11 parenting tips : assorted tricks and thoughts to have on hand.

Random things you might find helpful at some point.

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Always carry an extra bandage.

If you’re raising them well, then they’ll go hard and take some spills. They’ll cry and bleed and need something to clean up with besides your shirt, which will likely also be used regardless of whether you have one bandage or a hundred. Just keep one in your pocket. Oh yeah: always wear something with pockets.

Also, it’s great to be able to help out other parents or kids who may need one in a hurry.

Don’t get rid of cardboard or cereal boxes right away.

Besides balls, sticks, and scotch tape, they are one of the world’s great imaginative play things and the possibilities are endless. Don’t rob them of a boat, a car, a kitchen, a castle or palace or ______. You can have a totally clean place if you want once they’re gone.

If it’s a rainy day…

Then don’t just send them outside.

Go outside with them. Rain is beautiful.

But if you really must stay in, always keep the following swiftly available and accessible:

1. Blank paper

2. Cardboard

3. Wood blocks

4. Glue and/or tape

5. Random pieces of stuff that’s broken for them to attach together

Whatever you do, do not buy a “rainy day pre-made kit” from a toy store. Unless it’s really good and un-lame. Although I doubt it’s better than the above list.

Also, here are five non-animated films every family should watch together, from five to ninety-five.

1. Annie (1982)

2. Hugo (2011)

3. Matilda (1996)

4. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

5. Spy Kids (2001)

Note: I didn’t forget about Karate Kid or Princess Bride. Those are for other lists on another day.

Teach them how to use kitchen stuff and make food.

If they’re involved in helping make food and get it ready…they’ll be more excited about eating the meals put in front of them. And they’ll have a sense of accomplishment and joy at being involved.

For example, Becca started teaching our littles a long time ago how to cut lettuce. It’s a good one start and tough to mess up. There’s perfectly serviceable plastic-bladed serrated knives they can start on (age 3-ish? 2-ish?). Just make sure they wash up beforehand. Get that ritual going early.

Answer their questions, don’t lie, demand that they ask more questions.

Seriously. Just don’t lie to them. If you don’t want to tell them something, don’t tell them. Tell them you’re not going to, or give a partial answer, or tell them when you will tell them, or tell them it’s not something you’re able or willing to tell them at that time…but don’t lie to them or treat them like idiots. Intelligent and curious people ask questions. If those things are important to you, make sure to encourage it. Encouraging question-asking can be woven into every activity, whether it’s watching a film together or making food with too many people in a small kitchen.

Always carry something for cutting and something for starting fires.

Maybe your kids don’t watch The Walking Dead. Maybe you don’t think in apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic scenarios. Maybe you’re just hoping pandemics magically disappear. Or maybe you should just always be prepared with a lighter and a knife. They’re useful, and even if we never go back to blowing out birthday candles again, which (honestly) was kind of a disgusting tradition, then ideally there will always be a communal need to celebrate important little events by lighting a fire on top of something edible.

Learn how to make indoor forts.

A bunch of blankets and sheets coupled with a willingness to put tacks in the wall goes a long ways. You can do cool stuff with binder clips too. Figure it out. It’s a good opportunity to discuss structural engineering. Don’t let your lack of knowledge about building get in the way of you sounding smart explaining it to your kids.

Bonus: of course everything tastes better when you eat outside. But did you know everything also tastes better when you eat inside a fort?

Have a good joke on hand.

To be honest, I am a big hypocrite because I have great difficulty pulling up jokes on demand. If you can’t remember jokes, at least be able to tell a good story on demand. That’s something I can do, and you can too.

Also, don’t teach them dumb jokes. Kids shouldn’t learn to laugh at lame humor. If they laugh at you trying to be funny telling an unfunny joke, well…that’s funny. So good on you.

Write a letter to someone they love.

Super easy. Super worth it.

Introduce them to classical music.

Listen to all kinds of stuff. But make a little room for loud classical early on too…and keep it going. Like structural engineering, you don’t have to know much to get started. Just start. Can’t go wrong starting with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Remember: loud. Play a little every day, and eventually start asking what their favourite parts are. When you hear them humming along, you can call it a win.

Bursts of intense attention.

Sure, you’re with your child or children a lot. But not all attention is equal. I get tired of being around kids also. That’s okay. But try to give little ongoing consistent bursts of focused and complete attention to what it is they are interested in.

Even if it’s just five minutes.

Worth it.