Mumsnet users tell Disney Junior their best parenting hacks

[EllieMumsnet]

This activity is now closed

No matter your child’s age, if you have tips for encouraging them to help around the house, how to overcome fear of the doctor or dentist or knowing the little things to remember every time you step out with the family, Disney Junior UK wants to hear them.

Here’s what Disney Junior UK has to say: “A child is the greatest gift you can have but we know being a parent can be stressful at times. Our shows like Vampirina and PJ Masks, aim to spark little conversations around everyday problems that can sometimes be difficult for parents and children, and provide fun solutions for them. Disney Junior UK has now launched a new Parenting Hacks podcast with Helen Skelton to bring together parents, experts and special guests to explore tips, tricks and ways to provide more support to busy parents.”

Have you found the best ways to turn household chores into games? What’s your best trick to stop a supermarket tantrum? Do you have a life-changing laundry hack that has been passed down through generations? Perhaps you have tips that will help other busy parents at meal times? Or what about the little tricks that you’ve learnt to encourage your child to use their imagination?

Whatever your best parenting hacks are, share them on the thread below. Everyone who comments will be entered into a prize draw, and one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

We make tidying up into a race and a game and the kids get involved.
They help me with chores all the time - to be honest they sometimes hinder more than they help, but it's all in an attempt to help! I give lots of praise for them helping me.
Honestly no hacks but just keeping things simple and trying to encourage good behaviour.

Cottage pie/Bolognese/Chicken Curry too hot? Pop in a spoon full of frozen peas (run under cold water first)...the peas cool the dish to a child friendly temperature and the dish warms the peas. I promise, it makes lovely juicy peas too - not wrinkly 'n bullet hard from over cooking.
Give peas a chance

Sounds very tight but we give our two older ones a low amount of pocket money but give them bonuses for keeping their rooms sort of tidy and doing extra jobs around the house. Everyone is happy and hopefully they learn that to earn money you have to work.

Like someone else on the thread, I use a little bit of reverse psychology. So I might say something along the lines of 'there is no way we can pick up all these toys by the count of 20, only a superhero could do That' - my children will then rise to the challenge and I make sure I count very slowly so the task is always finished before whatever amount of time I've set. They always feel really proud of themselves.

To encourage them to help more around the house, do some hoovering etc, we give them some money for doing these things. It doesn't always work but when they are saving for something it does!

• sing songs when trying to get my fiesty 2yo Dd in her car seat / buggy
• distraction techniques where possible
• making funny faces when brushing teeth
• explaining your thought process / reasoning with an older child

I use a timer for EVERYTHING. I set x minutes and say "can we tidy up your room/get dressed/ in x mins". They just love to time themselves.
I sued to have the worst time getting my 4 year old to brush his teeth, but once I set the timer, no arguments!

Pick your battles. There is no point losing it over something that wont matter after an hour. Have your hard rules, but laugh off the rest. The kids will push you all the time the rules will change. You just have to roll with it.

When they were babies I'd start every day by prepping a bag with snacks, bottles, nappies, a change of clothes and a small medical bag with calpol, arnica, savlon etc. that meant whatever happened, wherever we were, however long we got stuck in traffic or if one of them had an accident we had every thing we needed. It also meant if we wanted a sudden trip out on a sunny day we were ready to go in seconds.

Later on, toy tidying was easy by making it a competition: who could get the most toys into a toy box in 5 minutes. It never took longer.

My ASD son hated bathtime but he loved word games so we'd play silly alphabet games like "I went to the market" whenever he was in the bath.

My parenting hack is to give your toddler their own tub of soapy water and some plastic cups to play with when you wash up. Keeps them entertained!

Finding ways to not have to say no to things like when they want to help around the house, even if it's not actually helping there's always a compromise. We always talk a compromise through together so they see what's fair and so they learn the skills themselves.

Explaining as much as possible to them so nothing is a surprise or a scary 'unknown' to them. I know my kids particularly DS do not like big surprises with new places /people so we talk about it and explain it all in advance whenever possible.

Knowing what your kids can understand/achieve/cope with is the most important thing. Tailor your parenting hacks to them not the other way round

Honesty and clarity, and, especially with Four, a bit of bribery!

Ask three year old dd to 'make (six month ds) baby smile' eg by bouncing around in space hopper while he grins from high chair, or by making funny faces/talking to him. Then thank dd for making baby so happy and remarking how much he loves her. Doesn't always work but tis lovely when it does - I got ten minutes out of that one this morning

Scan as you go has changed supermarket shopping from an irritation to a game for my kids. I'd still rather do it without them, but if I need them there it makes life loads easier.

We turn everything into a race. E.g. Who can get dressed the fastest? Who can tidy the quickest and so on.

We always take the opportunity to explore whatever is behind a worry - like deep water (when she has a swimming lesson) and provide some support.

We are always honest (in an appropriate way) as to why some bad things happen in the world. (Like when we walk past a homeless person etc).

I like to use timers for chores and homework so that they know how long they have left of the boring stuff before they can go and play

Mum and 7 yo DS sing the wake up duet every morning... best way to get him up in a good mood.

Sickeningly cute

Taught 8 year old to make tea over Easter holidays. It's evolved into his 'chore' (am not keen on term) at weekends when he gets a £1 for making me tea in bed. Learning responsibility and reward and I make a massive fuss of saying thank you so he knows how much it means to me.

Nearly 6 year old dd is cottoning on and wants to make me toast for a £1. She's done it once (yesterday). But nowt appeared this morning! I'll keep working on her.

Food shopping is one of the more stressful activities we do as a family because both DDs get bored. Now DH and I split up and take one girl each - DD aged 8 has her own basket is is sent off on errands to collect certain items during the shop. DD aged 6 is a serial complainer so it's easier to pop some earphones on her put her in the trolley and she can play a game on her leap-pad. It makes the whole experience much more bearable for us parents!

I occasionally often tell my recently turned 4Yo DS that it's bed time but I'll let him stay up a bit longer, when it's actually an hour earlier , this way he thinks he's had a late night and I get no pleas to stay up longer at his actual bed time

I use timers to show how quick it will be and sing songs while we go.

My laundry hack is to get the children to help with the laundry from as early an age as possible. Simple things like folding up clothes and putting away clothes, pairing socks.
I don't know if this is a hack, but I am so glad that my two usually help without me asking. They usually follow this act with a Q about when pocket money is due!