Recently, I wrote an article where teachers shared all the things that boomer parents "did right" that millennials have kind of forgotten about, and it was actually pretty positive!
Even as adults, the urge to call mom or dad for advice is often present, whether you're dealing with managing life in your own apartment for the first time or dealing with the antics of your own child. So, I thought it'd be nice to ask members of our Viral News Only Community to tell me the most effective housekeeping or parenting hack they ever learned from their parents! Here are some of their best answers:
1. "In most ways, I learned what NOT to do from my parents. But the one thing I do appreciate is that my mom taught me, a woman, to never be ashamed of or try to hide my intelligence."
2. "I remember several occasions when I would have a friend over and we would disagree about something or argue, and my mom would come in to see what was happening. She would hear both of us out, but would always defend the friend, if not for their point of view, but to remind me not to be rude to others."
3. "No allowances. Why should you get paid to clean up after yourself? [For] small amounts of cash, just ask. [For] bigger spends, there is always a list of things no one wants/has time to do."
4. "My parents always taught me and my sisters that it isn't enough to tell kids, 'This is the healthy way to react to a negative situation,' you have to demonstrate it yourself."
5. "Clean the kitchen as you cook."
6. "The older you get, the decisions you make become much bigger and much less reversible."
7. "Switch out your kids' toys! Were they playing with something a bunch, [but then] lost interest? Pack it away and bring it back out a month or two later. It helps keep them entertained without having to buy new toys."
8. "If you are going to be going on a trip, make sure your house is spotless before you leave."
"[There's] nothing like coming back exhausted [to] a messy house that you have to clean, plus all the laundry from the trip. You're already slightly frazzled; you don't want to come back to more chaos."
9. "My stepfather would lure me out to the balcony with a bowl of pot whenever he wanted to have a father-son talk. I always felt like it was pretty smooth considering that I fell for it every time."
10. "For cleaning: always shake each item loose when pulling it out of the washer before tossing it into the dryer. It helps it dry better."
11. "For parenting: Don't fill your calendars so full that there [are] no evenings for all of you to sit down together at the dinner table, talk about your day, and then hang together until bedtime."
12. "When I was little and wanted to stay up late, my dad would let me watch Frankenstein. I thought it was so cool and that I was staying up soooo late."
13. "My parents allowed us as children to be bored! We didn’t always have something to entertain us 24/7."
"Sometimes, especially during a storm, our parents would turn off the TV and lights and make us sit in the dark, or tell us we couldn’t watch TV and to go outside or read a book. I thought it was cruel as a child, but it helped us learn how to sit through boring church services every Sunday and have fewer interruptions during school. Parents these days want to push a screen in front of a child anytime they get rowdy."
14. "You're a parent FIRST — not your child's friend. Growing up, I was so upset that my parents weren't the 'cool' [parents], letting me get away with anything I wanted, because [that's how] all my friends' parents were."
15. "Take time with your children."
16. "I keep getting a rust ring in my sink. I have learned that baking soda and vinegar with a scouring sponge takes care of that."
17. "In regards to my well-being, my mom always had this rule: if you haven't done anything about the issue, you're not allowed to complain."
18. "Late boomer parent here. My sister-in-law, a nutritionist, said to give babies the same food you’re eating, mashed up in a blender (after being frozen in ice cube trays and then thawed), and then the babies will become used to the flavor and texture of real food. Plus, you’ll save money compared to buying processed [baby food]."
19. "Not my mom, but my grandma used to tell her blue-eyed kids that she could tell when they were lying because their eyes turned brown. I did the same with my kid and she believed it all the way up until high school. Thanks, Grams!:)"
20. And finally: "Cleaning as part of play!"
Some of these are so helpful. Let me know what you think down below! Or, if you want, you can even share your own parent-inherited advice down below — or anonymously, if you like, via this Google form. Who knows — it could end up in an upcoming Viral News Only article!
Note: some comments may have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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