ChatGPT becomes a flexible household assistant that helps parents save time, reduce stress, and even spark a bit of magic in the daily grind.
This is a CafeMom exclusive excerpt from the book, Prompting Made Simple by Rajeev Kapur. Rajeev is a bestselling author who holds a dual AI certification from MIT.
