1 day ago
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I've always been told that becoming a parent is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have in your life. And whether you're a mom or dad, you know just how much love, work, and support it really takes to raise a family. From the late nights in the newborn stage to attending endless games and practices and every moment in between, parents juggle A LOT as their little ones grow up right before their eyes.
I recently stumbled across a Reddit thread where people shared "genius" hacks they learned from their parents or grandparents. Here are the game-changers that'll take your parenting game to the next level:
1. "If two kids have to split something like a brownie, one gets to cut it, and the other gets first pick of which piece they get. The cutter will be oh so careful to make it as even as possible."
2. "I learned that my advice wasn't something that my kids wanted to hear. So, the advice I gave them always came from someone else, mostly my grandfather..."
3. "Dinners were always for family; no tech allowed. I wanted to play my Game Boy or watch TV, but my mostly relaxed father was very strict about this one rule. I have a ton of good, strong memories of just sitting, talking, and joking over dinner now, and I'm so glad my dad never gave in."
4. "Half of my allowance was cash, and the other half was book tokens. My parents didn't restrict how I spent either one, but it gently encouraged me to become a lifelong reader, and it will be a structure I replicate for my own children."
5. "My mom would serve us vegetables like cucumber slices or carrot sticks before dinner as appetizers. We were hungry enough to eat them, and we felt fancy and grown-up. We ate our veggies before dinner and wouldn't be nagged to eat more during the entrée."
6. "When I was around 10, my mom took a blank deck of index cards in fun neon colors and wrote in gel glitter pen a fun activity I could do on my own in the house. She then titled the stack, 'Things to do when you're bored. Shuffle the deck and pick one.' It cost nothing, and I used it for all my preteen years. Each card was specific to me, my interests, and what we had around the house. I loved it and thought it was so fun and cool."
7. "We were allowed to stay home sick from school anytime we said we were not feeling well. The catch is that if you were sick, you had to stay in bed. This was before cellphones. No TV, no radio, no getting up to play, just in bed with a book. She would even bring you lunch in bed. Now, if we were verifiably sick with a fever, strep throat, pneumonia, chickenpox, vomiting, etc., we could lie on the couch and watch TV. But because it was so boring to stay home when you didn't feel sick, none of us faked being sick, but a few times."
8. "My grandfather told me if I said something like 'oop-la' while making an effort, it'd give me more strength. I used to climb up furniture, so I started saying 'oop-la' as I made my way up the sofa. They'd hear it and instantly run to make sure I wasn't going to hurt myself. He basically installed an alarm."
9. "Imagine my surprise when I learned that the 'music truck' in fact sold ice cream."
10. "My parents implemented odd and even days between my sister and me to keep us from arguing over everything. One year, I would be assigned odd days of the month, and my sister even days. It applied to everything, like where we wanted to eat, which movie to watch that night, and which seat we wanted in the car. It also applied to chores. We had to clean the kitchen and vacuum the house every night. Whoever's day it was got to choose their chore. Of course, there are more odd days than even days in the year, which is why we swapped assigned days at the beginning of the year to try to make it fair. My parents kept this up FOR YEARS and still swear it saved their sanity."
11. "Listen politely to a problem, and then say, 'What's your plan to do about it.'"
12. "My parents had a simple rule: before buying anything new, we had to explain why we actually needed it. As a kid, I thought they were just being strict, but looking back, it taught me the difference between wanting something and needing something. It also made me appreciate what I did get because they didn't feel automatic. Another thing they did was involve us in everyday tasks instead of doing everything for us, like cooking simple meals, fixing small things, and organizing the house. At the time, it felt like chores, but it quietly built independence. I think a lot of older generations were good at teaching life skills without making it feel like a lesson."
13. "They turned buckling our seatbelts into a game. The first one to buckle won. They never had to worry about us buckling."
14. "My mom had me convinced as a kid that steamed broccoli with butter and lemon juice was an after-dinner dessert."
15. "Two things my parents did that were genius and that I used with my kids. I rarely got yelled at. Instead, when I acted up or was otherwise an idiot, we had to discuss it at length. It was excruciating. I was certain that getting yelled at and punished was better. My mom only said she was disappointed in me once. That was nearly 50 years ago, and I remember it vividly. She was absolutely right to be disappointed in me, and I worked very hard to ensure I never disappointed her again. RIP, Mom and Dad. Thank you for all you taught me."
16. "In pre-GPS/smartphone days, my parents gave us each a roll of coins as spending money on vacation. At the start of a 6–8-hour car ride, they'd tell us the expected drive time. Then, if someone asked, 'Are we there yet? How much longer? I'm bored,' or some other annoying thing like that, we'd have to give back a dime or quarter."
17. "The silent scream contest. To keep my sister and me quiet in the car, our mom would challenge us to see who could fake screaming the longest. It worked, but goodness knows how it looked to anyone looking our way."
18. "My parents told me that instead of carrots, the Easter Bunny liked to eat greens. So, every year I'd go out and clear weeds from the front and back garden to collect food to leave out for the Easter Bunny. Honestly? I found it really fun as a kid. Hilarious to think back now that they just wanted the gardens cleaned."
19. "I was a nanny to young children. I told them a potty was only for big kids. They were still babies, so they weren't allowed to use it. They would BEG me to potty train them."
20. "If I want something, they make me work for it."
"My parents did that, too, but also added a twist where if I saved half the money, they would pay the other half. It made me really think about if I actually wanted the thing or just wanted to spend."
21. "After a bath, we would race to get ready for bed before the bathwater drained. F--king GENIUS."
22. "I always spent New Year's Eve with my grandparents because they were my fave people. They used to put up a special New Year's analog clock. My grandpa would wind it forward before putting it up. I thought I stayed up until midnight every single New Year's until they finally told me when I was an adult. I had complained that I just couldn't stay up that late anymore, and I wished I could hang out like I did when I was little. They busted out laughing and said I never made it past 9 p.m."
23. "Apparently, the first thing my mum did when she brought my older brother home from the hospital was make the house noisy — radio on, appliances running, etc. She says she did this because she hates dead silence and didn't want a baby that would wake up if so much as a mouse farted. She swears it worked, and to this day, my brother and I could probably sleep through WWIII starting."
24. And finally, "We had the 'no questions asked' policy. If we ever ended up in a situation we didn't want to be in, even if it wasn't where we said we'd be or with people we said we wouldn't be with, we could call at any time of the day or night, and one parent would come pick us up, no questions asked. My mother was a youth and adolescent psychologist. She had seen too many children get seriously hurt because they were more scared of their parents than the danger of the situation they were in. My parents figured that if we had to enact the 'no questions asked' policy, whatever had happened to us had already been punishment enough."
Share a "genius" parenting hack you swear by in the comments, or submit anonymously using the form below. Your response might be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community post!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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