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?

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius I finally learned to do yorkies properly last year (lockdown skill), and feel like a proper adult now. This recipe works for me - they actually come out looking like the picture. Divide the recipe by 4 (i.e. 2 eggs worth) for 4 decent size puds.
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/yorkshirepudding_81824

I love lanyards and pre-Covid used to get them regularly as freebies.

I use them to:
Hold my key ring inside my bag (looped around a handle) so I just fish it out.
Tie up duvets or sleeping bags in storage.
Keep the wings on my clothes airer together when it’s folded.
Holding day passes at amusement parks, city tours etc.
And I sew the little hooks onto pouches I make for gifts (tissue holders, labello holders, thin folding shopping bags) to go on key rings.

I can do a fanny fart at will.

💅🏽

If going on any trip/journey/whatever, always take a car picnic. You never know what can happen with traffic etc.

@Susannahmoody

I can't believe how many people know the hotdog trick! And proper sausages too! I thought you all meant the ones in liquid

My dad always took hot sausages in a flask, and tomato soup. We had many happy times sitting on southend sea wall in the cold eating hot sausage rolls and soup.

@poorbuthappy

Always pack the white wine in with the frozen food at the supermarket. That way by the time you get home and you can't possibly wait for it to go into the fridge it will be chilled.

Ha! Brilliant!!! That’s my kind of hack!

@Iamblossom

Forcing my 2 sons to learn my mobile phone number off by heart when they got to 4 years old. Has stood them in good stead many many times (before they had their own phones and got lost at butlins, lost their phone, battery died, no signal)

That just brought back a memory from years ago. I saw a tip, probably on here, to write your number on your child’s arm if you were going somewhere busy. First time I did it, the child got lost. I got a call within minutes of me losing sight of him.

Take a photo of your kids at the start of a day out so you can show what they look like if they go awol.

Frozen Capri sun as a cooler in packed lunches/ picnics on hot days.
Pack whole outfits for the kids in separate plastic bags when packing for holiday, then they can just pick up a bag to put on rather than messing up the whole suitcase.
Always have a flask of tea or mulled wine with you if on an outing in the autumn/ winter.
I always feel extra happy with myself sipping on a mulled wine on bonfire night while everyone else queues for an over priced cup that will be cold by the time they get back.
I used to be good at always bringing healthy snacks but have got lazy since I didn't have a buggy anymore

I loved @HalfShrunkMoreToGo 's post too! What happy memories!

Really simple but when attending an all day wedding I always make up some sandwiches.*
Especially if not part of the wedding party, and you're left for hours between the service and the meals that it's usually canapés or nibbles which let's be honest if it was an early afternoon wedding there's a chance you've missed lunch with hair/make up and getting everyone organised.*

I have often stuck an emergency cereal bar in my handbag when going to a wedding, just in case, but never actual sandwiches!

Back to the OP’s-original question.
I always feel smug when I pull my Stanley mini screwdriver from my handbag pencil/makeup/plasters and aspirin case.
Neither of my grannies had one but they did have some dinky sewing kits (one the size of a lipstick) and one carried smelling salts in her voluminous handbag.

@Sgtmajormummy

Back to the OP’s-original question. I always feel smug when I pull my Stanley mini screwdriver from my handbag pencil/makeup/plasters and aspirin case. Neither of my grannies had one but they did have some dinky sewing kits (one the size of a lipstick) and one carried smelling salts in her voluminous handbag.

OMG I neeeeeeed one of those! I usually have a tape measure in my bag (habit from working as an OT for many years) but I need to add a screwdriver clearly!

Keep a Freddo or packet of chocolate buttons in your first aid kit. I have a little tin of plasters and wipes in my handbag and the chocolate is always very handy when I have a child that has hurt themselves!

Always always take a spare top when travelling on a plane with children - then you won't have a problem when your 3month old vomits all their feed into your nursing bra as the air pressure increases

Omg the squeezing finger hiccup thing worked! Just did it on DH

@Clevs
I just use Fairy liquid but bathroom cleaner would probably be more logical but the washing up liquid does a great job as well!
🙂💫

If you get stuck in a top or dress, cross your arms, hold the hem from the bottom at the front of the garment with one arm still crossing the other and then bring your arms up over your head without letting go and pull until your head is free!

I've a small screwdriver in the glove box just in case we buy any toys that have screws on the bottom.

Take decaf coffee sachets with me everywhere in case I can't get a drink. Always have bottles of water in the car, saves a fortune on days out.

Baked potatoes wrapped tight in foil popped into an insulated bag stay warm for ages.

@WallabyLullaby

If you get stuck in a top or dress, cross your arms, hold the hem from the bottom at the front of the garment with one arm still crossing the other and then bring your arms up over your head without letting go and pull until your head is free!

Ugh, I feel sick just reading this, hate, hate, getting stick anywhere especially clothes.

My parents did a similar thing to @HalfShrunkMoreToGo with the 5am start It was before seat belts in the back were a thing so we all lay under a duvet in the back seat. What made it even better is that we had a bath the night before and went to bed in our clothes. Super exciting and meant pyjamas could be packed and we arrived ready to go. Parents carried us into the car half asleep. I took my kids for a uk holiday this week and we did the same. Arrived in time for a full day at the beach. My own invention is to take two suitcases between us. When it’s time to go home have one dirty, one clean (there is always something that never gets worn). So the wet and Sandy and dirty clothes get thrown in one and the clean stuff more carefully packed in the other. unpacking took two seconds as I threw the contents of one suitcase straight into the washing machine and took the other upstairs to put back in wardrobes.

*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*

Perfect 😊

Uh @WallabyLullaby where were you when I needed you? Several years ago I was looking at beautiful tops in a market in India. I knew none of them would fit broad-shouldered big boobed me. But the man at the stall was so convinced that I agreed to try one over my t shirt. Of course it did not fit but I could it get it off but it peeled my t shirt off with it so I was stuck arms in the air midriff and bra exposed with a tube of Indian cotton binding my shoulders and suffocating me in the heat. Eventually team of male shopkeeping had to haul it off me. Awful awful shame.

@ladygindiva

Not me, but my best friend. She has an horrendous bed wetter amongst her kids, and she used to multi dress the bed ie she put a sheet, waterproof sheet, sheet etc many times over on the bed so when her child wet the bed she just peeled the one wet layer off and it was all good to go. Brilliant.

This is genius. I have a very sicky toddler who sicks up on the bed multiple times a week and I always have a spare duvet ready in a fresh cover but the mattress changing is the killer. I'm going to do this tomorrow!

Can't wait to try that hiccup one....