There’s this thing on the internet they call “Mom Hacks.” The name conjures homemade solutions to small inconveniences like California’s plastic straw ban— a mental image of kids sipping milk through empty toilet paper rolls. I’m probably totally wrong on that front. A quick search shows I should have said sipping milk through swimming pool noodles.
In any case, I’ve invented my very own mom hack and it’s genius, if I do say so myself, and I do because this is my blog where I get to say everything myself.
So here it goes… you know how every $80 box of Legos comes with a little mini magazine booklet of instructions plus ads for how to spend another $80? These little booklets are always strewn about– collecting dust on shelves, stacked in piles, shoved under furniture. But without them, little minds fret, “How will I ever build this General Magmar’s Siege Machine of Doom again?” And little moms fret, “How will I ever remember which Legos we already have so that Santa and his elves won’t unwittingly spend a small fortune on another General Magmar’s Siege Machine of Doom?”
The answer? Pinterest. Yes, the app for irresistible house porn is also the perfect Mom Lego hack app. Let me explain.
Lego, in their infinite wisdom of premium-priced educational toy sales, has created a searchable database online where one can access an electronic version of the instructions. It’s Lego Google. Legoogle if you will. So for example, if one’s husband were to, let’s just say, hypothetically buy their wife the $100 Harry Potter Great Hall Lego set for her birthday, then that theoretical Mom, after enjoying her two hours of free time while her fictitious children build her new present, would follow these steps:
- Google “Lego Harry Potter Great Hall instructions”.
- Hit the web browser Pinterest icon.
- Select the picture of the instruction booklet that matches the one her pretend kids have already lost in the couch cushions.
- And voila! She now has a personal cheat sheet in her pocket the next time she’s at the Grown-ups Only Whiz Kids 20% Thursday Night Holiday Sale.
- Bonus tip: She can also keep a running tally of the small fortune her family has amassed in Legos… 39 (and counting).
After that fictional birthday I might have mentioned, James texted me the following screen shot from Twitter.
Let’s just say… I might have shot milk out of my pool noodles.