21 Lowkey Genius Parenting Hacks From Grandma and Grandpa's Era

Every summer, Grandma always gave me $1 per book I finished.

There are some things a kid never forgets, like a cheesecake tradition during finals week, driving stick shift cars, and navigating in the car using a real, physical atlas. Although many skills in their adulthood is replaced with convenient apps on the phone or with simple techy automations, knowing real skills in real life is extremely invaluable. As much as the kids hate it, it's the chores, the responsibilities, and tasks bestowed upon them in their youth that instill a yearning for practical knowledge, and it's no secret that our grandma and grandpa's era had a few parenting hacks up their sleeves.

Still useful today, old-school parenting can help everyone out, including the guardians of babies, toddlers, kiddos, teens, and even grown-up adult children.

Although there are quite a few outdated parenting tactics that are best left in the '101 Ways to Traumatize Your Children' archives, there are some nuggets of golden wisdom that can be gleaned from the throwbacks. Although now they have iPads and the Internet at their disposal, at the end of the day, a kid is still just a kid. They like to climb trees, dig holes, hangout with friends, ride bikes, collect their allowance, and sneak out on Friday nights. Parents can make things as complex or as simple as they want to with their children, but like Granny used to always say, simple is best.

So if you're a parent struggling with a rebellious kid who refuses to do the laundry, hide some easter eggs dollar bills in the pockets and tell them they can keep whatever they find in each load. Persuasion, guidance, and wholesome teaching are all a part of being a parent and although our own parents certainly weren't perfect (because nobody is), every generation tries its hardest to be better than the last. Yet, to improve upon something, we must study the past and take from it the richest and most marvelous quirks and strokes of genius that deserve to be passed on from mom to daughter, father to son, and perhaps onward to the next generation of misfits that'll put the "grand" back in "grandparenting."