People Share 16 Tips That Can Make Raising Kids Less of a Challenge

Parenting is not a piece of cake, but at least there are ways you can make the experience smoother. The main ingredient is patience — you can also add a touch of optimism and a dash of humor. However, the cherry on top is a good parenting tip from parents who’ve perfected it by trial and error.

Bright Side found 16 tips that were tested with time by creative, and probably tired, parents.

• If you want to enjoy some time undisturbed, tell your kids that you’re taking a nap and when you wake up, you are all going to do chores together. They’ll want to let you sleep as long as possible to avoid doing housework, so they’ll leave you alone to actually nap or do other things like reading.
  -eDgAR- / Reddit

• To get a newborn to burp: sit them on your knee, holding them under their armpits, and move their upper bodies in a circle several times. Like a reverse hula move, I guess.
  ohno_not_another_one / Reddit

• Let your baby watch you fall asleep. If it’s their bedtime, don’t play on your phone or read a book. They are following your lead. So be boring, close your eyes, and be still and quiet, and they will learn to too. _LiterallyAnybody_ / Reddit

• I assigned my 3 kids each a day of the week (they each got 2, and Sunday was the leftover). Whatever the question was, the answer was whose day is it. Who gets to go first? Who gets to ride in the front? Who has to take their bath first? I’ve saved so many arguments with this.
  Governmentman43 / Reddit

• How to get your children’s attention? Sit down and relax. peppapig / Twitter

• I told my son that I was allergic to whining. Any time he started whining I did a bunch of fake sneezing and he would apologize immediately and stop being whiney! It worked for most of elementary school!
  Merry_Pippins / Reddit

• Teach your kids to read very early. When you give a kid the love of reading at an early age, the rest of school is usually a cakewalk. They’re ahead of the curve in many ways. If they love reading, they always have something to do, and you can make a reward out of a book.
  RooskieRepub**** / Reddit

• Draw semi-circles on the insides of their shoes that match up to make a full circle when the shoes are on the correct side of each other.
  848Des14 / Reddit

• Give them dark (over 90% cocoa) chocolate as their first taste of chocolate. After that, my son was adamant he hated chocolate and refused whenever someone tried to give him any. KSPS123 / Reddit

• Put clear packaging tape over the speaker holes of toys that make noise/play songs — it lets the toy operate with a fraction of its actual volume.
  jamesiscoolbeans / Reddit

• Have a baby who turns away as you’re about to wipe their face? “Wipe” your own face first. Nonverbal communication allows the baby to understand what’s happening. Might not work at first, but keep at it. The child will start to let you wipe. floating_bells_down / Reddit

What parenting tips do you use often? What tricks did your parents play on you when you were little?