83 Parenting Hacks That Happened When Desperate Times Called For Desperate Measures

My daughter once refused to hold my hand and ran from me, so I ran up and pushed her down, cause I would rather her get a skinned knee than be smushed by a car. So yea, i tell them “ you can hold my hand or I will push you down “.

My daughter wouldn't let us take a splinter out of her foot so I told her that she would turn into a tree if she didn't let us take it out. The tree we have in the garden used to be a child called Jamie that lived in our house before us.

We painted stones with gold paint so they looked like gold nuggets. Then I buried them in the sandbox, so he could play gold prospector. He could have an ice cream once he’d found all ten—I had hidden nine. After I’d finished my coffee in peace, I helped him find the tenth gold nugget worked every time.

My daughter had her first friend sleepover at ours. They wanted to stay up late, so I changed our devices to a different country’s time setting so it showed as 3 hours later than it was.

Whenever we’re out shopping and my daughter spots something she really wants, instead of saying a straight "no" (which often leads to disappointment or even meltdowns), we say "That looks really cool! Let’s take a picture and add it to your birthday or Christmas list!"

It works like magic.

She feels heard and included in the process. Taking a photo makes it feel official, like we’re taking her wish seriously. Over time, it’s spared us hundreds of potential meltdowns in shops.
I also keep a dedicated album on my phone and every time we snap a picture of something she wants, I immediately save it to that folder. When Christmas or her birthday rolls around, I scroll through the album and look for items that appear more than once (big clue that she really wants it). It helps filter out impulse wants that don’t stick and it makes gift shopping so much easier for us too.

My son had torticollis, and couldn't turn his head to the right. The pediatrician told me to force him to turn his head every time I changed his diaper.

Obviously, he hated that, but we still had a problem. So instead of forcing him, after diaper changes, I'd put him in his vibrating chair with the TV to his right for 10 minutes. If he wanted to watch the TV, he had to turn his head to the right. He got a full range of motion in a week.

One that I did with my daughter was get her to change her perspective when she was stuck on an idea.

I got her to stand up, bend over and look at me from between her legs, I did the same back. We then had a conversation like that.

It was absurd enough that she forgot what she was upset about and helped reset her.

I avoided TV until age 2 because I read it can mess with brain development. Once we started watching TV, I discovered the show Daniel Tiger and it was a life saver. The episodes help kids identify emotions and have fun catchy songs that you can use to help prompt your child like, “Try new foods; they might taste good.” and “When you have to go potty, stop and go right away”. There’s also an app where you can pull up scenes on various topics and/or play the songs. A recent study of teenagers found that those who watched the show had more emotional intelligence and self-regulation strategies than those who didn’t. That said, even with a quality show, don’t lean on it too much.

TLDR: Watch Daniel Tiger, get the app. But don’t use TV as a babysitter.

The colour hack for tantrums worked well for us at the right age. Mid tantrum you start telling them the colour of objects then after a few you get a colour wrong. She has to stop crying to be able to think about it correct you & usually the disconnect is enough to end the tantrum.

My kids don't get upset when we accidentally drop food on the ground because "it's for the birds."  

A few months ago, I accidentally left a whole plate of my son's favorite mini muffins on top of the car and drove away. My son was a little sad he didn't get to eat them but he thought it was great that the birds were going to have a huge party. "They're going to be talking about this day forever because usually they just get crumbs but today? They got 5 whole muffins!"

I've avoided so many toddler/preschooler meltdowns over the years. Definitely my favorite/most used parenting trick.

Carrying a garlic press to restaurants to make food into baby-safe portions (steamed veggies, etc)

You can’t just GO to Chuck E. Cheese… you have to be invited.

My kids are older. I give them a “leave time” instead of a curfew and make sure they leave in time via life 360. That way they aren’t waiting too late to leave and driving 90mph to get home on time. It has worked well and created a lot less stress in our lives.

I pretended to call the dentist after my son refused to brush his teeth and had a fake conversation with the “dentist” and said “I would just like to book my son in for a 26 teeth extraction tomorrow because we don’t need them anymore” my son was like why do I need to have them all removed and I replied with “because teeth are a privilege and some kids don’t have any, so we’re going to donate them to someone else”.

My daughter hid in a clothing rack at the mall to play a trick on me. After searching everywhere, panicked, and finally finding her, I hugged her and told her I was so scared that I was lost and that she would never find me again. She saw the worry in my eyes and held my hand the rest of the time. From that point on when we'd go to a store, she would reach out and say "Mommy, hold my hand so you dont get lost".

Download the tv app on your phone so you can turn the tv off from anywhere. They have zero clue that the tv doesn’t magically get too hot sometimes and it has to be off until it cools off. Less screen time without a big battle every time.

I turn into the "item goblin". Sometimes toddlers be having objects they can't have and if I, mom, a human adult takes it that's tears. But if I crouch down, do a goblin voice and walk goofy or goblin-esc over to them saying "item goblin says no!!" This is silly and usually ends with laughter.

my son went through a phase where he didnt like beef anymore ill tell ya what tho that kid LOVED 'brown chicken'.

As a teenager my mom told me that teen pregnancies, the babies are ugly. I was a virgin til I was 21…

When my son is doing something he shouldn’t be, I boo him.