I have a parenting hack for a 5 minute break. Last night one of my kids was saying "Dad, dad, can you give me a challenge?". Expecting things like hop around the house on one foot, or that sort of thing.

I said "I bet you can't sit still on a chair for 5 minutes", this being a child who regularly falls off their chair at dinner time. They thought that was a great challenge, so I set a timer and the challenge was on. The look on their face made it look like they were concentrating harder than they had ever concentrated in their life, but they were really determined and managed to do it! And I got to sit down for a 5 min break 😮

After that, the other kids wanted to have a turn too, but one of them decided that they could just pause the timer and do some thing they wanted to do. Of course that defeats the purpose, but they didn't think so, so I think the hack won't work again.

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 3 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

Sadly I don't think my children would fall for it.. I've tried the "Who can be quiet the longest" and it never worked!

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 3 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Who can be quiet the longest works briefly on my kids, the only problem is their capability is pretty low.

[–] sambrown@lemmy.nz 4 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I really like:

Okay kids, we're going to take a nap and then when we wake up we're going to clean the house!

They nap for ages...

[–] flambonkscious@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago

Okay, you win. That's brilliant!

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 2 points 4 weeks ago

Oooh, I'm going to have to try that one! Though they might actually want to clean the house since I often use "we can't do until the house is clean", so there might be an expectation of doing fun things!

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