What things did your parents do that you look back on and think ‘that was clever’?

[Geekster1963]

My Mum used to give me and my sisters a fruit gum each on long journeys (the old Rowntrees ones that used to be hard), to see who could make it last the longest. We thought it was great as we were getting a sweet but it stopped us from arguing. Clever.

I remember when my first baby tooth came out I lost it in the garden and was devastated my Mum told me to write a note to the tooth fairy and put it under my pillow. I was so excited to see she had been and left me some money and said she’d found my tooth in the garden

On car journeys we played a game where we would each have a car colour to find and the winner had the most cars. But you had to prove you weren’t just making up the cars by saying what make of car you saw so everyone could identify the car you saw. It was only years later that my mum told me they did it so that if anyone tried to snatch us we would be able to tell her what make the car was because we had been used to looking at the badges. It was still a fun game.

I got v upset in the run up to christmas because our house didnt have a chimney so how would father christmas get in? Mum replied without missing a beat he comes in the letter box.

Once the tooth fairy "forgot" to leave money - imagine how relieved I was when mum when upstairs to check and miraculously found the 50p hidden in my bed sheets!

We used to go away with a tourer caravan and when we'd stop for a break in the service station car park, my parents would put the feet down on the caravan and we'd sit inside and mum would bring out a little picnic in there. Just basic sandwiches and sausage rolls, but we'd find it so exciting and absolutely love it. Honestly such cherished memories, even now realising it was to save money for the holiday and stop us pestering for extortionate service station food.

Lovely idea for a thread, op.

I know my mum would sometimes forgot to put money under the pillow from the tooth fairy, and then blame the weather conditions, or the fact that it was Bonfire Night etc.

"Everyone knows fairies don't fly in the rain, if they can help it, because it's bad for their wings".

"Tooth fairies don't work on Bonfire Night. There are too many fireworks about and they could get injured."

that reminds me of the time my mum said tooth fairies don’t come on bank holidays, because they can’t go and get the money, obviously!

I am a legend amongst dd's student chums... for inventing "plain juice"

When the children were small I just used to offer them water or milk, and somehow water became less interesting, so I remarketed it as Plain Juice.

that is genuis!

Or genius as you may know it better!

Oh, that's sweet.

I remember my Dad telling me Father Christmas came into his shop to get his photos developed. I believed him. I thought this was proof that my Dad was obviously the best photo developer in the World, as why else would Father Christmas go to him!

“Who can stay quiet the longest?” Genius idea. My two loved the game too. 😊

If my grandmother had no interesting snacks in the house when we popped in unannounced she'd offer us "duck bread" - ie totally plain bread with no butter / spreads because that's how the ducks eat it! We used to LOVE it and beg for more

My dm used to get us all to play dead lions (or sleeping lions as I think it now has to be known as ) at the end of parties which would always be held at home.
I used to think it was just another party game but was obviously for 5 minutes peace to sort party bags out and to calm everyone down before the parents arrived

We had an electric fire, no chimney. So obviously Father Christmas couldn’t get in that way. My mum would always leave the front door latch off, I would check it before I went to bed, always off so that he could come straight in.

Duck bread!!

what a lovely thread to start.

mshomeslice I do the same with my DS now. He's a big fan of clear juice. 😉

On Christmas Eve one year, it had snowed heavily, my parents (a bit tipsy) climbed onto the outside toilet roof with a broomstick and something to resemble hoof prints and printed them over the roof. In the morning they took all of us into the garden to see Rudolph's foot prints. We didn't have much money or loads of presents but I'll always remember that Christmas.

The ice cream mans music is to let everyone know he's ran out of ice cream!

I always wanted a pet as a child, but my dad was 'allergic' to fur. I was 15, sat round my sisters with her two cats when I realised that was a fib!

Not allowed to take dummies on aeroplanes... that was how they got rid of mine!

I’m loving reading these

tatty that’s really lovely!

Not my parents but my best friend was scared of monsters under the bed, so her dad made up a bottle of monster spray, and they would spray it all around her room before bedtime

My dad told me my brain would melt and fall out of my nose if I watched Eastenders/Corrie etc. If any of them came on he'd start wailing "Argh! Brain melting! Switch it off before your nose starts dripping!" I've still never watched a full episode of either.

I also now realise that a lot of stuff they did as teenagers which I thought was oh-so-embarrassing and clueless of them was actually quite deliberate and for their own amusement!

When sharing a bit of cake or something, one cuts, the other chooses. My sister's look of concentration when she was cutting, making sure they were completely equal sizes! :)

My In laws. Told all their children to drink their lion/tiger juice.
"Lions and tigers drink water and Look how big they get"

We carried on the tradition.