5 Sanity Savers For Parents That Should Totally Exist but Don't

This is for the parent who nods blankly whenever their kid launches into a full-on State of the Union address on the differences between Creative and Survival modes, gets glossy-eyed over endless Enderman discussion, and thinks Steve is a kid from your little one's class (he's not). 


I can never find my kid's second sock, so he ends up going sock-free or with one green-banded one and one orange-banded one and I just hope that day isn't a PE day where he has to take off his shoes. There should be a sock finder. Like your Find My iPhone app, except it finds socks. I don't know how it works. Maybe you take a photo of the sock and then it uses some kind of sock-recognition technology to pinpoint where it is. (Hint: It's under the dresser. It's always under the dresser.)

Who else dreads going through their kids' backpacks after school? All those papers! The homework! The calls for volunteering! The bake sale! Your kid should be able to come home, drop all of the contents of their backpack into a magical bin, and it scans everything, puts your signature on anything requiring it, sends you a text alert for any school commitments you've made, and even tells you whether they passed their spelling test. Thanks, Backpack-a-palooza!

OK, so maybe the Backpack-a-palooza is a stretch. But this should really be a *thing.* Instead of signing your little one up for gymnastics or softball or basketball or martial arts, JUST to find out they hate it and want to quit after their third practice, why don't schools (or outside enrichment places) offer full samplers? Try one activity one week, another the next, cycle them through! Mix it up — one week it's jump rope, next week it's video game coding, or cooking, or line dancing. Let the kids find their own passions and discover new talents. This should be a thing. Let's get #AfterSchoolActivitySampler trending, and while we're at it, #INeedShorterHashtagTraining.

Your little one wants a puppy? Bring on My New Puppy! Picture it: an adorable robot facsimile of a fluffy little dog but it "pees" in your daughter's room and it bites your son's feet. It whines when it needs a walk (during your little one's favorite show), and it steals the ice cream right off their cone. Oh, and it eats their iPad charger. Still want a puppy?