September 18, 2026 at 10:56am EDT

It’s not uncommon for one generation to tease the generations who went before them about how things were done in the past. But as we get older, we often end up realizing that the things our parents or grandparents did when we were kids — things we thought were annoying, embarrassing, or strange — actually make total sense now.

Case in point: a Reddit thread has gotten lots of comments after the original poster asked, “What’s something your parents or grandparents did that you now realize was low-key genius parenting?” The answers, referring to Boomers or older generations, are worth filing away to implement in the future.

“If two kids have to split something like a brownie, one gets to cut it and the other gets first pick for which piece they get,” said one Redditor. “The cutter will be oh-so-careful to make it as even as possible.”

“Rather than saying, ‘clean your room,’ it would be, ‘you can either clean your room or do this even more annoying/time consuming/disgusting job,’” said another. “Sometimes it would be a genuine decision, like mowing the lawn or cleaning the car. Providing the choice actually reduced the natural teenage habit of rebelling. I used the same thing with my kids who, I discovered after a stupidly long time, had been doing back to me: ‘Can you pick me up or pay for an Uber?’”

One Redditor shared a genius story of holiday trickery. “My parents told me that instead of carrots, the Easter Bunny liked to eat greens,” they explained. “So every year, I’d go out and clear weeds from the front and back garden to collect food to leave out for the Easter Bunny. Honestly? I found it really fun as a kid. Hilarious to think back now that they just wanted the gardens cleaned.”

Another shared a story that’s totally something a grandpa would do. “My poppy used to collect rusty old washers in an old coffee can and when my little brother or I were being too chaotic, he would set us up in the garage with the can, an ancient table vice, and sheets of sandpaper of various grit and ask us to do him the favor of sanding his washers clean so he could use them for x or y project. We actually loved it, and it wasn’t until I was an adult… that my dad pointed out to me that my poppy used to collect our meticulously-polished shiny washers, chuck them back in the can, leave them out in the rain, and have us polish them again. Their sole purpose was to keep us busy.”