The life of a parent can be a strenuous one, especially for a dad. Women out there have the luxury of being naturally nurturing and caring. Not that we’re saying mom’s don’t have it hard! They have the 24/7 responsibility of making sure the kids are fed, clean and basically still alive. However, for us men, we don’t understand what those words mean sometimes. Parenthood hits you so fast that it doesn’t give you a chance to react and unfortunately it does not come with a set of instructions.

But there are always helpful tips you can implement in your day-to-day routine to make sure the stress level stays at a minimum. Children, especially babies and toddlers, can be a handful and situations can escalate in a split second. The house seems to be in a perpetual state of disarray, the baby needs to be changed what seems like a hundred times a day, and you must deal with little emergencies all day with little to no sleep. Yikes! Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! These are a few life hacks every dad needs to survive parenthood. Take notes!

15. Lint Rollers Can Be Used For Much More Than Just Lint

Lint rollers are not used for just lint anymore. They can pick up a ton of other things as well. When you have children, you tend to notice that everything becomes a mess. Pieces of paper, glitter, confetti and whatever else you can think of. Let’s tell the truth guys, women do a much better job of keeping everything clean while we, on the other hand, tend to struggle in that area. So instead of cleaning up after your kids every time they make a mess, just simply grab a lint roller to pick up everything. It’s especially useful in a car. Who has time to pick up every little piece of tissue that your kids just ripped up in your car? Grab a lint roller and it’ll pick everything up for you. It’ll save you quite a lot of time too.

14. In Case Of Burns Use Vinegar Not Water

Kids are liable to do just about anything nowadays. You can sit there and tell them not to do something and take your time explaining why and they will still turn around and do it. Every parent has told his or her child not to touch the stove because it’s hot and it will burn. Two seconds later you hear a scream and there they are crying their eyes out because of a burn. Dads, don’t panic! Just simply grab a cloth, dip it in some vinegar and place on the burn. It’ll take away the pain pretty fast and prevent any blisters from popping up.

13. Adding Tape To A Nail Clipper Will Prevent A Mess

Who’s tired of picking up nail clippings off the floor? Even worse is when you step on them! You can’t just get rid of nail clippers because you need them yourself. Instead, grab some tape and place it on the inside of the nail clipper. Do you know what you have now? You now have a nail clipper that cleans itself! Instead of nails flying around left and right every time you use it, the nails will get caught in the clippers and stay there. Your kids most likely won’t throw the tape out when they are done using it but at least you won’t have nail clippings all over the house.

12. Keep It Kleen Pacifier Is A Must Buy

All dads I repeat all dads need to buy this immediately. The Keep It Kleen pacifier is something every dad should have. It can become almost a second job making sure that your child’s pacifier stays clean because it seems as though every five minutes they are spitting it out on the floor. Now you have to go to the bathroom to rinse it out every single time it falls on the ground. Not anymore! The Keep It Kleen pacifier automatically closes before it hits the floor, so it does not have the opportunity to get dirty. Need I say more? Go buy the damn pacifier!

11. Rubber Bands Stop The Use Of Excessive Soap

Kids waste everything! Don’t you hate when you’ve just bought something and soon after it’s already just about done? Well I can’t help you stop them from wasting everything but what I can do is stop them from wasting one thing: liquid hand soap! Grab yourself a rubber band and wrap it around the nozzle neck area of the soap. Now when kids are going to wash their hands in the bathroom, they won’t be able to squeeze the nozzle all the way down, the rubber bands won’t allow as much to come out. Go to the store and grab those rubber bands because you’re going to need them.

10. Salt Keeps Apples Fresh

Don’t your kids just love apples? Especially apple slices. They can’t seem to get enough of them. It’s ironic how much they love apples at a young age but not so much when they get older. But that’s a topic for another day. The only problem with apple slices is how fast they seem to go bad. If you leave a few apple slices out, even in a lunch bag for a short amount of time, they will turn brown. Now that doesn’t mean that they aren’t good to eat anymore, but kids often times look at that brown color and think that they shouldn’t eat them anymore. So how do you stop that brown color from appearing without putting them in a refrigerator? When you have some leftover slices and you still want to keep them fresh but you aren’t home, grab some salt and sprinkle some on the apples. Then place them in a Ziploc bag. When they want some more slices, just wash off the salt. It’ll keep the apple slices looking fresh all day!

9. Toothpaste Is Permanent Marker Removal

Toothpaste isn’t just used for brushing your teeth anymore. What do kids like to do? Draw! It keeps them occupied but it also leaves you with a big mess to clean afterwards. If they use permanent marker, then that can make your clean up process that much harder. Not anymore! Go in the bathroom and grab some toothpaste. That toothpaste will help you clean permanent marker drawings off of wood in no time. It still is pretty annoying to scrub away all of those marker drawings but at least toothpaste will make the job a bit easier.

8. Cardboard Slide

All of my dad’s out there love a good nap. The kids want to play around all day so that can make things a bit difficult. You don’t want them to be locked in their room all day and you also want them to go outside and be able to kind of keep an eye on them while they’re playing. It’s time to get creative. If your house has stairs inside then it’s perfect. Grab an old cardboard box, flatten it out and put them on the steps. Bang! You’ve got yourself an indoor slide now. At least now you can just check on them in the living room instead of going all the way outside. You’ll save money too!

7. Toilet Socks

Kids complain about everything, don’t they? They complain when it’s too hot outside, they complain when it rains and they also complain about how their other sibling won’t share their cookies with them. It’s non-stop complaining. I can’t help you with all of the complaints but I can help you with one of them. “The toilet seat is too cold.” How many of you have heard that one? I have! It does not seem like a big deal to us but it is to them and for a child that is just learning how to use the bathroom, it can be a major issue for them. Here’s your solution. Grab a pair of socks and simply put them on the toilet seat. Let me make that clear, don’t simply place them on top of the seat but actually put it on the seat like you would on your feet. Now you won’t have to worry about the cold toilet seat complaint.

6. Freeze A Sponge As An Icepack

When your kids are out for a long time, an issue that all parents have is keeping their food fresh and cool. Sure, you could go buy an ice lunch box and you could also throw some ice cubes in their lunch box but both methods have their flaws. The ice lunch box can be great but who wants to dish out money for that? Also just throwing ice cubes in their regular lunch box can just cause a wet mess after a little while. Instead, what you should do is grab a sponge and wet it. After that you take that wet sponge and throw it in the freezer. After it’s hard, just place the sponge in a Ziploc bag and place that bag in their lunch box. Now they’ll have fresh food all day long and you didn’t have to spend a dime!

5. A Backward Onesie

 

Onesies are great because they’re easy to put on but they can also be a pain because they’re easy to take off as well. For those dads out there that have little kids that are constantly taking off their onesies, that can be a pain. It’s easy to take off because there is a zipper right in the front that just allows your kid to zip it down and take it off. To prevent that start putting on their onesies backwards. Now the zipper will be on the back and it will be almost impossible for them to zip it down and take it off. For those of you that have more than one kid, you might be out of luck because they will just help each other take it off. Good luck with that!

4. Use Crayons To Blend In Shoe Scratches

The one thing parents love to do is dress their kids up and take them out to an event. You get the chance to show off your adorable child and it’s a great feeling. What’s not so great is the damage they did to their shoes! To continue to go out and buy more shoes can get pretty costly so instead grab some crayons and colour in those scratches. It works best if he or she has black shoes. When you get home just hand your child a black crayon and tell them to colour in all of the scratches. Now the next time you guys go out, no one will even notice!

3. Prevent Using So Many Cups With Magnets

Kids use approximately three billion cups per day. They don’t wash them. They just grab some juice from the fridge, pour it in a cup and throw the cup in the sink. By the time you get home, you can be staring at an incredibly large pile of cups to clean. Let’s not kid ourselves either because we can tell them to clean up after themselves but more times than not they won’t, so let’s make things fun. Take your child’s favorite cup and add magnets to the back of it and place it on the refrigerator! Now tell them that after they are done using it to wash it and place it back on the fridge. It’ll work because kids love anything that is even remotely interesting so seeing a cup on the fridge seems pretty cool. Also they can’t blame their siblings because you’ll know which cup is theirs!

2. Shoe Stickers

So you go into your kid’s room and tell them to get dressed in ten minutes because you guys are going out. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong! When they’re done getting dressed, what’s the one thing they seem to get wrong every time? They know how to put their pants on. Their shirts? They know how to properly put that on to. A hat? That’s easy for them as well but when they come out of their rooms and you look down you always notice that they have their shoes on the wrong foot. It never seems to fail! So how do you get them to put their shoes on the proper way? Easy. Take a regular sized sticker and rip it in half. Place one half in the left shoe and the other half in the right shoe. Tell them to put their shoes on in a way that connects the sticker. This should get them to put their shoes on the proper way; it works best using stickers of characters that they know. No more shoes on the wrong foot!

1. Ziploc Bags Can Be Used For Much More Than Just Storing Food

Kids love colors and paint. They can literally sit there for hours on end just playing with it. Although it’s a great distraction that will guarantee you at least a few hours of rest, the aftermath can be an even bigger pain. Paint can leave you with the biggest clean up jobs. So how do you get a break from your kids while keeping them distracted? Take the paint and place it inside of a Ziploc bag. Now your kids can sit there and play with that bag filled with paint without you having to worry about what’s going to happen to your carpet.