How is it that we always forget April Fools’ Day is coming up, only to be surprised by silly hoaxes on social media and on our favourite websites, or to get pranked by friends and coworkers? Consider this your heads-up to get in on the action, and get the kids in on it too.
There are plenty of edgier pranks out there, but we like to keep it safe, simple, and a little bit silly!
Accordion clothing
What you need: a bunch of safety pins
Sneak into your kid’s t-shirt or underwear drawer and stealthily safety-pin together all the underwear or shirts. Don’t pin them in a big lump: the key to the most laughs is to pin and put everything away carefully so that when you grab the top one, the rest come tumbling out. This is also a fun one the kids can help you play on your unsuspecting spouse.
Ice at bottom of cereal bowl
What you need: water, cereal bowl, cereal
Target the crunchy cereal lover in your family by putting his or her cereal bowl in the freezer the evening before, half-filled with water. Then in the morning, offer to make her breakfast and serve her the crunchy cereal on top of the ice. The fun begins when she tries—and fails—to dig into the bowl.
“Hey! A marshmallow bush!”
What you need: a bush on or near your property, marshmallows
Get up a little early and decorate a nearby bush with some marshmallows by pushing them onto the ends of the twigs. In the morning, you can play this two ways. You can tell them that the bush outside suddenly grew marshmallows and to come and see (hopefully this has the added effect of getting them to brush their teeth and dress faster). Or just play it deadpan and casually say “Hey, I didn’t know that bush was growing marshmallows,” on your way out to school in the morning.
Computer mouse problems
What you need: sticky notes
Kids, being nearly always more advanced than we are in sorting out tech matters, probably will catch on to this joke very quickly, so try it on your partner. All you need to do is cover the bottom of the computer mouse with a small sticky note (trim it to fit if you must), or simply unplug the mouse. Then your unsuspecting family member will be just the right amount of stumped when he fires up the computer in the morning.
Tablet or smartphone language barrier
What you need: to remember how to change the device back to English!
Confuse your household’s resident smartphone or iPad addict by changing the device’s language when they aren’t looking. Then they’ll have the surprise of finding German notifications on their device. A word of warning: Be sure you know how to change the settings back to English. Once, my son accidentally changed an iPad app’s language to Japanese, and we had a frustrating time figuring out how to change it back.
Colourful bath water
What you need: food dye
If you’re waiting until late in the day to pull out the April Fools’ Day jokes, this is a good one because it happens at bath time. Simply swab the inside of the tub faucet with food dye. Then, get the kids to check out the water turning blue or green or pink at bathtime. Or, foist this trick on a teen or grownup that indulges in a nightly bath. (Note that you can find natural and organic food colouring online and in health-food stores.)
Computer freeze
What you need: to know how to take a screenshot and hide desktop icons
Convince someone that the computer screen is frozen by pasting a screen grab on their laptop or desktop. All you have to do is figure out how to take a screenshot and how to hide your desktop icons (see a Windows tutorial, for a Mac you need to download a free app) then set the image as the desktop background. That way, when they click on the image to close or open a file or browser window, they can’t—because it’s only a picture.
Tiny flies in your food
What you need: toy or prank flies or spiders
True, fake flies in your soup is about as basic and lowbrow a prank as you can get, but it’s always fun to have at least a smidgen of gross-out humour on April Fools’ Day, right? Hit the dollar shop for a pack of toy flies, insects, or any other nasty-looking bug that takes your fancy. Then put it at the bottom of a salad bowl, or stick in a dinner roll. Just make sure no one actually eats the thing! The way to get around that is to simply suggest before eating “Do I see something black in there? Could you check?” Then enjoy the moment as everyone is grossed out.
Want more ideas? Here’s another post with even more April Fools’ jokes and pranks for kids.
