Dad Comes Up With Perfect Way To Occupy Kids During Football Season

Now he can watch the game with some peace and quiet

Children are loud. Sometimes parents need to get creative to find ways to keep the noise down. One dad in the UK came up with a brilliant method for distracting his kids so he can watch sports without being interrupted, and Twitter is here for it.

Every parent knows the struggle of trying to get things done, simply trying to watch a movie, or a TV show, or a sporting event, or even just going to the bathroom, without the kids getting all up in our grills. There is no personal space, and there is limited peace and quiet, when you’re a mom or dad, and we’ve all found ourselves doing strange things to make due.

Take Twitter user @thommybhoy, a football fan from the UK who shared a picture of the ingenious way he manages to get his kids out of his hair when he’s trying to watch the game, and it has quickly gone viral.

He offered his kids a bit of money, but there’s a catch: the first one to let the bill drop to the floor loses, and the other kids gets it. It’s a variation of one of those “last one to take their hand off the truck wins the truck!” contests radio stations used to put on but far less expensive.

Twitter is on board.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/899768506312294400

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/899714426907086848https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/899644968616304640

But kids are cutthroat, especially when it comes to besting a sibling, and one user pointed out a potential drawback. Or is it a perk?

Don’t worry, Twitter. I’m sure he’ll let them pause the game when school starts.

I’m shocked there aren’t more negative reactions to this dad’s gambit, but it just goes to show you that everyone understands. Managing a few minutes to ourselves is a daily struggle for those of us with kids, and as one guy recalled in a tweet about his own childhood, this is not a new phenomenon. Also, it’s just funny.

My wife and I base our weekend agenda around activities that will tire our kids out enough that we can actually start a movie early enough to finish, but with a technique like this, suddenly it hardly matters. We just pin our kids to the wall and binge-watch Game of Thrones while they battle, in silence and stasis, over their allowance.

Football (the American kind) starts in a couple of weeks, so I’m really hoping this technique works with wives too.