Never Used AI? Start Here

Here is what is currently in my head. A school form, due tomorrow, I think. A birthday party on Saturday. Whose, I’m not sure. Dinner for six, and one of them will not eat the thing. And about two hundred browser tabs I did not open on purpose.There is one of me.Welcome to Moms Who Claude. I’m Allison, I have six kids, and this is Episode 14. This one is the starting line. If you have never opened an AI tool, or you tried one once and thought “meh,” you’re in the right place. You don’t need to have heard any other episode.Today solves three things:What AI is, and how to talk to it with zero prompting skills.One real win in about two minutes. I type what’s in my fridge, tell Claude to ask me questions first, and get dinner for six and a grocery list.How to know what to trust, without checking everything twice.The one line to remember: use it on your stuff, not on Google. That’s why so many first tries feel like “meh,” and it’s what changed it for me.I also cover which AI to pick and why I use Claude, and what it costs. You can start free today, and I’ll tell you when paying makes sense. It is not day one.

Here's what showed up in my inbox this week: a toy catalog, another toy catalog, and a catalog from a toy store I'm fairly sure closed in 2019. Then the Instagram ads. Then the texts. What do the kids want this year? What size is she now? Did somebody already get him the Lego set?It's October. Every one of those is a question, and every question comes to me.Welcome to Moms Who Claude. I'm Allison, I have six kids, and this is Episode 13. It's a rescue episode, so you don't need to have heard anything before this. One problem, start to finish: Christmas gifting.Today solves three things:1. How to give the whole family one page of gift ideas by text, instead of answering the same question for six weeks.2. How to update that page with one sentence when somebody grabs a gift.3. How to keep your budget and your hiding spots on a second page nobody else ever sees.The hard part of Christmas isn't picking the gift. It's holding all of it: who wants what, what size, who's buying it, what's already covered. I don't ask Claude what to buy. It doesn't know my kid. I do. I ask Claude to hold the list.In the episode I build both pages live, with two made-up kids (Leo and Ava, not mine) so no real kid sizes end up on a podcast. Claude interviews me one question at a time, I say "not sure" about a shoe size and it just moves on, and then I fix things in plain words, the way I'd say it to a person. When Grandma texts that she's getting Leo the Lego set, I tell Claude to mark it claimed. One sentence. Then a second chat, just for me, with the budget, what I've spent, what's left, and which closet the art kit is hiding in.I'm honest about what this can't do. The family texts me, I tell Claude, and on a free account I send a fresh PDF each time. Claude isn't watching what your family buys. It only knows what you tell it. It's still a million times better than six weeks of "did somebody already get him the Lego?"Your challenge before the next episode:1. Pick one kid. Just one. Paste in the family page prompt and answer the questions. Say "not sure" at least once.2. Save it as a PDF and send it to one person.3. Count the "what do the kids want?" texts you get over the next month. The goal is zero.The exact prompts are in the show notes, so you don't have to pause and write anything down.The free Christmas Gift Tracker is here! Put in your email and it's yours, or comment GIFTS on my latest Instagram post and I'll send it over. If you want both pages and the extra prompts in one go, the Full Package is $19, and if it's not for you, I'll refund you, no questions.If you try this, leave a review and tell me how many texts you stopped getting. And send this episode to the mom who's already getting the "what do they want for Christmas?" texts. She's probably reading one right now.

Somebody's birthday is this week and I don't know whose. Today: how I get everything nagging me out of my head by voice, in any order, and have Claude turn it into a short list with a date and a next step for every item. Plus the one honest thing Claude can't do for you.

"Which one is the regular bread?" If you've ever handed someone a job and then spent the next hour answering texts about it, this one's for you. Last episode we got the facts of your house into Claude. Today: same information, different reader.Three things you'll leave with:- How to hand someone a whole job, start to finish, instead of a piece of it- How to get Claude to answer the questions they'd text you about, before they ask- How to rewrite the same information for a different reader (husband, sitter, grandma) in one sentenceThe demo: a grocery list for Bo, built without re-explaining the family, then the aisle-seven test to catch every question he'd text me about. Then the same facts rewritten for a sitter who's never been to our house. Claude even left blanks for what it didn't know instead of guessing.THE AISLE-SEVEN TEST"Now pretend you're [name], standing in the store with this list. What would they text me about? Put the answers right into the list. Keep it short."YOUR CHALLENGEPick one job you hand out in pieces. Hand over the whole thing this week with this prompt, then count the texts you get back. The goal is zero."[Name] is doing [the job] this week, start to finish. They [know our house / have never been to our house]. Write them a list they can read on their phone. Answer anything they'd text me about before they ask. End with one line on what done looks like. Keep it short."FOUR PARTS OF A GOOD HANDOFF1. Say who's reading it, and what they already know.2. Hand over the whole job: "start to finish."3. The aisle-seven test: ask what they'd text you about, and put the answers in.4. Say what done looks like, in one line.New to memory? Episode 10 covers how to get your family's standing facts into Claude so you don't have to re-explain them every time.Next up, Episode 12: the stuff nobody sees. The birthday that's coming, the thank-you note you owe, the appointment you keep meaning to book.THE BEGINNER GUIDEThe Guide I Wish Someone Had Handed Me. Stop wondering what AI is. Use it tonight. It's $27, and if it's not for you, I'll refund you, no questions.→ Get the guideInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/momswhoclaude/Tried the challenge? Leave a review and tell me how many texts you got back.

Every new chat used to start the same way. Six kids, ages one to ten. Two girls who won't touch sauce or spice. Allison typed that paragraph out before every single question, like a first date with the same person over and over.Claude already knew. It had known since episode one.This episode is about turning that off. How to stop reintroducing yourself to Claude, using the memory feature that's quietly been doing the work the whole time.How to stop retyping the same background info every time you open a new chatHow to teach Claude one new thing about your house in a single sentence, just by saying "remember this"How to read exactly what Claude has kept about you, and fix or delete anything you don't want it rememberingAlso covered: where memory lives (Settings, then Memory), why it's probably already on, what it leaves out by default (health, religion, politics, and other sensitive topics unless you turn that on), the ghost icon for a fully private chat, and the gut check for all of it: if you wouldn't put it in a text to your sister, don't put it in Claude.Up next, Episode 11: getting these same facts out of your head and into someone else's hands. Your husband, a babysitter, grandma.Sunday Reset: free live setup session on Zoom, Oct 11, 2026 at 8pm Eastern. 25 seats, sign up here: Beginner guide, $27: the setup Allison wishes someone had handed her. No-questions refund.

Eight forty this morning, cereal aisle, a full scene over a toy that doesn't exist anymore. That's the backdrop. The real episode is about something bigger: every answer you get — from Claude, from anywhere — is built for a generic person, and you're the one who edits it, on your own, to fit your real values every time. Today, the fix: hand over the filter first.One prompt, one added sentence, and the difference between generic advice and advice that already sounds like you — demoed with a parenting philosophy (Dr. Becky Kennedy), then generalized to faith, to how you and your partner communicate, to whoever's judgment you already trust, and to the simplest version of all: "the way my own mother would have handled this."Your challenge: Pick one frame of reference that already runs your life. Take a real question you're dealing with right now and tell Claude that frame of reference before you ask."I'm asking about [your real situation]. When you answer, filter it through [the philosophy, person, or value you trust] — specifically, [the one or two things that means to you]."

Thursday is impossible: two kids, two places, forty minutes apart, one car. I found that out on Sunday instead of at 5:15 on Thursday. This week: the whole week's driving sorted in one sitting, catching the day that doesn't work early, and putting all of it on the calendar I actually check.Prompt:I need this week's driving figured out. I have [number] drivers and cars, and [who else] riding along for every trip. Here's everything: [kid], [activity], [day], [time], [how far]. Keep going for all five days — out of order is fine. [Other driver] gets home at [time]. Go day by day and tell me what time I need to leave and who's in the car. Tell me straight which days are not physically possible with one driver.

Seven people at that table, and every one of them is getting paid to be there. They read the file on the clock. I read it at 11pm for free. This week: how to walk into a room full of professionals with a folder instead of a feeling — plus what to say when nobody quite says no.The prep prompt — after you've attached last year's plan, the evaluation, emails and your own notes:I've got an IEP meeting coming up. I've been to plenty of these, so I know how they go — that's not what I need. What I need is to walk in as prepared as everyone else in the room, because there are going to be seven of them and one of me, and they've all read the file this week and I haven't. Everything I have is in here: last year's plan, the evaluation, emails, and my own notes. Here's what I'm walking in to get: I want a new evaluation. I think something is being missed, and I don't want another year of decisions made on data that's old. Go through all of it and tell me what in these documents supports asking for a new evaluation, what's the strongest way to say it, and what am I forgetting that I should be asking about?2. The one-pager prompt — because none of us can hold four things in our head while seven people are talking:Turn this into one page I can hold in the meeting. My asks in the order I should ask them, the evaluation request first. One line each on what backs up my evaluation request. And the two or three questions I want answered before I sign anything. Nothing longer than a page — I'm going to be reading it under a table.3. The pushback prompt — the half that changes the meeting:When I ask for a new evaluation, they might say "let's revisit that at the annual." That's not a no, which is exactly why nobody ever has a response ready for it. Give me something I can say in the moment — not aggressive, not a speech, just the next sentence. And tell me what it costs to wait until the annual, because I want to be able to say that part out loud.4. Your starter prompt — for whatever room you're dreading:I have a meeting about [the thing] on [the date]. Everyone else there does this for a living and I don't. Here's everything I have — [paste it in]. Here's what I'm walking in to get: [your ask]. Tell me what supports it, the strongest way to say it, and what I should say when they push back.

Our van sat at the dealership for 49 days. We had $7,000 in rental bills and an offer of $600, so we took them to small claims court. Bo isn't a lawyer. He prepped for two hours with Claude on a Saturday night, walked in with seven labeled exhibits, and won every dollar.

4pm dinner panic used to happen five nights a week. Same brain, same fridge stare, same "what do we have, who won't eat it, is it fast enough" — every single night.This week I solved it once. Sunday, coffee still hot, 15 minutes. Claude checked my real calendar first (connected back in Episode 3) — turned out every night had something after 3, but nothing ran past 5:30.Then five dinners for six kids, two adults, two picky eaters — no fresh herbs, nothing fancy. Claude suggested kielbasa. Wrong region. Swapped it for chicken apple sausage, said why, and it remembered. Then it built the grocery list and loaded 18 items into Instacart.15 minutes in, I had five dinners and a cart ready to check out.Connect your calendar to Claude and never do the mental math again — comment CALENDAR and I'll send you the step-by-step.