“My son has these play kitchen toys that he likes to play with in water and one day he kept whining that he needed the water to be colored, so I finally just let him put some [kid-safe] coloring into it. Shocker, he put in too much and his hands and arms were blue all day because of it. Oh well.” — Krissy Y.

“I was completely exhausted from a day of parenting my toddler and she kept insisting on playing with stickers. Eventually, I gave up the fight and let her stick them all over my bed and comforter because then at least I could lay down while she did it.” — Lori F.

“I once let my son destroy a piece of styrofoam because it made “snow” and he loved it. It was a God-awful mess everywhere, but it was just a quick vacuum to clean up. So, in the long run, I chose an easy mess to clean up for 30 minutes of quiet.” — Xandra D.

“Toilet paper! Sometimes the only way I can get ready is if my son plays with it in the bathroom. Whatever it takes!” — Amanda G.

“My daughter always insists on wearing her dresses when she’s playing, but she always gets them dirty or ends up coloring/painting on herself so I started separating her clothes into ‘play dresses’ and ‘nice dresses.’ This system didn’t work so I finally said ‘eff it’ and now I just let her destroy whatever clothes she wants to.” — Kilee B.

“All of my kids’ pop-up and flip books are torn to pieces because it was easier to just let it happen than to keep running interference trying to stop them from being too rough with the pages.” — Jacklyn J.

“I’ve had many Pinterest-inspired sensory bins gone completely wild. I always get a false hope that my son will keep the rice, lentils, or oats nicely contained in his specially designed table, but 95% of the time it’s a huge mess, but I let him go buck wild anyway so I can get some stuff done.” — Stephanie B.

“My 2-year-old kept taking her shovel and pulling dirt out of my planter to pour into her (full) water table. After about 15 minutes of asking her to stop and her screaming at me each time, I finally gave up and just let her create the dirty water table of her apparent dreams.” — Ashley Z.

“I gave up the fight on outdoor toys, and lounging in the backyard is much more enjoyable because of it.” — Lisa E.

“I pretty much let my kids go to town if it means I can get my stuff done. My son loves to take everything out of the pantry and I figure if it keeps him occupied then I can clean it up later.” — Kelley D.

"Just this past weekend I was diagnosed with the flu and let my 7-year-old do some 'gem kit', which [resulted in] sand and hammer marks all over my dining room table and floor. BUT there was peace for two hours. Sand vacuumed up, table now has character marks." Jill B.

"On our first road trip, I let my 2-year-old color all over herself in order to make it through the last few hours of the drive." Kelly L.

"I had a stomach bug when [my daughter] was maybe 18-months-old, so still very small. I usually fed her super healthily but that day I gated off the playroom, gave her a party size bag of Doritos and let her have her way with it. I dozed on the floor, waking occasionally to vomit and see how many more orange hand prints had appeared around the room. Absolutely worth it." Kathleen K.

"Boxes of tissues. Sometimes pulling all the tissues (or wipes) out of the container and 'cleaning' will keep my 2-year-old busy for so long — totally worth it." Stephanie B.

"Little Golden Books in the back of the car — I can hear her ripping them up as I drive. It's the car, so there's no way to get it away from her once she's begun without pulling over, so I've resigned myself that there will be some ripped up books. Our car is currently littered with little pieces of paper from this. I'm hoping she doesn't think it's OK to rip up books now, but we have long commute, and this helps keep her busy." Anonymous

"I let my son soak himself at church yesterday because he found a step stool and a water fountain. He played for 20 minutes and I'm sure he drank some of it, and the rest assisted in keeping him clean. Which is good because he was too tired for a bath last night!" Beth H.

"My husband is [strict] about screen time. I go away to run errands and come home to crayons all over every wall. He literally just watched him draw on the wall because it was easier than not." Claire G.

"We once let our 1-year-old (who was 9 or 10 months at the time) play with a packet of wipes on a long drive because nothing else was working and he always loved the crinkle. We thought, 'oh, he can't open it, we'll be fine'. He was so quiet we forgot and got home to literally an entire packet of wipes pulled out and strewn about the car. You know what, though? Worth it." Heather G.

"My older son got a tin of butt cream and smeared it all over himself and the carpet when I went downstairs to throw the laundry in." Susan B.

"I spent many flights letting my son cover my face with painters tape. I thought he’d like to stick it on the tray table or arm rests or something, but no, my face was the target and I willingly participated for hours of a happy quiet baby on a plane." Christina P.

"My oldest emptied an entire box of tissues while I was taking in groceries from the garage... then shoved them all back into the box again" Mara H.

"In the warmer months, I've put my (now) 2-year-old twins [safely] in the front seat of my parked car... with water bottles, a bag of Goldfish, the windows down, and me sitting outside the car with music playing on my phone. They love pushing all of the buttons and hollering out the window at dogs and cyclists. Nothing a vacuum and button reset can't fix later." Kristina S.