S/o Parenting Hacks? Share yours

[namasteak]

Apr 15, 2021 17:42:05 GMT -5 af1212 said:

My best trick is one I use for long car rides. I pay my kids each $1/hour to either go to sleep or pretend to be asleep. They al look forward to long car rides so they can get $$ and my H and I enjoy quiet time and can chat up front.

GENIUS! We have a 14 hour car ride this summer and I am using this.

[chedifuen]

When they were younger, I would pay them $5 to not talk to me at parties.

[osulori]

ellipses84, I've used "oh, that's spicy so you wouldn't like it" a TON Sadly, AJ is now at an age where he will sometimes feel adventurous and call my bluff. When I give him a bite and he says "Mom that's not spicy" I end up telling him "oh, my taste buds must be confused. Either way it's mine."

[aspentosh]

Apr 15, 2021 17:42:05 GMT -5 af1212 said:

My best trick is one I use for long car rides. I pay my kids each $1/hour to either go to sleep or pretend to be asleep. They al look forward to long car rides so they can get $$ and my H and I enjoy quiet time and can chat up front.

This is hilarious and awesome. We're lucky that DD sleeps well in the car (we just took two 15 hr drives last month and she slept for 9 hours of one of them) but I am keeping this in my back pocket, lol. 

[chickadee77]

Apr 14, 2021 23:46:18 GMT -5 ellipses84 said:

redpenmama That reminds me a friend with 4 kids under age 5 has a bench by her front door with a basket for each person underneath and she keeps their shoes AND socks in it. I need to do this. It would save us so much time!

When I had a lot of drawers in my old bathroom I’d keep my underwear, bras and socks in the bathroom to put on after showering.

I do both of these, too. I'm super excited because both girls can now wear the same size socks - NO MORE SORTING OR FOLDING WOOOOHOO!

I'm old and boring, lol

[vmars]

I keep a comb and detangler spray by the back door to brush DSs hair before he leaves for school. When he was younger, I used to keep it in the car to do while he was still in his car seat before I got him out of the car for daycare.

[clairebear]

Apr 16, 2021 9:03:30 GMT -5 turbo said:

Instead of a towel to dry playground equipment (specifically slides), try keeping a squeegee in your car. It works great.

This such a fantastic idea!!!!! Thank you!

[mbcdefg]

Apr 15, 2021 13:07:23 GMT -5 hermione said:

When she was younger I put a sippy cup of milk in the fridge and a snack trap of cherrios on the counter so she could have breakfast without waking us up at 6am on weekends.

How old was she when you started doing this? Now that DD can open the fridge I’m thinking it may be a good strategy to buy us a bit more sleeping time on weekends.

[mrsGreeko]

My kids are a lot older than most on this board, but my biggest hack is to have the kids help out a lot and from an early age. They need to learn those skills and the parents should not be doing everything. My kids have had to do things like clear their plates from when they were toddlers and it is fascinating to me when their friends come over and are like 7+ and have no clue how to put a cup or plate into the dishwasher. I’ve literally had kids tell me they’ve never done that and they don’t know how.

And for laundry, I always sorted by person rather than color so I didn’t have to try to figure out whose shirt or socks or whatever it was. Wash one load per person on cold each week. Well until they are 11, then they do their own laundry. DH has always done his own. I hav no desire to spend my life folding other people’s clothes.

[dragon's breath]

When my son would get sick...

His room didn't have a carpet, but the floor from his room the the bathroom did, and he'd never seem to make it all the way to the bathroom before having to let loose. So, I would make a huge pile of blankets, sheets, and sleeping bags on his floor and set him up with a bucket. If he made a mess on the top layer, I'd strip that off and get it into the wash. By the time he made it to some lower layers, the first of the laundry would be done and I could put that back on the pile. It made cleanup fast and easy, and I didn't have to worry about anything soaking into his mattress, or the carpet. Had his floor had a carpet, I probably would have put a tarp over it before piling up the blankets.

[keh2oblue]

Apr 17, 2021 21:48:43 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Apr 15, 2021 13:07:23 GMT -5 hermione said:

When she was younger I put a sippy cup of milk in the fridge and a snack trap of cherrios on the counter so she could have breakfast without waking us up at 6am on weekends.

How old was she when you started doing this? Now that DD can open the fridge I’m thinking it may be a good strategy to buy us a bit more sleeping time on weekends.

Not the OP, but I started this with my son when he was like 3 because he got up before 5am every day 🥱

[pinkplasticdoll]

Apr 18, 2021 13:14:27 GMT -5 dragon's breath said:

When my son would get sick...

His room didn't have a carpet, but the floor from his room the the bathroom did, and he'd never seem to make it all the way to the bathroom before having to let loose. So, I would make a huge pile of blankets, sheets, and sleeping bags on his floor and set him up with a bucket. If he made a mess on the top layer, I'd strip that off and get it into the wash. By the time he made it to some lower layers, the first of the laundry would be done and I could put that back on the pile. It made cleanup fast and easy, and I didn't have to worry about anything soaking into his mattress, or the carpet. Had his floor had a carpet, I probably would have put a tarp over it before piling up the blankets.

in addition to this I have a sick bin/bag,it sounds insane but we get stomach viruses quarterly (daycare kids sharing germs) so I keep the junky towels,old blankets/sheets etc in there so I can find them when we have a stomach virus . They are all in one place and I believe I got the idea from someone on here.

[hermione]

Apr 17, 2021 21:48:43 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Apr 15, 2021 13:07:23 GMT -5 hermione said:

When she was younger I put a sippy cup of milk in the fridge and a snack trap of cherrios on the counter so she could have breakfast without waking us up at 6am on weekends.

How old was she when you started doing this? Now that DD can open the fridge I’m thinking it may be a good strategy to buy us a bit more sleeping time on weekends.

I think 4?

[shananagins]

I got a set of stainless steel cups with colored silicon sleeves and assigned a color to everyone in the house. That is your water cup. You don't get a new cup every time you get a drink of water. I have a small foam drying mat next to the sink and they live there. Now I don't have a dishwasher full of random cups every day.

I keep all the plastic kid plates and plastic Tupperware containers in lower cabinets so the kids can help unload the dishwasher even though they can't reach the upper cabinets. they do the silverware, plastic stuff and they stack the plates and bowls on the counter so i just put then in the cabinet.

[ohgillian]

My kids only have one pair of "everyday" shoes at a time. They also have water shoes for pond wading, and if we dressed up for anything they'd have dress shoes. But for daily shoes, one pair.

I find that when they have fewer of something, they keep up with it better. So one coat, not three. One pair of shoes, etc.