I undoubtedly have a "feral" child. From the moment my baby boy's eyes open to the minute they close, there is no stopping him. Even when I shove a phone in his face for 10 minutes of peace, my little dude's legs are bouncing. I literally cannot imagine what it would be like if there were two of them here.
However, that's a reality so many parents deal with. And although I'm sure they appreciate the kids distracting each other, if you have two roughhousers, that mutual distraction can turn to house devastation.
That is exactly what prompted one mom to share her funny, accidental tip on getting her kids to play a little more gently with one another.
"My kids (boys 6, 3) are wild animals," she confessed in a Reddit thread. "They constantly ask me if we can roughhouse (they got it from gma) I was exhausted yesterday and just blurted out 'can we please just try some calmhousing for once.'"
The boys evidently found this to be "gut bustingly hilarious" and decided to actually take their mom up on her suggestion.
"Calm housing is just like wrestling except slower, gentler, and quieter," she explained. "In practice it basically amounts to my boys laying on the ground hugging each other while they whisper jokes into each others ears. I could get used to this."
Parents swarmed the comments with their praise as well as other suggestions for getting kids to calm down while playing.
"Recommend slow mo mode," suggested another genius parent. "Basically all the same moves in rough housing but they gotta do it slow motion like the cool parts of a movie."
You clever, clever girl (or boy).
There were even other "bait and switch" ideas that parents shared.
"This reminds me of when I told my 3 year old it was time for her 'dry bath' and just sat her in the bathtub with her toys while I sat there next to her to keep her penned in for a few moments of peace," another wise parent wrote.
With being around our kids 24/7 these days, these moments of peace are invaluable.
I know that I am going to be keeping these tricks in my back pocket when I need a few moments of respite.
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