Don’t mess with mom.

She doesn’t want to explain a weird bacterial infection to your dentist, but she’s not above making you feel REAL paranoid about your toothbrush if you make her clean up after you in the bathroom of all places.

The good news is all you have to do is practice basic hygiene.

Well that’s pretty darn awesome, we have to say.

Single parents have to be both mom AND dad, but they don’t often have to dress as both.

No doubt this meant a lot to her son.

Well, dad, that’s what you get for accidentally being awesome.

But it takes a good man and an even better father to dress up in a superhero costume for school pickup.

We’re sure the joy it brings his daughter makes it that much better.

Safety first!

What kids don’t realize is that picturing your offspring behind the wheel of a 2-ton vehicle really is terrifying. And while you fear most for their safety, sometimes it manifests as this kind of reminder.

We just really hope dad doesn’t need the life jacket.

This pwn takes creativity and a cruel streak – but it’s a far cry from truly being awful to your kid.

Theoretically, you raise them to have a sense of humor. Just don’t expect that to come out until they get their phone back and are able to post this online.

Sometimes you don’t have anything at your disposal but a large bunch of bananas.

Bet they never warned you about THAT scenario in the baby books!

But seriously, we bet this mom or dad got the 3-minute bathroom break they needed.

It’s “ruff” when you find out the dog is your parents’ favorite child.

But sometimes it’s better when they give you the less subtle hints so you can feel bad about it all at once instead of constantly wondering in the back of your mind if it’s really true.

What’s a childhood without a little goofiness?

We get that parents are in a hurry and have too much on their schedules. But taking a minute out to make everyone laugh is the good stuff – and the stuff that kids remember.

Never forget…your stuff at home, that is.

It’s like parents live to embarrass their children when they’ve been an inconvenience.

And can you blame them? They probably asked 100 times if Ryan had whatever is in that bag with him before he left for school.

This dad is Instagram famous for his account parodying his daughter.

We’ve all been flummoxed by those teen selfies and their seemingly ridiculous poses. But now the kids can see how silly it looks on someone else.

Hey, whatever works.

If you can get your kid to believe anything bunny-shaped is chocolate and that cauliflower is a substitute, do it as many times as you can until they discover it’s not true!

How else are you going to get a vegetable in there?

This card’s a winner, especially with that classic “mom” script.

We love parents with a good sense of humor who realize they can share it with their kids.

It’s not as if parents become these completely alien creatures with a lesser appreciation of dirty jokes once they have children.

Sometimes you just have to dress up in a lion onesie and play Lion King with your kid in order to keep things light.

Everybody smiles, you get a good photo out of it, AND you’ve now got a ridiculous onesie – where’s the downside?

Parents can come up with some pretty epic punishments, but this mom is next-level.

We hear a lot of “back in my day, my parents would make me…” and insert some absurd punishment. So this kid is living old-school.

And since he’s actually out there with a mop, you know mom wasn’t kidding.

He’ll probably make an effort to do some room-cleaning in the future. Because you just know that’s not the height of her creativity.

If you don’t have at least one pre-dance photo with a parent photo bomb did you even go to a school dance?

Dads are the real masters of this art. We don’t know why it gives them such pleasure, but sometimes you just have to let them have that one thing.

See, now that’s just funny.

We’ve seen people upload humiliating messages to their kid’s social media and that can be traumatic. It’s really important not to go too far when it comes to embarrassing your kid publicly. School is hard enough.

But when it’s just some innocent photos of parents being kind of silly. We have to let it slide and smile.

They can always delete those later.

Toddlers and cats have a lot in common when you think about it – they’re cranky without explanation but they’re often easily entertained.

So if the laser pointer works for cheap entertainment for both species, what’s the harm in making it dual-purpose?

Who has the energy to get up every time a kiddo wants to play? Momma needs a break sometimes!

They say kids are a huge investment. But what if you don’t feel like you got your money’s worth?

Well, you can always try to get a refund.

We’re not sure this GoFundMe is actually real, but it’s the thought that counts.

How are parents supposed to get their own work done AND school their children?!

It’s impossible.

But the dog’s not busy. Might as well make him earn his keep.

Any grown-up who will dress as a princess for a little one needs to be appreciated. But we’re doling out some major credit here to this dad and these uncles who put on a tiara and went the extra mile.

Just look at the big smile on her face.

On the bright side, being home with kids during the day can add some much-needed levity to a long workday.

They’re full of good ideas and you’ll basically be their hero for indulging them in something fun and ridiculous.

And when was the last time you felt like a princess at WORK?

If you can’t get to the gym and the kids want to play, there’s always a solution.

How many extra calories do you burn for wearing the Minnie Mouse ears? That’s the real question.

Dads can genreally be counted on to support other dads as well, although it looks like this setup welcomes any parent patiently awaiting their kid.

We just wonder why it’s not more crowded.

Maybe it seems too good to be true.

The world might be a better place if we were all more honest about our struggles.

We think this might count as a teacher win though. So many educators are pressured by parents to say the nicest possible things about kids – and it can’t always be true.

Forget the chore wheel, this is some serious motivation.

The only problem is that the kids could start using all your cellular data when they can’t get on Wifi.

Like most tricks, you have to make sure this one doesn’t backfire.

Some kids like superheroes, others like unicorns. But, occasionally, your kid gets obsessed with something really unlikely.

This might be one of the funniest birthday party themes we’ve ever seen.

Mom and dad even called the law office to see if they could get him to show up in person!

Our school lunches never seemed worthy of a menu, much less this much effort to explain what was inside.

Even if their little one can’t quite read the cursive yet (and we think that may be the case considering the cracker and dairy-friendly menu) the lunch ladies will get a good laugh.

Frankly, we think this says a lot about this family – all of it good.

We totally understand the motivation behind a teachers wanting some insight into a kid, but knowing what you’re dealing with when it comes to parents is just as important.

Just be glad when dads include cash with their jokes.

And it’s also worth appreciating that dad isn’t automatically prepared to hate whoever you bring home – that’s a toxic dad behavior that needs to go.

There are so many opportunities that present themselves when it comes to painting, but this demonstrates real commitment to embarassing your kid in a relatively light and non-permanent way.

They’ll paint right over that, but the picture and the laughs will last forever.

Speaking of painting, that’s a thing kids LOVE to do and parents HATE to have going on in their home.

We’ve seen some mighty disasters when it comes to paint and kids, so this feels like a really elegant solution (as long as your kid is convinced they’re helping).

We’re not sure anyone in this family has perfect taste in shirts.

It’s a little weird when dads police their daughters’ clothing so carefully (especially with the possibility of humiliation so close at hand), but it looks like everyone in this photo is fine with the joke.

We just hope dad knows she’s still going to get some weird looks with that shirt on.

Kids can really mess with your home decor and room flow.

Normally the playpen keeps them in, but the more people start to work from home, the more they realize kids can cause some really expensive damage to important stuff.

If you can’t cage them in, cage them out.

Now that’s building a solution!

It might feel a little claustrophobic, but we bet it eliminated the fighting and the whining – and what else could you really want from two pieces of cardboard?

They have yet to come up with medicine that actually tastes palatable to kids, so creativity is key to getting the medicine go down.

But instead of a spoonful of sugar, this parent is just mimicking a sugary treat.

Pushing a kid on a swing becomes tedious work after a while and sometimes you just need a break.

As long as you’re spending some time playing with your kid, there’s no harm in finding a creative solution for a few minutes.

Although she does look a little bored out there.

Creative and funny, but obviously a terrible idea IRL – not just for your kid but for your own phone.

You’re going to get a lot of crank calls (and you’ll totally deserve them), but it’s not a bad threat to level against your kid.

Just get the sticker made up and don’t bother to put it on the car.

It’s dad’s day and if he wants to spend it being ridiculous then I guess that’s what we do!

We hope he’s enjoying that moment though because we’d say he’s got about 2 years – tops – before the kids won’t agree to it anymore.

This is probably a punishment we should inflict on ourselves too, but the environmental cost is just too big.

However, a few fails at eating out of a plastic bag, puncturing it with a fork, and watching your lunch drip all over you might be just the right way to get us ALL to remember to bring home our Tupperware.

When parents split custody it can be hard to figure out how to stay connected.

But this dad has the right idea. And as a bonus, a dirty toy is now getting a bath.

The cord seems a bit close to the water though – we hope bunny is being careful!

Love it.

Sometimes life is so absurd that you just have to run with it. And if you’re looking for ideas to turn the day on its head you can always count on a toddler for ideas.

We bet shoppers got a good laugh out of this pair.

It’s always nice to get cash for a holiday but some people find it rude when you ask for it.

These parents went amazingly far out of their way to ensure their kid had to work for every dollar of his gift.

We can’t even imagine how long it took to roll them all up like that.

Sharing is important. So is remembering that mommy is the one who bought your toy.

We’re not sure what this kid did to be taught a lesson, but it does look like he’ll remember this moment.

This is some genius parenting right here.

It’s all the things kids love to destroy or mess with in one place. And suddenly Home Depot is the best toy store on Earth!

Who doesn’t love a mom that goes the extra mile for your birthday?

This one just happens to have a tradition of punking her son every year.

We would have loved to have seen her order this cake and say to the baker “yes, I’d like it to say ‘Dave Sucks!’- and be sure to underline ‘Sucks’ twice.”

Bravo, mom.

You don’t realize your walls look like a giant canvas to a kid until you get home to find new artwork there.

Who has the time to paint over all of it or scrub it off the walls – especially if you have an extra frame lying around?

At least this looks like something and isn’t just a bunch of scribbles.

It’s not fair that parents don’t literally grow an extra set of hands when they have a kid – two is just not enough.

But mamas know how to make do.

After all, parents have to eat too!

When they’re old enough to want to play but too young to understand how the game works, try this life hack.

Just unplug their controllers and let them at it!

Nice one, dad.

If you can go all Mary Poppins and convince your kids that cleaning can be fun, enjoy every last minute of those precious days or months.

It’s even better if you can make it a competition because then they’ll really do a good job.

You might suddenly find yourself with a lot less tedious yard work to do.

Parents really are their kids’ heroes, at least for a short time.

Enjoy it while you can.

They won’t worship you forever.