Keeping Cold Hands Warm

Today, I wanted to share one of my favorite parenting hacks with you. I learned about this little hack from my paternal grandmother, Louise (swipe left). Louise grew up during World War Two and she as well as her sister, both teenagers at the time, migrated from rural Poland to Southern Germany in search of shelter. They walked hundreds of kilometers with no belongings other than a small wooden cart and a couple of woolen blankets. When my father and his brother were born in the 1950s, my grandmother started to employ certain “hacks” she had learned over the course of her life in order to keep her children warm during outdoor play. When her children left the house to go play in the rain or go ice skating, my grandmother would quickly boil a couple of potatoes and let them cool down to a comfortable warm. She then placed the warm potatoes inside of her children’s coat pockets and sent them on their way. This way, my father and his brother had both a warm pocket to heat up their hands as well as a nourishing and healthy snack on the go.