What’s your skill/tip that you always feel smug about when it pays off?

[PepperPepperMan]

Reading the comments on a FB page, included things like, taking boiled eggs with you on days out, taking a wet flannel out with you instead of baby wipes and hot dogs in a tea flask with rolls and sachets of ketchup.

I was always really disorganised on days out with DC what did your mum/nanna do as a little survival tip that you carried forward?

@MrsKoala

I don't understand - why is a wet flannel in a bag good? Surely once you've used it it's mucky then you are carrying round a wet sticky flannel and then your kids need wiping again and you've only got a sandy/yucky flannel covered in goo.

No one here eats hot dogs or hard boiled eggs or even drinks hot chocolate! We are the anti life hack house!

If your kids get that mucky it probably won't work for you.

If you tend to just need a few wet wipes, a flannel or J-cloth is normally large enough to fold/turn over a couple of times to give you enough clean surface.

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo Your parents sound awesome.

not a survival skill but I have a few party tricks: I can break an apple in half with my bare hands, tie a cherry stem into a knot in my mouth and have 1 really good joke that always works.
I always feel smug when go "wow!" at these🤣

*when people go

On winter walks with a friend during lockdown I always carried 2 folded carrier bags in my pocket so we could sit down for a natter on a park bench whatever the weather without getting a wet bum.

Gosh, I don’t think I got anything like this from my mum.

I always think what I’d pass down to my own daughter is - never take out a tampon without checking you’ve got another one in your handbag

If your kids get that mucky it probably won't work for you.

Does one flannel work for other kids . We need a pack of wet wipes and 2 changes of clothes! We've never eaten out and not knocked at least 2 drinks/plates of food over.

I always take the sachets of vinegar and put them in our bags then when the kids inevitably fall/push each other in the nettles it calms the stings.

If we have to go to the airport/travel early I stuff croissants with cheese and ham and wrap in foil and put in the freezer ahead. Then when I get up I put them in the oven and take them 20 mins later when we leave and we eat them en route.

Say "pineapple" to stop a sneeze

Am slightly horrified that in my many decades of life, that is it. My sum total of hacks.

Freeze yogurts for packed lunches.
Keep a 2l bottle of water in freezer for long journeys.
Always take frozen bottles on walks so you don't drink it too fast and need to pee in the wild.

YES!!

Put a dry towel in the tumble dryer to cut down on drying time

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo

My parents had holiday travel down to an art, we had lots of U.K. caravan holidays which required a 3-4 hour drive to get to the destination.

We would be loaded into the car at 5am, in PJs and there was "no room in the boot for the duvet" so it would have to be draped over our knees as the only place for it. Us 3 kids would be asleep within 10 minutes.

Dad would drive for 3 hours and stop at the last Little Chef on the route. At that point we'd all be woken up, off to the toilets to get changed, brush teeth and freshen up then go into little chef for a full English breakfast. Final trip to the loos then we'd drive to the the caravan park and leave the car there till check in time and take a walk to the beach. Mum would have a cool box and a bag with beach stuff right on top of everything in the boot. The cool box had ice packs, boiled eggs still in shells, chicken legs, crisps, satsumas, kitkats or penguins, cheese sandwiches, cherry tomatoes and cucumber rounds. And a big bottle of squash which had been frozen the night before so it acted as an ice pack and melted in time for lunch.

I love this

Walking boots - dont untie the shoe laces, just unhook from the eyelets.

Cheap baby wipes for dusting or spot cleaning.
Always carrying a small fabric grocery bag in your handbag just in case.

@SweatyBetty20

It’s not a hack or anything but I have a genius cure for hiccups that a stranger did to me on the top of a London night bus when I was hiccuping because I’d drunk too much Magners too quickly. It really freaks people out when I do it. Small children are always surprised and I tell them I’m a witch.

(Tip: squeeze either side of the hiccuper’s middle fingers!)
(Tip 2: don’t explain what you are doing beforehand!)

Going to try this next time. How far down do you squeeze? Near fingertip,knuckle or middle? X

Love loads of these ...

but boiled eggs on a day out? I’m not sure I’d thank you for that!!

@SweatyBetty20

It’s not a hack or anything but I have a genius cure for hiccups that a stranger did to me on the top of a London night bus when I was hiccuping because I’d drunk too much Magners too quickly. It really freaks people out when I do it. Small children are always surprised and I tell them I’m a witch.

(Tip: squeeze either side of the hiccuper’s middle fingers!)
(Tip 2: don’t explain what you are doing beforehand!)

@SweatyBetty20 Oooh, I bet that works way better (and less messy) than our remedy years ago, which was to turn them upside down and try to pour wine down their throat. I can't recall it ever working but it was lots of fun

We love hotdogs in a flask 😂

We read it on Facebook a couple of years ago and now take them of we go to the beach for a full day.

To the pp who was asking though, it's the frankfurter/wiener sausage that you usually get in a tin or jar and need boiling. We heat them up in the microwave then fill a flask with boiling water and plop them in.

We've left the house at 8 and had piping hot hot hot dogs on the beach at 2pm many a time. Plus the kids love the novelty of it!

always carry a small tarp,flask of tea&mini 1st aid kit&sugar free chocolate.i totally resent paying for hot drinks&having been brought up in a disorganised house where pain relief/plasters etc were never available its my no.1..

Make a week's worth of sandwiches on Sunday night, wrap them individually and put them in the freezer. Take out one sandwich each morning, they'll have defrosted by lunch time.

I always have a little thermos of tea with me, preferably a little wide neck one that can also hold sausages - not hot dog ones from a watery can but proper ones.

Have little packets of salt / pepper / soy sauce / tomato ketchup filched from restaurants to add a little bit of sharpness to a hard boiled egg.

Replace your loo brush with a little silicone one that doesn't splash sh1t all around the loo. They're brilliant.

This is a great thread... I've really enjoyed reading everyone's tips...

Along the lines of squeezing fingers to stop hiccups - to stop a sneeze, slip your little fingernail under your thumbnail. It really does work.

@HeyMicky

Before my DC had their own watches, I used to move the wall clocks an hour forward before a day out or big event.

Then when we came home and they were over tired but begging to stay up I'd grant an extra half hour but still have them in bed early.

My mum did the same

We used to put the clocks forward on a Friday night when the kids were younger.

My parents used to do the picnic, duvet, early travel in pjs when we were kids, but not the little chef as we couldn’t afford that.

Mum also did the wet flannel, and on long day trips to the seaside we would do the pjs in reverse. So wet flannel, clean pjs and drive home so that once we rolled up on the drive, tired out we could come in and go straight to bed.

As an adult now, I buy lovely fresh sandwiches from the bakers before we go to the airport (or nice bread cakes the day before for early flights) and eat them there, instead of queuing for over priced rubbish food.

It’s not that can’t afford it, I just resent paying it, and your own food is much better.

Love the peas under the mash idea, and am really keen to try out the hiccups remedies next time DS2 gets the hiccups!

I have a "stop yourself crying" hack - you need to press the underside of the tip of your tongue HARD against the roof of your mouth, towards the front of the mouth, not the back, but not quite against the teeth, if that makes sense. It's good for if you get teary at films or tv shows, or prizegivings, that kind of thing. Not so good for abject misery crying though, although it still helps (IME).

Another one is for brain freeze - rub your thumb hard and fast against the roof of your mouth directly above the back of your front teeth - this is the bit that causes brain freeze when it gets cold, so warming it up quickly will stop brain freeze.

Can’t think of any genius hacks right now but my way of stopping hiccups is to take in one big breath, then without exhaling take in three more short breaths, then slowly exhale. Nearly always works for me.

It doesn't have to be hot dogs 😂

My kids take food flasks every day with curry or pasta, pizza or sausage roll (baked in the morning and cut up), any leftovers.

I have a small lunchbox, just plastic but very slim so great for airtightness and slightly runny stuff. I pop in a boiled egg, hummus and vegetable slices. Super simple and means you're not stopping to buy crap.