We live near a state park/forest and my wife and I like hikes. HOWEVER with a younger kids it can be a pain. It's either too slow for the adults to get decent exercise or take FOREVER because of groaning, wanting to pick up every rock, etc.

Today I had an idea.

My wife took a head start and set clues at intersections and landmarks to show the way she went. The kids and I looked for the clues to "track" and "catch Mommy." They took turns being the "clue finder."

My wife slowed to a stop near the end of the trail and waited to be "caught."

Result?

She got an actual home at her pace. The kids hiked farther and faster than normal. They got practice taking turns, being observant, and thinking critically.

Your mileage may vary, but I recommend giving it a try.

But he said it didn't taste the same and wouldn't eat it. So yesterday I put paw patrol stickers on it and he ate two in a row. "See, mommy?" he said. "I told you the paw patrol cheese tastes better."

The concept seems so simple, and I'm sure has been done many times before, but for some reason it blew my mind. Get some sectioned containers, clean them thoroughly, gather together some of your and kids' favorite non-liquidy snacks, and you have the perfect travel-ready collection of treats for even the pickiest and most indecisive eaters.

Using a piece of plywood and some zip ties (and some duct tape for flare, obviously) solved what was until then a total nightmare trying to find a tension-mounted baby gate that worked on a rounded bannister post. Seriously, this was driving us insane, and whoever posted this before on Daddit has my undying gratitude. Now I just need someone to tell me what hardware store purchase can fix my kid getting sick at daycare all the time, and I will truly be made in the shade.

They’re small and don’t take up much space in your bag. Rather than letting a group of kids fight over toys, you can blow up ten or twenty balloons for $3 and turn anything into a party.

This is the family room at a religious gathering we went to last weekend. Instant friends. And they all get to keep one.

If your three-year-old is anything like mine, she absolutely loves listening to Disney soundtracks constantly and as we all know, it is easy to be driven insane by listening to the same song 3000 times in a row. I recently found a refurbished iPod nano that was fairly inexpensive and put all her favorite soundtracks on there. Now when she wants to listen to music, she just asks for her iPod, and listens on headphones. Since the nano is pretty much only a music player, there are no apps or videos, just music. No more asking for our phones or yelling at us to change the music we’re already listening to. Not sure, but iPod nano could be the move.

Wanted a wagon for the beach but didn’t want to struggle with it in the sand. I found a wagon that fit inside a cheap sled I found on Amazon. Bungee the sled on top the wagon from the condo to the beach, then put the wagon on the sled when you get on the sand. Worked like a charm.

If I was really motivated, I would have found a way to just add wheels to the sled that could swing up out the way in the sand, but that may just have to be a project for the next beach trip.

Senior Advisory Dad here with a small lifehack to all you first timers out there. Today I wanted a piece of chocolate with my coffe, but my 3rd child, who is almost 1, woke up from her nap before I got around to make that cup of coffee. She knows well what Chocolate is, but shows zero interest in coffecups so the solution is to put the chocolate in a cup and "sip" from it. Used that trick on my to older sons when they were younger. Dosent work any more but I can still foll the with Coca Cola in a coffee mug.

I took my 4 year old to a museum.It was mostly classical art, sculpture and paintings. For small kids it’s kind of difficult as they need to walk a lot and after 5 minutes they normally want to leave. But I really wanted to see some art and decided to give it a go.

At the entrance they gave us this floor plan and I gave it to my son, not knowing it would become a great game as he decided to try to find all the artworks in the map.

That’s it! Problem solved!

So next time I will find a way to do this myself and print out a sort of DIY museum bingo. It was really helpful.

Our little girl absolutely hated getting medicine, didnt matter if it was interspersed with the bottle, or if she was mostly asleep she would just cry and scream every time the syringe went near her mouth. My wife brought this home and instantly she just sucked the medicine down without so much as a peep.

Back in November I was lamenting that these adorable granny-square slippers might be too slippery for a toddler when an ingenious anonymous commenter suggested adding hot glue to the bottoms. Brilliant!

Made my 6yo son’s lunch on Friday, but forgot it was pizza Friday at school. So, I threw the lunch in the fridge before we left for drop off.

24 hours later, my wife SWORE there was no way he’d eat the lunch because it would be ‘disgusting’.

Guess whose face lit up like Christmas when he saw the plate?

Every other person that we passed commented that it was such a good idea. Spoiler, I saw someone do this last year. We always used to use the Ryobi clip-on fans previously, but I upgraded when this one went on sale. I highly recommend looking into something similar for whatever battery powertool family you've chosen!

I don't know who needs to see this, or if it's been reposted, but pool noodles are dirty cheap & practically the only thing that will work in this instance to keep your baby's head from smacking back if you use a changing table regularly.

If your baby is really handsy during their diaper change and you just need a second to clean them up use a second shirt/onesie and only put their arms and head through, tying the arms of the shirt together. This has helped me so much as a SAHD.

Basic souffle cups (you can even ask for a couple empty extras at a restaurant!) make for easy storage of pacifiers. Keep clean pacifiers in a drawer stored like this, then just grab one anytime you need at pop it in your diaper bag or purse!