7 Parenting Wins You Need To Memorize

In my house, if you whine, you will be asked instead to sing your complaint as the blues. I discovered that this worked while standing in the cold for hours, waiting to rent skis with my 7-year-old daughter. Not only did singing the blues help distract my daughter from her freezing toes, it helped her to learn a new musical form, to express her emotions creatively — and, perhaps most importantly, it entertained me.

As parents, we’re always looking for wins. Little things to get us through the day. To get the kid to stop crying, to eat stuff, to poop in the toilet, to play for 10 freakin’ minutes without going, Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! From what I hear, the challenges only get more complex as your kid gets older. Often, we seek answers in books. The problem is, most parenting books are divisive. They’re written from an authoritative my-way-or-the-highway point of view. And if that person’s way doesn’t work for you, you can be left feeling like a failure.

The truth is, most of our best parenting strategies are born out of desperation. And trial-and-error. And completely by accident. A lot of them are super weird, too weird to put in an expert-y type book. Which is why I'm collecting them in a fun, non-expert-y book called Weird Parenting Wins: A Guide to Manipulating Children. You guys know what works best for your kids — and you deserve to know what’s worked for other parents. Because who knows, maybe that thing with the vibrator will save your life, too! Keep reading, you’ll see what I mean.

If you're a parent or caregiver with a weird win, share it here. If you don't have any? Well, keep reading and you'll learn a few.

Welcome to Mothership: Parenting stories you actually want to read, whether you're thinking about kids right now or not, from egg-freezing to taking home baby and beyond. Because motherhood is a big if — not when — and it's time we talked about it that way.