Raising kids is hard, as every parent knows. Even “easy” kids require a lot of energy, time, and patience, and few parents end up with all easy kids. That’s why thinking outside the box (or outside the parenting books) is essential.

Psychology and theory are all well and good, but the best parenting tips often come from lived experience. So when someone asked parents to share their “most unhinged parenting hacks,” the result was a deluge of creative brilliance.

Parents of youngsters, take notes:

@larisssasump Like… “this should NOT work, but somehow it does” level. The weird. The chaotic. The slightly concerning. I want ALL of them. 👇😭 #parentinghacks #parentingtips #momtok #momsoftiktok #toddlermom ♬ son original – romy!

Like… “this should NOT work, but somehow it does” level. The weird. The chaotic. The slightly concerning. I want ALL of them. 👇😭 #parentinghacks #parentingtips #momtok #momsoftiktok #toddlermom ♬ son original – romy!

What counts as an ‘unhinged’ parenting tactic

The ask from @larisssasump was quite specific:

“Tell me your most unhinged parenting hacks. I’m not talking ‘I let my kid watch my phone so they poop on the potty.’ I’m talking ‘it works so well, but I’m a little embarrassed to share it’ hack.”

“Like…’this should NOT work, but somehow it does’ level,” she added in the caption. “The weird. The chaotic. The slightly concerning. I want ALL of them.”

Here’s a personal example: when our kids were little, my fellow mom friend and I used a whole system of SAT-level vocabulary to talk about things we didn’t want them to know. The system included referring to our three kids as our “primary, secondary, and tertiary tax........

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