Ekaterina Shakharova on Unsplash" />People have been sharing the best parenting tricks from their own parents or grandparents on Reddit.Every generation likes to think their way of parenting is best – and while lots of people nowadays seem to be actively trying to parent in different ways to how they were parented (dubbed cycle-breaking parenting), that’s not to say the older generations didn’t know a thing or two about raising kids.
Far from it.
When Reddit user Green_Candler asked the masses to give examples of something their parents or grandparents did that they now realise was “low-key genius parenting”, the responses came in thick and fast.
From bedtime reading tricks, to the dad whose go-to phrase was “convince me”, here are some of the most up-voted responses...
The extra half hour bedtime trick for reading
“As a child bedtime was 8:00. But my mom would let you leave the light on until 8:30 if, and only if, you were reading. Helped the kids settle prior to falling asleep. And promoted reading.”
Special areas in the house for each kid
“My grandmother has secret hidey holes around her house for all the grandchildren. I would come see her and she would tell me she had something for me in my special spot. My spot was a drawer in the entry table. Sometimes it would be a Barbie, sometimes a few quarters, sometimes a piece of candy. It made us all feel special and like we were the favourite.”
– AndiArch
An elite Christmas present hiding place
“We three kids scoured the damn house looking for Christmas gifts and never ever found them. I found out as an adult that my mom hid them in the empty Christmas tree box- it always just sat on the same shelf in the basement and we never even considered it as a hiding place!”
– lokeilou
Secret South Park catch-ups
“My Mom was super strict and I wasn’t allowed to watch basically anything that didn’t include vegetables singing about Jesus. My Dad thought it was ridiculous but kind of left the parenting up to her; however, that kind of changed in high school when I was frustrated that all of my friends were watching South Park and I wasn’t allowed.
“Since Mom went to bed early on weeknights, Dad started inviting me to watch it with him after she went to bed. It was our little secret and some of my best memories were of just chatting about life with him during the commercials. He knew what was going on with all of my friends and would even ask for updates like ‘so what happened with Emily and Kara? Did she find out about the thing that happened at lunch?’
“As a parent myself now, I get it that it was never about South Park. He just understood that I was a busy teenager who didn’t have a lot of time for my Dad but our secret South Park Wednesdays were how he got me to slow down and spend time with him. I’m glad I did. Easily some of the best memories of my teen years (and he also did a great job of pretending like he didn’t know the tea about all of my friends when they stopped by the house so I give him a lot of credit for that too).”
The ‘baby bug’ fear fix
“I was a worrisome and often scared child, and my mom would manage my fear of bugs by telling me that any bug I pointed out to her was a ‘baby’ bug. Baby spiders in the basement, baby bees outside, even baby worms in the ground. I immediately lost my fear of them, as I thought they were just little babies whose parents were gone. I even started talking to the ‘baby’ spiders in the basement, reassuring them that everything was ok. Genius.”
– Eshlau
Cooking catch-ups that taught life skills
“My grandmother used to make me ‘help’ her with cooking but really she was just having me do all the prep work while she told stories. I thought I was being [a] useful little assistant but she was actually teaching me life skills without making it feel like chores.
“Now I can cook proper meals and I still remember all her stories about family history. She basically tricked me into learning everything I needed for adult life while spending quality time together.”
Picky eating wizardry
“My dad was at a restaurant with my picky eating niece. He asked her what she wanted and she said she didn’t know and that he should pick for her. He told her he had picked and asked her to guess which option he was thinking of. When she guessed he said yup, you got it, and she was happy.
“No matter what she guessed he would have said she was right. Somewhere in her subconscious she was going to guess the thing she wanted, even if her conscious couldn’t get there. Low key genius move from a veteran parent.”
Breaking down chores into smaller tasks
“They broke chores down into simple tasks to do everyday. We were allowed a snack, but we had to get started within 30 minutes. We’d spend maybe 20-40 minutes max on chores every day, with the weekend being saved for ‘big’ chores like bathroom cleaning.
“It saved from having to scramble all weekend cleaning or making it really easy to clean up if we wanted to have friends over. It also kept things fairly predictable, with repeat chores like dishes or vacuuming every other day.”
The indirect teacher
“My mom instilled a desire to learn. As a very young child, I would ask her questions like ‘how do birds fly?’ Or ‘why is the sky blue?‘. She would respond ‘I don’t know, let’s stop by the library’ and grab a book on the topic. She would then ask me over the next few days ‘so, how do birds fly’ and I would go off for 15 mins on all the new facts I learned about birds, even beyond the flying.
“As I got older, I realised that some of the things I asked, she didn’t even know, but she never said ‘I don’t know’ and brush[ed] me off or stop[ped] my mind from reaching for answers.”
The dad who needed convincing
“My dad’s go to phrase was ‘convince me’. It started young. If I wanted something, I had to make my case. I had to think critically, self evaluate, understand reasonable boundaries and take feedback to get what I wanted.
“It started early and stayed through teenage years. Want a later bedtime? Convince him. Want that new toy? Convince him. Sleepover? Want to start dating? Go to a party? Get your ears pierced? Convince him.
“But honestly, we self-policed because of it. We knew if we broke curfew it was going to be much more difficult to convince him about the next thing. Or that if our grades slipped we were definitely not gonna be able to talk our way into going to parties. He was always really chill about it too. He’d say ‘I don’t want to say no, so don’t give me a reason to’.”
The sibling sharing hack to rival all others
“When it came to sharing, specifically treats or similar, one sibling was to cut the item and the other sibling got to choose. Most fair division of assets you’ve ever seen!”
Money laundry-ing
“When I was a kid I would sometimes find money in pockets when I did laundry. My dad would reluctantly let me keep it, especially begrudgingly when it was a big bill, like a $20. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I realised how clever that Pavlovian sonavabitch was – he was leaving money in there on purpose.”
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·