In our version, we pretended to hide from the Nazis. I know, we were a weird family.
I once won a whole dollar!
My Dad used to tell us to go play in traffic!
I once told my foster sister that I’d give her $20 if she would just shut the hell up for 5 minutes.
I didn’t have to pay up.
The sad thing is that she was 17, not some jittery little kid.
If I ever have a kid who wont shut up, it probably wont bother me in the slightest. After 3 years with that girl, I’m really good at tuning out.
Not to make her go away but just yesterday I told my five year old that the zoo wasn’t open until summer. She had it in her head she needed to go and wouldn’t stop bugging me about it.
Telling her it wasn’t open stopped the begging.
They didn’t go away I’ll take it…
My F.I.L. used to throw 3 quarters out the front door into the grass and send my wife & her brother out there and tell them not to come back in until they found all 4 quarters.
My mom used to tell us to go run around the house three times. Yes, she was serious. I’ve tried it with my kids, but my house is smaller and I think they are faster because it doesn’t buy much time.
my grandmother used to send my mom out with her little sister in the snow and then lock the door. They had to play for half an hour before they could come back in. My aunt loved it. My mother however was not so into playing outside and disliked this very much.
oh I forgot about the pine cones. We have a very large fir tree in our yard (50 ft) and we pay the kids to pick up the pine cones. One cent each. when they are driving me crazy I just remind them about the pine cones.
One kid once earned $10. Totally worth it.
I was constantly pestering my mom from early on with “Whatcha doing???” She said that she would respond “I’m mildewing to keep from molding” and I would say “Oh, okay” and wander off. I use that at work sometimes, really throws people off!
Being a first time father and a total pushover, I have bookmarked this thread.
We had a bunch of old oak trees in our backyard when I was a kid. The acorns in the fall were atrocious. My parents would give us 5 quart ice cream pails and pay us $2 per bucket… if we filled up 5 in one day, we got an extra $2.
We were gone for hours… and they didn’t have to worry about acorns clogging up their lawnmower.
When my daughter was young, I took her with me to see my parents. It was a pleasant trip, but after an hour in the air her constant chattering and questions had me looking to the exits. After a couple of trips to the bathroom didn’t derail her, I looked out the window and exclaimed: “Wow, look at all the bunny rabbits down there! You should try to count them!” Blissful quiet for the next half hour. She’s never forgiven me for that, by the way.