Dad shares psychological trick that makes his kid stop crying instantly
Simple trick helps to soothe upset child
Simple trick helps to soothe upset child
Simple trick helps to soothe upset child
If you have small children or have ever spent even half a day with one, you know that they're sensitive creatures, and the smallest bump or scrape can trigger a waterfall of tears, requiring an equal amount of kisses and comforting to calm them down. After facing this situation one too many times, one tired dad took to Reddit to share the "weirdest parenting hack" that now cures his daughter's crying instantly.
"My daughter complains about a lot of owies," Reddit user explained in his . "Every little thing that causes a little bit of pain she wants at least a kiss if not a Band-Aid." Sound familiar to anyone else?
He goes on to explain that he'd just worked a night shift and had only gotten five hours of sleep when his daughter hurt her hand. "She needed a kiss and since I was in a silly mood and had a blue sharpie on me I told her that the sharpie was a magic marker that would made the pain go away. I drew a little blue X on her. She pointed to a 2 more owies and 2 more blue X's were added," he wrote, adding, "the best thing is it made her happy and annoyed the wife."
And it turns out the power of the "magic marker" has held up over time. "Flash forward to today. She scraped her shin hard," the post continues. As his daughter cried in his lap and begged for a Band-Aid (despite there being no blood), the dad suggested the "magic marker" instead.
"My wife, who also didn't want to deal with a band-aid, handed me the blue sharpie and a little blue X went right next to the scrape. The crying stopped immediately. I asked her if she needed another Magic [marker]. She said no and hopped happily off my lap." Problem solved!
Other parents jumped into the comments to share some of their own tricks for calming down a crying child. Some of them are equally brilliant (and hilarious):
"I literally ask my kids if they need me to put some placebo on it," one parent . "In most cases this is hand lotion or whatever similar cream happens to be around. But they think placebo is a real medicine. Wish I could be a fly on the wall the day that topic comes up in science class ..."
"When I see it’s not serious, I like to examine an owie fully," another parent . "I look really close and smell it. And then I listen to it. However, I require absolute silence before I can complete the examination and it works all the time."
"I have a friend who does this with essential oils. They use them constantly, so they always have them on hand," another person .
"One of her daughters was complaining of tummy aches all the time, so they made her a little bottle with a 'tummy ache' blend in it. When she complains, she gets her tummy ache oil and puts it on, and off she goes. They do believe the oils work, so my friend (the mom) says if the tummy ache is real, the oils will help, and if not, the kid thinks she's got a cure and she's happy. Whatever works!"