Strollerderby : Parent Hacks

5 Parenting Hacks You Might Be Embarrassed to Admit You Use

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:16:00 GMT

Certain kinds of parents (ok, people like me) like to show off our successes and humorously and cleverly downplay our conundrums or heartaches. We chortle over school success, toddlers completing chores, and light but troubling sibling rivalry.

A magazine like Babble is a breath of fresh air because it provides an outlet to unconventional (sometimes controversial) approaches to parenting that many of us might be afraid to admit to others (without the relative safety of an alias or anonymous login).

Here are a few that may be embarrassing, but that definitely work:

1. Sleep - that elusive but ever important brick in the foundation of happy childhood. I know a family that has tried everything: Pediacare Nightrest, threats, cajoling, regular routines, even melatonin. But the only thing that works is the Bedtime Guardian. A parent sits in the room until the children sleep. How the mighty have fallen!!

2. Food - Yes they can eat nuggets, but sometimes there's nothing like bribing them with sugary treats to get that broccoli (or sushi or anything remotely adult-like) down. On the other hand, I've been known to buy Winnie-the-Pooh shaped pasta just to get my toddler to eat anything.

3. Fights - Sibling rivalry isn't all fun and games. When the kids brandish weapons (plastic Dora as head-smasher), it's time to call in the big guns. When time outs fail, taking away priviledges seems unkind, but usually works. For example, stop hitting or you won't be able to watch tv/go to grandma's for a week.

4. Television - Too much is bad, clearly, but sometimes it is the only way the little buggers can be quieted to let the adults finish a sentence (especially ones that begin, "You look hot today")

5. Threat of spanking - I've never spanked my kids, but I've used it as a last ditch threat, usually in a high pitched untempered angry voice. And it's not my finest moment as a mother, but it works.

[Photo Credit: www.birthoftv.org]

Rachael Ray Eat Your Heart Out: 3 Second Meals Easy and Tasty

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:03:00 GMT

Rachael Ray is cute. I'll give you that. Plus, the girl can really spell. But I'm not sure she's simplified meal-planning and preparation enough for most parents of young children. Many of you work, and in places where the only take-out options are KFC or McDonald's. You come home tired, hungry, and you want to spend quality time with your sweet littles, not slaving for 5 minutes over a hot stove.

And that is the genesis of the 3-second meal. Because even busy, tired parents have three seconds to spare. Am I right? Here's how it works...

First step, lower the bar. Your kids won't remember homecooked meals as much as they'll remember fondly the time you spent sitting next to them on the couch watching their favorite show.

Second, spread out a huge blanket in front of the television and get everyone their own bowl.

Third, fill each bowl with Raisin Bran and milk and voila! Dinner is served.

You're welcome.

Keeping Track of Medicine: Great Parent Hack

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 13:32:00 GMT

If you are like me (read here: short term memory loss due to children) and you have trouble remembering which kid you gave what medicine to on which day I've got a great trick for you. Parent Hacks comes through once again with the plan. Kristi uses Sharpies (I love Sharpies. They are good for everything) and writes right on the bottle.

She writes letters for each day of the week on the bottle and then marks under the day whenever she gives her son his medicine.

In the comments somebody even suggests using the days of the week stickers from you birth control pills to save time and so you don't have to be as concerned about the ink eventually leaking into the bottle.

This is brilliant. It is so simple, yet it could really help me stop worrying about if I am going to accidentally give my kid an overdose, or if I didn't give him any medicine at all that day.

Visit the Pet Store for Free Toddler Fun. Just Try Not to Come Home with a Puppy.

Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:02:00 GMT

One of the strangest, saddest and coolest adventures we've had as a family was at the pumpkin patch last year. We went on a hay ride, picked pumpkins, drank cider and toured the exotic animal exhibition. Who would have thought that, right there in the middle of rural Illinois, our toddler could get up close and personal with a zedonk (a cross between a donkey and a zebra), kangaroos, sloths and a camel? So my husband felt obligated to yell at the camel just to make sure it was still breathing and hadn't slipped off to wild animal heaven right there in its booth, but it was all good. And when I say good, I mean entertaining and creepy. Who brings white tigers to a pumpkin patch?

If you'd like your own kids to see animals in action, and not the animals you banish from the living room in your own house or the kinds that should be safely released to join their herds back in the motherland, Parent Hacks suggests taking the toddlers to the pet store. Be sure to read through the many helpful reader comments for tips on how to avoid puppy mills and places that don't really want kids and parents squealing at the baby mice. You'll also find a few ideas of places where you can view doggy hotel residents through windows or watch caregivers feed animals. Thinking outside the pumpkin patch or mall pet shop, you might find lots of stops for animal viewing in your neighborhood alone. We have a family friend who owns a doggie daycare and she welcomes kid visitors to watch the canines at play and it is always fun to stand at the gate and watch the pups play at the sectioned-off doggie area at the beach.

Just remember that a free trip means that, no matter how adorable it is when your baby bends over giggling to see the rabbits or litter of kittens, you will not come home with a new one every time you visit.

Dadergency Beats Mom"ergency" Any Day

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:01:00 GMT

The concept behind the "Momergency Kit" is simple: If you're out and about, and the kids are freaking out, here's dice! Dice? Anything that can be cured with dice is not an emergency. (Unless you're in Vegas and that "sure thing" you were banking on ... never mind.)

Rachael just added a few of her favorite things to the kit for her own emergencies -- a flask, lube and a stuffed giraffe -- and despite the awesomeness of the images floating around my head, I don't think she went far enough.

So here's what's in the Dadergency Kit -- everthing Rachael mentioned (except the stuffed giraffe, because that's just weird. Even for me.), along with a stun gun, a six pack, a nanny, babysitter, a recliner and a 64-inch high definition TV.

Because really, if the kids are freaking out and you're at your wits end, are you really going to reach for dice? Please. With the Dadergency Kit, you just need to open the nanny pocket and then enjoy your favorite show.

Parentography Launches: Another Resource for Busy Parents

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:50:00 GMT

Is it just me or do parenting websites seem to be spawning like wild salmon in dam-free streams around the Internet? From advice givers, to connection makers to mappers of great stroller walks to opinion givers, nearly every aspect of parenting is covered on-line. And thank God for that.

Many of these sites are excellent time-savers for busy parents, and Parentography has the potential to be that as well. Launched just this week, Parentography is a resource for folks trying to have a good time with kids in tow. Want to find a kid-friendly restaurant in your city? A hotel that can accomodate your wee ones and all their luggage? Parentography is the site for you.

I tried out the site by searching for my town and unfortunately there is nothing listed yet for Bellingham, WA. Since Parentography relies on the reviews and tips provided by readers, it may take awhile for towns like mine to get on the map (though Olympia, WA is even smaller than Bellingham and it is already listed). For those of you in La Jolla and Seattle, however, there is already plenty for you to discover.

Lisa highly recommends the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, pointing out that it is free for kids under 15 "right in the heart of Balboa Park so you can also walk around the park, have lunch at the Prado and visit the countless other museums or SD Zoo." Sounds like a great idea. Thanks Parentographery!

Times Online's List Of Ten Great Parenting Blogs

Patti — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

UK news outlet The Times Online's Alpha Mummy blog has posted their list of the ten great blogs that every working mum should read--good to know that the US doesn't have the market cornered on the assumption that to be a parent means to be a mother, and the qualifier "working" is somewhat puzzling, as their list is not at all specific to working parents.

The list features a few of the usual suspects: Dooce, Parent Hacks, Kiddley. Also included are a couple of blogs that aren't necessarily parenting blogs per se, but that a parent could definitely benefit from reading: Lifehacker and The Happiness Project. Alpha Mummy rounds out the list with fellow Times Online blogger India Knight's Isn't She Talking Yet, the Wall Street Journal's Juggle, and new-to-me reads MamaPop and Motherhood Uncensored (sometimes I don't know where I am when everyone else is blogging great stuff).

Oh, and the top of the list? Just a little site called Babble.

And now comes the best part of any top-something list: What's Wrong With It. Who's missing from Alpha Mummy's top ten? Is this list really what it claims to be, the top ten blogs for working parents (at least one of the blogs, MamaPop, is written by self-described stay at home parents)? Where all my daddybloggers at?

Deconstructing MommyTips.com

Patti — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:05:00 GMT

MommyTips could use a little help. For starters, as recently discussed here on Strollerderby, the gender bias inherent in the name needs to go. These are parenting tips, and it wouldn't hurt to take a hint from Parent Hacks and go gender-neutral. Let's all just assume (correctly) that fathers parent their children, come up with good ideas, and want to include themselves in parenting communities. Thank you. Moving on.

I don't want to continue to compare and contrast MommyTips with Parent Hacks, but they're both working toward a common goal of sharing unique parenting fixes with their readership and it's impossible not to compare them. Unfortunately MommyTips comes up short in ways that could easily be resolved and anything useful they're providing gets buried under crap. First and foremost, the site design. I had to do a double-take in my address bar to see if this was a Geocities site, and then check my calendar to see if it was 1997. This is not good design, and if your site is intended to provide information you need people to be able to find it. One tiny "tip" on the front page in the middle of a sea of advertisements, amongst which I had trouble finding the category links that would lead me to the rest of the tips, is not helping parents find what they need. May I introduce you to TypePad?

A little bit of editing wouldn't hurt. I don't need three individual tips about how baking soda paste will relieve the pain of a bee sting, I need it once. Credit it to three people if you must, but post it once. And don't post it in ALL CAPS. Or with Random caPital Letters or painful misspellings. Or with cream of mushroom soup (okay, that one's a personal nitpick). Powers That Be At MommyTips: please don't let your contributors look like fools. They have some great ideas that are completely obscured by grammatical chaos and administrative indifference. If editing is not your personal strong suit, paste things into a Word document and run them through a spelling and grammar check, then paste 'em back into your site. If you want to appear professional (and those eighty kajillion ads you're running tell me that you do), you need to polish your content.

Bottom line: there's always room in my life and in my bookmarks for another website providing good solutions to my parenting issues. But if I can't wade through the muck to find a mommy tip, I'm going to have to continue to make do with only a parent hack.

The Parenting and Home Web Sites You Should Definitely Waste Your Time Reading in 2007

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:01:00 GMT

Melissa Summers has compiled an excellent list of websites that she'll be reading more of in 2007 for her semi-regular Buzz Off column. At the top of her list, the entertaining and educational Parent Hacks, which is chock full of parenting wisdom. You may think you're a seasoned parent, but after reading Parent Hacks you'll feel like an amateur.

Melissa goes on to list her other top picks which are: Kiddley (craft-tastic), My Wardrobe Today (love these "day-in-the-life" sites), Finished Kitchens Blog (tax refund check anyone?), Whoopee (cheeky Brit mama tells it like it is), The Bargainist (financial tips), and Real Simple (for easy entertaining tips).

I see her list of websites and would like to raise her a: Real Estalker (stalking open houses, you know it), a Jen Lemen (one inspiring mama), a Construction Deal (my most favorite home improvement idea site) and One Toddler Goodie.

Happy time-wasting in 2007, and remember to rearrange those cubicles so you're facing the door. That way, if your boss pops in, it'll look like you are working.

[photo credit: fuggit.org]

Writing Your Digits on Your Kids

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:59:00 GMT

When my Grandmother started going senile, she used to write the date on her wrist every morning. I know it sounds strange, but it really helped her feel like she had a better grip on time. She did this for years.

I found myself thinking about this a lot this morning when I read an article on Parent Hacks about writing emergency information on your kids.

This was actually a parent hack submitted by Jennfactor. She says that when they go places like amusement parks or fairs they write their cell phone numbers onto their children's stomachs with a sharpie. They talk to the kids about what to do if they get lost and who they should find and to whom they should show their bellies in the event that they are separated from their parents.

At first glance you might think, I'm not writing on my kids with a permanent marker! Sure, it this might remind you of old heavy metal videos, but I've thought about it a lot and I think it's a really good idea. I admit, I am a pretty big fan of the Parent Hacks site anyway, but this way you aren't trying to get a four year old to memorize a ten digit phone number.

What do you think?