How Parents Can Use ChatGPT

Today I'm sharing three everyday use cases for ChatGPT. Let's see the "fun side" of AI and how it can help you with routine tasks.

Next week I’m covering the more serious side of AI and ChatGPT — safety, privacy, and ethics, in general. Today though, we are keeping thing LIGHT and talking about some of the fun ways that we (yes, parents) can use ChatGPT in our everyday lives. Let’s get to it!

ChatGPT for Parents, Use Case #1: Meal Planning

There was a time in my life when I loved to cook. Now is not that time, my friends. Feeding two adults and two little people with strong culinary preferences is hard work. Meal planning is so helpful but sometimes so hard. I let out a deep, frustrated sigh every weekend when my husband and I sit down to make the grocery list.

When I signed up for ChatGPT, one of the first things I asked it to do was help with meal planning. I was pleasantly surprised at how good of a job it did!

Preparing for a long weekend with the kids, here’s what I asked:

Can you help me create a meal plan to feed four people for three days? The meals need to be dairy-free. The meals also need to take less than 45 minutes to cook. Everyone in the family likes chicken and beef.

And here’s what the bot wrote back:

Sure, I'd be happy to help! Here's a sample meal plan to feed four people for three days, all dairy-free and taking less than 45 minutes to cook:

Day 1:

Breakfast: Avocado toast (use dairy-free bread) with scrambled eggs and fruit

Lunch: Grilled chicken salad with mixed greens, veggies, and a vinaigrette dressing

Dinner: Beef stir-fry with veggies (broccoli, bell peppers, and onions) and rice

Day 2:

Breakfast: Smoothie bowl with dairy-free milk, frozen fruit, and granola

Lunch: Tuna salad with mixed greens and veggies

Dinner: Baked chicken with roasted potatoes and carrots

Day 3:

Breakfast: Dairy-free pancakes with fruit and turkey bacon

Lunch: Turkey wrap with lettuce, tomato, and mustard

Dinner: Beef and veggie kebabs with rice

What surprised me is that ChatGPT automatically provided a “starting point” grocery list at the end of the meal plan covering each recipe's food ingredients. However, I had to ask it a refining question to get a list of spices required.

ChatGPT for Parents, Use Case #2: Travel and Adventures

Our family loves to travel! The planning for most of our trips usually falls to me. I like to do it, but eventually, I get overwhelmed by the choices and logistics. ChatGPT is an excellent tool for helping you narrow down travel options and create an itinerary.

Here’s what I asked the bot initially:

I need to plan a 7-day trip for my family. We want to visit a country or city with a good mix of adult activities like museums and fine dining while having access to parks, playgrounds, and perhaps even amusement parks. We want to spend at most six hours traveling to the destination. We are happy to fly or drive. What locations do you suggest?

ChatGPT responded with a list of five potential cities: San Diego, Barcelona, Paris, Vancouver, and Tokyo. The last suggestion made me realize that I didn’t tell ChatGPT where my origin city would be. Once I refined my conversation, the bot suggested Washington, D.C., and Charleston, S.C., as new additions.

ChatGPT provided summaries of each city, not just a list. For this exercise, I ultimately selected San Diego, which the bot described as such:

San Diego has a great mix of attractions, from world-renowned museums to beautiful parks and beaches. Families can visit the San Diego Zoo, the USS Midway Museum, and Balboa Park. The city also has several amusement parks, including Legoland and SeaWorld. San Diego is easily accessible by plane or car, and there are plenty of fine dining options.

Once I “decided” on San Diego, I asked for a sample single-day itinerary, and it came back with a reasonably extensive plan:

8:00 am: Breakfast at Richard Walker's Pancake House - This popular breakfast spot is known for its delicious pancakes and omelets. They also have dairy-free options available.

9:00 am: Visit the San Diego Zoo - Spend the morning exploring one of the best zoos in the world. See the animals up close and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.

12:00 pm: Lunch at Puesto - This popular restaurant serves amazing tacos and other Mexican dishes. They have several dairy-free options available.

1:30 pm: Visit Balboa Park - Stroll through the beautiful gardens and visit some of the many museums and cultural institutions in the park.

4:00 pm: Spend some time at La Jolla Cove - This picturesque cove is a great place to relax and enjoy the beach. You can also see some of the local sea life.

6:00 pm: Dinner at Herb & Wood - This restaurant serves farm-to-table cuisine in a beautiful setting. They have several dairy-free options available.

8:00 pm: Evening walk in Gaslamp Quarter - Take a stroll through this historic district and see some of the beautiful Victorian buildings. You can also stop at one of the many bars or clubs for a drink or two.

I hope this itinerary helps! San Diego has so many great activities and dining options, so there's something for everyone. Let me know if you have any other questions or need more information.

Before I wrap up this case study, two final things to discuss. First, did you notice in the recommendations that it notes dairy-free options at the restaurants? This results from previous elements of our conversation — I used the same conversation window as I did for the meal planning sample. That pleasantly surprised me. Lastly, I have not “fact-checked” the suggested itinerary to confirm that these sights and restaurants *actually exist.* There are stories of ChatGPT providing patently false information, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.

ChatGPT for Parents, Use Case #3: Homework Help

All it takes is one dose of 4th-grade “new math” to realize that you are helpless in supporting your child. One of the coolest ways ChatGPT can be used in the home setting is by providing homework support to kids.

First, I asked ChatGPT to explain Common Core Math to me. Here’s part of what it said (I’ve edited it for brevity):

One of the key differences between Common Core Math and traditional math education is the focus on understanding and applying mathematical concepts, rather than just memorizing formulas and algorithms. Common Core Math emphasizes the use of real-world contexts and multiple representations of mathematical ideas, such as diagrams, models, and graphs, to help students make sense of the concepts they are learning.

Another key difference with Common Core Math is the way that it approaches computation. Rather than teaching standard algorithms as a set of procedures to be memorized, Common Core Math focuses on helping students understand the underlying concepts and strategies behind the procedures, and encourages the use of mental math and estimation.

Valuable and accurate in setting the stage for me, a parent, in understanding what the heck things are so different. I then took it through a series of questions I thought my daughter might ask — things like how to multiply fractions, do long division, and break down a complicated word problem. The latter example did a great job of quickly breaking down the (correct) steps to solve the problem. It couldn’t, of course, create a visual representation like Common Core calls for, but it would succeed in helping my daughter understand the math steps, and she could then draw the corresponding graph or timeline.

I hope today’s examples help you realize the potential of ChatGPT to assist in some of the tasks in your everyday life. I’ve found it helpful in both personal and professional settings.