People have been sharing the genius parenting hacks from their parents and grandparents – 17 surprisingly useful tips
10.
‘My dad was at a restaurant with my picky eating niece. He asked her what she wanted and she said she didn’t know and that he should pick for her. He told her he had picked and asked her to guess which option he was thinking of. When she guessed he said yup, you got it, and she was happy.
‘No matter what she guessed he would have said she was right. Somewhere in her subconscious she was going to guess the thing she wanted, even if her conscience couldn’t get there. Low key genius moves from a veteran parent.’
-Acceptable-Fig2884
11.
‘My mom instilled a desire to learn.
‘As a very young child, I would ask her questions like “how do birds fly?” Or “why is the sky blue?” She would respond “I don’t know, let’s stop by the library” and grab a book on the topic. She would then ask me over the next few days “so, how do birds fly” and I would go off for 15 mins on all the new facts I learned about birds, even beyond the flying.
As I got older, I realized that some of the things I asked, she didn’t even know, but she never said “I don’t know” and brushed me off or stopped my mind from reaching for answers. And I became her own personal chatgpt summarizing things even though she didn’t know how to learn along with me.‘To this day, we both have an unending hunger to learn and share with each other.’
-coff33AnDcATs
12.
‘My dad’s go to phrase was “convince me”.
‘It started young. If I wanted something, I had to make my case. I had to think critically, self evaluate, understand reasonable boundaries and take feedback to get what I wanted.
‘It started early and stayed through teenage years. Want a later bedtime? Convince him. Want that new toy? Convince him. Sleepover? Want to start dating? Go to a party? Get your ears pierced? Convince him.
‘But honestly, we self policed because of it. We knew if we broke curfew it was going to be much more difficult to convince him about the next thing. Or that if our grades slipped we were definitely not gonna be able to talk our way into going to parties. He was always really chill about it too. He’d say “I don’t want to say no, so don’t give me a reason to.”‘
-imjustheretodisagree
13.
‘My mom used to make me cheesecake during finals week in high school. She told me I don’t pay attention when I’m hungry, so I should have a slice for breakfast each day.
‘I swear she intentionally required me to associate tests with cheesecake. I’ve never had test anxiety. I actually enjoy them. But oh man do I need a dessert beforehand.’
-mehunno
14.
‘When it came to sharing, specifically treats or similar, one sibling was to cut the item and the other sibling got to choose. Most fair division of assets you’ve ever seen!’
-Regular_Sky8313
15.
‘When I was a kid I would sometimes find money in pockets when I did laundry. My dad would reluctantly let me keep it, especially begrudgingly when it was a big bill, like a $20. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I realized how clever that Pavlovian sonavabitch was – he was leaving money in there on purpose.’
-outofbort
16.
‘My grandpa always had me ‘sort the nuts and bolts’ by size while he worked on his old pickup, saying it was ‘engineer training’. Turns out he was just teaching me to slow down, pay attention to details, and that even tiny, boring parts hold everything together. Still can’t rebuild a carburetor, but organizing my inventory spreadsheets? Total pro now.’
-ConsiderationBig1637
17.
‘When my mom caught me smoking, she told me that I was old enough to make that decision for myself (I wasn’t and she knew that), but that she was just kind of disappointed, because she had thought that I was more intelligent than that.
Never touched another cigarette in my life.’
-Sipyloidea
Source: r/AskReddit Image: Screenshot