Hey, so if having kids wasn't enough, you can attend an additional circus this weekend. If you’re tryna avoid that then perhaps a dachshund race?

What’s going on here:

  • 🔧 Tired Mom Hack

  • 🍲 A Super Realistic Recipe

  • 📺 Actually Educational Screen Time

  • 📅 Events this weekend

🔧 Tired Mom Hack

❝

Freeze a wet kitchen sponge inside a ziploc bag and toss it in the cooler for pool days and beach trips. Bonus: something to wipe down your second child with.

🍲 A Super Realistic Recipe

Instagram post

If you find yourself with an overabundance of watermelon or the watermelon butthole picking method didn’t work for you, this recipe is both toddler and grandpa approved (but not super lactose intolerant approved because yogurt - sorry)

📺 Actually Educational Screen Time

Giphy

🐙 The ocean is full of weirdos (educational, technically)

🎬 The Outrageous Octopus! SciShow Kids

  • Tastes with its arms, changes color, squeezes through a hole the size of its own eyeball | 4 min · ages 4–8 · free on YouTube

More options:

🧪 Activity: Ocean in a bottle

  • empty water bottle · water · any cooking oil · blue food coloring · glitter (optional, regrettable)

  • fill 1/3 with water + a few drops of blue → top off with oil → glue the cap shut → tip side to side = waves

🌊 See the real thingish:

📅 Stuff to do: July 11-12

North-ish OC

Saturday

Sunday

Central-ish OC

Saturday

Sunday

South-ish OC

Saturday

Sunday

Happening All Month

What does it mean?
📚 = library event
🍊 = recurring event
🍻/🍷 = get your drink on
🎵 = live music (for adults)

👯Meet Other Exhausted Parents

  • 🏃 Mother Runners OC | Sat 7/11, 7am, Hart Park (Orange)
    "Dirty Thirty" celebration run
    @motherrunners_oc

  • 🏃 Mother Runners OC | Sun 7/12, 7am, Newport Back Bay
    A Reggaeton Run 5k with the West Coast Run Club
    @motherrunners_oc

🗓️ Mark your July calendars:

  • Sat 7/18 | Mother Runners OC: Pilates at the Park + coffee walk to the GG Clocktower

  • Sat 7/25 | Mother Runners OC: 7–8 miles at Newport Back Bay, 6:30am

📌 the events in this section are ones that fall on the weekend, but a lot of these groups have events during the week as well in case you’re looking for more!

✌🏻 See you next week!

As always, if you have anything you want to submit (events, news, hacks, recipes), feedback or hate mail, feel free to hit reply.

This newsletter will always be free, but if you’d like to support Shitty Mom Guide, consider buying me a coffee. This newsletter is a forever work-in-progress and wouldn’t be possible without you.

Much love and caffeine,
Frances

❤️ Support the guide

❝

🤝🏻 Know other Shitty Moms (or Dads)? Share the guide and get cool stuff.

❝

🛍️ Shop Shitty Mom favs (with lots of reviews ofc) and feel like you have your life together

❝

📣 Wanna advertise? Let’s chat.

Shitty Mom Guide is not liable for errors, omissions, or changes to events. Always double check your shit before you leave the house. We can’t include every event, but we do our best to curate the most interesting one-off events happening every weekend. This newsletter sometimes includes affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase (at no additional cost to you). Gotta find a way to keep this thing going!

Keep Reading

© 2026 Shitty Mom Guide.
beehiivPowered by beehiiv