Some of the best parenting advice that Hillary Frank ever received did not come from parenting experts, but from friends and podcast listeners who acted on a whim, often in moments of desperation. These “weird parenting wins” were born of moments when the expert advice wasn’t working, and instead of freaking out, these parents had a stroke of genius. For example, there’s the dad who pig-snorted in his baby’s ear to get her to stop crying, and the mom who made a “flat daddy” out of cardboard and sat it at the dinner table when her kids were missing their deployed military father. In Weird Parenting Wins, Hillary Frank, creator of the popular podcast, The Longest Shortest Time has carefully curated all kinds of unconventional, yet effective parenting strategies, including a game called, What’s on my butt? Created by a tired but inventive parent who needed to get some much-needed rest and engage her child at the same time. She explains, you lay face down on your couch and tell your child to go get some object from the house and put it on your butt. Then you have to guess what it is. The longer it takes for you to guess what the object is the longer you can rest. While your child feels like she is playing a game and having great fun quizzing you. “Who knew parenting could be so challenging!” Says Hillary Frank, an observation worth noting if you are a parent, about to be a parent or have decided to never be a parent.
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