83 Parents Who Had To Get Weird And Slightly Unhinged To Get The Job Done

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.

When my kid was around 6 or so we discovered a way that eliminated interuptions. If he has something to say he puts his hand on my arm. I put my hand on his so he KNOWS I know. No more repeating or getting louder or trying impatiently to wait for "one more minute". The instand feedback worked a charm.

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

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

Pretending his favorite heroes/characters had recipes for things like The Flash's favorite Lightning Lettuce™ (Caesar salad)and Hulk Sauce (very plain guacamole), there were lots more along the way but I can't remember them all. Carrots make you jump higher like a bunny, you get the idea. I lied a lot and now have a 6 year old who is a great eater.

Kids bring home SO much random artwork, coloring pages, stickers, and paper that parents don’t necessarily want to keep. Enter: Garbage Trolls.
Garbage Trolls are little creatures who live in dumpsters and can only decorate their homes with things people throw away. Unfortunately, they rarely have pretty homes because nobody throws away beautiful artwork!
So instead of throwing away your kid’s 47th coloring page, ask, “What if we donated this to the Garbage Trolls so they can make their homes beautiful?”
Suddenly, instead of having a meltdown over something being thrown away, your kid is THRILLED to donate it.
You’re decluttering, they’re practicing generosity, and the Garbage Trolls are getting an HGTV makeover. Everybody wins.

My kid asks a lot of questions and it’s so over stimulating. So I have the kid record voice memos on the phone and I’ll listen to them later and we research the question. We also limited to 3 questions a day and hold question conferences. Now I have archives of kids little voice changing and thought progression.

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.

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.

There comes a point at around 3 years old where they start to drop the afternoon nap. If they don't sleep they're feral by dinnertime because they're tired but go down easier at bedtime, if they do sleep they're easier to deal with for the evening but might stay awake until all hours.

I instigated the hour's quiet time after lunch - they didn't have to sleep, but a period of quiet downtime in the afternoon watching a movie, colouring in, reading or quiet play with their toys. It eased the transition and helped set them up for kindy which had a similar schedule.

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.

When my son would ask for a bedtime story I would just summarize a SpongeBob episode.

Bed time is 7:30. Around 6 we start saying “ok, time for bed. Lets get ready” so when the toddler fights me for bed time she can “stay up later” when in reality shes going to bed on time. Works every night.

I’m a single mom and my kids don’t like to sleep alone so i put bunk beds in the bedroom along with my bed and made the room on the other side of the house their play room since it’s closer to the living room. We all have our own beds and places but feel safe and loved at night all together in one room. It may not be for everyone or forever but it works for us really well for right now.

We do a “two minute cleanup” every night before bed to tidy the kids’ room. Initially the goal was for our toddler to “own” his messes and see that we all help each other out. And to see how easy it is to stay tidy if you clean a little every day. It’s become such a part of our evenings that we usually don’t even set the timer anymore.

Also we have a rule that we tidy up a toy before we get something else out. (Obviously not huge builds like a train set he’s spent two days on…) For example, we shove the Dress Ups back in their box before we get out the puzzles etc. Going to preschool reinforced this, as that’s standard procedure there as well.

When dropping off the kid at daycare, tell them "ok, we're going to DAYCARE now! Are you ready to have fun at DAYCARE? Are you ready to see Ms. Sonia?" and so on. Getting a heads up that we are headed to daycare cut down on crying at dropoff by 97%, seriously. Sounds ridiculous because we go every day but apparently my kid wasn't totally sure where we were heading and arriving was always an abrupt surprise.

She helps me make a pour over coffee every morning, first thing. She loves “helping” and I get to have coffee very soon after we wake up. It’s taken a lot to get to this point (me working patience, her working on listening) and now I don’t really like to make a coffee without her there helping We like to smell the aroma and watch the bubbles drift up as the coffee filters through. Feels really special.

Flip food over!

(I know I sound crazy)

Toddler was upset there was “white stuff” on their plain pancakes at a restaurant. “I’ll fix it!” and I secretly flipped them over and bam—no more “white stuff”.

Wanted a hamburger and got a cheeseburger? Flip it over!

The macaroni has seasoning on top? Flip it over!

(This is a lot of our restaurant visits—my kids think I’m a magician ).

I told my son bugs will go in his mouth while he’s sleeping if he doesn’t brush his teeth because they wanna eat the food that’s leftover.