April Fools' Day
Just prepare for retaliation.
April Fools' Day will be here before you know it, and it's never too early to start planning, right? Pranks and practical jokes can run the gamut from simple to elaborate, and from cute to downright malicious. But since you'll want to make sure you've got just the right balance of fun and tricky for your love, here's a list of fun April Fools’ Day pranks you can play on your wife — that won’t make her too angry.
The origin of April Fools' Day is something of a mystery — no one is quite sure where it comes from. The most popular theory, according to Snopes, has to do with the introduction of the modern calendar in the 1500s. Before that, the new year had begun on March 25, and had been celebrated on April 1. The new calendar moved New Year's Day to Jan. 1. But some people missed the memo, and still thought that April 1 was New Year's, thus earning themselves the nickname "April fools." Apparently French peasants got in the habit of stopping at their neighbors' homes on April 1 to try and trick them into thinking it was New Year's Day, and from that custom comes our modern penchant for pranking family and friends.
But whatever the reason for the tradition, it's a fun one to keep up. So take some inspiration from these April Fools’ pranks you can play on your spouse and not get in too much trouble for.
7
Switch Her Drawers Around
Switch your wife's dresser drawers around so she doesn't know where to find her underwear, socks, and jeans in the morning, suggested Somewhat Simple. As pranks go, this one is pretty gentle, but it lets you get in a bit of a joke without too much stress.
8
Change Her Ringtone
No one does ringtones anymore — if a phone isn't set to vibrate-only, the most you'll ever hear is the "Old Phone" sound. So give your wife's phone a retro makeover by changing her ringtone and notification sounds to song snippets that would have been cool circa 2008, and turn that volume all the way up. Then, recommended Somewhat Simple, be sure to call her while she's out and set alarms and alerts to go off all day.
9
Fill A Donut Box With Veggies
Take this opportunity to run out a bit before breakfast and surprise your sweetie with a nice big box of Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kremes. A special fun breakfast on a random day during the week? Yes, please! But before presenting it to her, replace the donuts with a big spread of veggies and dip, suggested Design Dazzle.
(However, I strongly recommend not throwing the donuts away — just keep them stashed somewhere so you can enjoy them once the joke's over.)
10
Give Her A Faux Fender-Bender
Leave a note on your wife's car windshield that says, "I'm so sorry I hit your car!" along with a random name and number, suggested Mother's Niche. Better yet, get a friend in on the joke and use a fake name with their number, and have them play along by describing all the damage they did to her car. Then watch as she spends forever looking for the dings and scratches.
11
Mess With Her Phone’s Auto-Correct
Change the settings on your wife's phone so that whenever she types a common word like "and," "the," "no," or "hey," it autocorrects to something else, suggested Somewhat Simple. Example replacement phrases: "April Fools'," "My spouse is amazing,” or any inside joke between the two of you.
12
Put A Fake Spider In Her Purse
While a drawer is a classic choice, as suggested by Bustle, the options for where to hide a fake spider (or any kind of fake insect or rodent) are limited only by your imagination. Her purse, her car seat, the shower, or the cereal cupboard are all guaranteed to elicit the desired reaction from your darling arachnophobe.
13
Pretend Your Baby Has Learned To Talk
Get recordings of a baby saying a simple word like "mama." Hide a bluetooth speaker somewhere near the baby. Then play the recording from your phone, but only when your wife isn't looking, and get really excited when it happens. Do this several times throughout the day, making it seem like only you are seeing the baby talk.
14
Sabotage The Remote Control
If you place clear tape over the remote control sensor, your TV can't pick up the signal, and your wife will have no idea why it isn't turning on. Parenting magazine recommends this prank for both TV remotes and gaming console remotes, and it works on your computer mouse, too.
15
Freeze Her Phone’s Home Screen
Phones are the perfect target for an April Fools' prank because they take up so much of our attention. This idea from Buzzfeed requires a bit of effort on your part, but it will definitely pay off. Here's how it works: Take a screenshot of your wife's phone's home screen. Then move all her home screen apps onto a new screen. Then set that screenshot as the home screen wallpaper. Now when she tries to tap on her apps, nothing will happen.
16
Stage An In-Law Visit
Convince her your parents are coming to stay with you... for an entire month. You’ll really have to stick with the story for a little while (come up with background details, etc.), but her ensuing panic will be worth it.
17
Laundry Disaster
Tell her you did the laundry as a favor, but something went wrong and her favorite shirts are now small enough to fit your toddler. Wait until she’s really fuming until you tell her the truth. (She probably won’t ask you to do laundry for a bit.)
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