We all like the idea of dinner being ready when we get home, and slow cookers make it happen. Great way to avoid the take-out window. This Cuisinart 4-quart slow cooker is 62% off ($54.99, down from $145). I like that it's smaller than many -- I use my slow cooker less than I could because it makes such a massive amount of food. And Amazon shoppers give it great reviews.

Need some inspiration? Earlier this year, we had a fantastic crock pot discussion with fave recipes, cookbook suggestions, and tips. Find more by searching Parent Hacks for "crock pot" and/or "slow cooker."

Discount good today only.

Stephanie: we do what we must.

Our daughter recently battled an ear infection along with another virus. She's usually pretty good about taking medicines, but her doctor prescribed a horrible tasting medicine for the virus, which in turn caused our daughter to start refusing all medicines.

Monday morning she woke up with a fever of 105 degrees and there was no time for struggling to get the medicine down. I grabbed a grape lollipop and my husband poured out the appropriate dosage of Infant Tylenol into a spoon. I rolled the lollipop into the Infant Tylenol and gave it to our daughter. She sucked off all the Infant Tylenol and let me repeat the process, until she had finished the dosage. Her fever was down to 102 in a matter of minutes.

Dum Dums are the recommended lollipop for the procedure, as they are small and round (which is good for rolling them in the meds).

And you're sure to get a few Dum Dums in the trick-or-treat bag.

Related: Too Tarts SmartChoice spray candy masks bitter medicine flavor

I can't tell if this is a brilliant idea or classifies me as an utter wierdo, so I am submitting this and you shall decide.

We got new credit cards in the mail the other day, which necessitated disposing of the old cards. Normally, i cut up the card in several pieces so the card info cannot be retrieved by anyone looking to identity-thieve. Not only that, but I dispose some of the card pieces in one trash can and the rest in another. Well, i looked into the bathroom trashcan, saw a discarded disposable diaper, and a lightbulb went off. i opened up the diaper (don't worry, it was only a wet one), dropped the credit card pieces in, and wrapped it back up.

Genius or just plain gross?

Heh. I've got my opinion. What's yours?

Related: More than you ever wanted to know about the business end of your children. See: Poop, Pee, Potty, etc. archive

I have often described parents as heroes. Think about what it takes to care for a child, from diaper-changing and nose-wiping to guiding to teaching to witnessing to -- eventually -- letting go. It's heroic. There's no other word that can sum up what we do as well.

If you read the over 100 superpowers people shared, you'll come away ready to run around the block singing WEEEEE, ARE THE CHAMPIONS. Seriously awesome. Some are funny, some are heartbreaking, most are simply a moments' recognition of the tall buildings we manage to leap every day.

So thank you to all who participated. Now pardon me while I adjust my Wonder Woman panties.

And DaddyMan: you're the random lucky winner of the Get Buttoned Up care package! Congrats. Email me with your mailing address, and I'll get your goodies in the mail right away.

Oh, yeah, Molly! Few things are more onerous than late-night bedding changes (especially when they involve washing and drying):

After having JUST washed the sheets on my daughter's bed, her (supposedly spill-proof) sippy cup of bedtime water leaked right where she sleeps. After considering letting her sleep in a wet bed -- only for a moment, I swear I would have thrown the sheets in the dryer -- I realized the hair dryer would probably solve the problem. It did! Thank heavens for not having to pull everything off and stuff it into the #*!@ dryer again.

Related: Efficient bedsheet storage

Spend a week in a hotel with the kids (Disneyworld), and there's going to be lots of elevator button pushing. Which means: fighting over who pushes which button when. It dawned on me that you can get an extra button push out of each elevator ride by having somebody push the "Door close" button. On the other hand, my 2yr old just pushed the same button after his sister pushed it. He didn't care that it was already lit -- he just wanted to have pushed it himself!

Related: Tons of family travel tips in the Travel/Going out archive

Kristin relies on basic physics to keep her groceries from spilling in the back of her car:

To keep flat-sided grocery bags (we use the Trader Joes' flat-bottomed reusable bags) from toppling over in my minivan's back well on the drive home, I put them in the car at a 45-degree angle to the axle of the car. It stabilizes them even in turns or quick brakes. Worked in our trunk, too, when we had one!

Basically, you don't want the bag to sit with its flat sides to the front or side of the car. It actually helps if you deliberately put the bags at this angle, not just throw them in. In essence, you're trying to avoid the domino effect.

Lots of other hacks for grocery bags, too, I'm sure. But this one was such a lightbulb moment!

So smart. Anyone have another grocery bag hack?

Related:
The many uses of the reusable grocery bag
Reusable shopping bags make "green" gift bags

In response to my fawning over the brilliance of Parenthackers, star PHer Jill from Atlanta emailed me this:

Parenthackers are the smartest people in the world - all of us are SuperParents! After my older son read The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy we found that almost everyone we know has a super power. Parents especially! For example, today I am a SuperMom because I got little brother to nap even though Big Brother has a playdate.

Jill suggested we all share our Superpowers, which I think is fantastic for two reasons:

• It's a fun counterpoint to all the Supermom discussions going on around Sarah Palin's candidacy (including these smart comments by Parent Hacks readers)
• How often do we get to toot our own horns (let alone hear them tooted by someone else)?

So. Don't be modest. Tell us your parenting superpower. I'll chose one Superhero at random who will win a Get Buttoned Up care package including a Life.doc organizing binder and three nifty list pads: CatchUp.pad (for managing ships-passing-in-the-night syndrome with your partner), KidPack.pad (for remembering what to have on hand during the typical busy school day), and BabyPack.pad (for ALL THAT BABY GEAR YOU HAVE TO SCHLEP).

My superpower: Maintaining a calm demeanor in the face of juvenile explosion. Usually.

What's yours?

I'll choose a winner on Wednesday evening 10/8 in the 8pm PST range. Have fun!

Wireless headsets are a godsend for busy parents who already have too few hands. Amazon's having a one-day deal: a decent selection of Bluetooth headsets are on sale for $20. I see a few Motorola and Samsung units, plus a bunch of others. The Motorola HS850 pictured here is usually $99.99. Get yours quick -- hopefully they won't run out (last time I reported a sale on Motorola headsets they did).

Dawn's idea for a Halloween-themed party activity:

I have been racking my brain to come up with a simple activity for a Halloween birthday party for my toddler. I really wanted the kids to paint mini pumpkins but did not want the mess. I found the perfect solution: COLORED SHARPIES! Just as fun but no messy paint to clean up!

This is a great idea, but, speaking for myself, colored Sharpies would have been a disaster when my son was a toddler. I didn't let him near markers until the end of preschool! On the other hand, my daughter has been using colored pens since she was two (that's the kind of kid she is). You know your kid's marker tendencies. Just be sure to cover the table, and consider smocks for the party guests so they don't go home with indelible pen marks on their clothes.

Related: Halloween hack: Let your toddler glue a face on the pumpkin

Elizabeth's toddler art solution:

My son is just about to turn two. He loves to color, but gets very frustrated at how the paper slides around on the tile floor. So I give him washable crayons and let him color directly on the floor! When he's done, I take some pictures of the latest masterpiece, then break out the Swiffer WetJet or a sponge and clean up!

The only problem I could see with this is if he gets the idea that any crayon can be used to color on any surface (floor, wall, etc.). But it's different for every kid! I had one who would color on anything he could reach, and another was born a neatnik.

Related: Cleaning up crayon marks and poster paint