Ever see one of those amazingly simple parenting hacks and say to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” That’s exactly what I—and hundreds of other internet parents did when we saw this genius kids shoe hack on Reddit posted Monday. In the r/Mommit subreddit, a user posted a photo of his kids’ shoes, but with one startlingly simple hack that literally had my mouth hanging open with how smart it is.
42-year-old Aaron Banikiotes is a realtor from Herndon, Virginia. He’s also a parent of a three-year-old boy named Eli who sometimes put his shoes on the wrong feet. Banikiotes solution? “Add a smiley face to your kid’s shoes so they know when the shoes are on the right feet,” he wrote on Reddit. Behold the brilliance:
Photo courtesy: Aaron Banikiotes
Oh, but the brilliance doesn’t stop there. “I put a frown face on the other side,” Banikiotes told Red Tricycle.
If this feels like overkill, head to the Reddit comments, where other parents can totally understand that yes, sometimes they need a sign even if kids manage to get the shoes on but need a some kind of helping symbol on the other side, too. “Genuinely great idea. You would think kids can tell their shoes feel funny on the wrong feet,” one Redditor commented. “Sadly this is not the case.”
Banikiotes came up with the idea to label his son’s shoes when his son would come home from daycare with his shoes on the wrong feet. Originally, he thought of putting simply an R and an L on the inside outer sole of each shoe. “I’m 42 and it took me more than 5 years to learn right and left. This [idea] just came to me within the past couple of days,” he said via direct message.
But what about those shoes you don’t want to—on can’t—draw on with Sharpie marker? Another Redditor weighed in with this idea: “You can also cut a sticker in half and stick it on their insoles if the rubber on the shoe is too dark to write on,” Redditor pineapplepretzel commented. While this might not be a new trick for some parents, for those Reddit parents like myself, this revelation is just too forehead-smacking-ly smart not to share.
Awkward parenting confession: My kid put on his shoes this weekend and made it down two flights of stairs, out the door, into the car and to a friend’s house before any of us realized his sneakers were on the wrong feet. Ah, yet another mom of the year moment. Now with this little kid shoe hack, we can avert shoe mixups in the future.
What are some of your brilliant parenting discoveries? Share your favorite parenting hacks in the comments.
—Keiko Zoll
Featured photo Alexas_Fotos via Pixabay
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