The “whimsymaxxing” trend is all about bringing more silliness and imagination into everyday life. Here are 20 easy ways to get your family in on the fun.
Somewhere along the way, being a grown-up became synonymous with being sensible. We make schedules, enforce bedtimes, remind people to put their shoes away and spend an alarming amount of time thinking about what’s for dinner. And while all of that is necessary, there’s something to be said for occasionally abandoning the practical stuff in favour of a little ridiculousness.
Enter “whimsymaxxing,” the internet’s latest term for embracing playfulness and the kind of harmless nonsense that creates powerful, lasting memories. For parents, it’s a reminder that not everything we do with our kids needs to be educational, productive or even make much sense.
The good news is that you don’t need a craft cupboard worthy of a kindergarten classroom or an afternoon with nothing on the calendar. Sometimes, all it takes is a little imagination and a willingness to be the weird parent. In the best possible way, of course.
Here are 20 ways to get started.
A Little Whimsy Around the House
1. Declare a completely made-up holiday. National Wear Your Clothes Backwards Day? International Breakfast for Dinner Day? The Annual Festival of Socks? Pick a theme, invent a few traditions and celebrate with absolutely no regard for the actual calendar. And if you’re feeling really brave, make it a weekday, let the kids go to school and plan a fun dinner to share the reactions of teachers and friends.
2. Give everything in the house a ridiculous name. The refrigerator is now Sir Chills-a-Lot. The vacuum is Lord Suckington. The family car is Princess Sparkle Thunder. Bonus points if everyone commits to using the new names indefinitely.
3. Have a backwards dinner. Start with dessert, move on to the main course and finish with an appetizer. It’s a tiny rebellion against the natural order of things, which is exactly why kids will love it.
4. Turn an ordinary doorway into a portal. Hang streamers, string up some fairy lights or make a cardboard sign declaring that anyone who passes through has entered another dimension. Decide together what the rules are on the other side.
5. Create a family museum of very ordinary things. Put a few random household objects on display with hilariously serious descriptions. That chipped coffee mug can be a rare artifact from the Great Monday Morning Disaster of 2023. The crumpled picture someone drew in kindergarten can be annotated with the artist’s name, medium and year.
Make Ordinary Days a Little Less Ordinary
6. Speak in ridiculous accents for an entire meal. Everyone chooses a character or invents a voice. The only rule is that nobody breaks character until the dishes are cleared. (You may have to make a rule that it ends after that, though, or this one can get real old, real fast.)
7. Leave tiny notes in unexpected places. Think things like a message from the toilet paper roll thanking someone for their service, or sticky note on a banana declaring it the chosen one. The more absurd, the better.
8. Host a five-minute dance party. No occasion necessary. Turn up a favourite song, gather everyone in the kitchen and dance like nobody’s watching. Because, ideally, nobody is.
9. Invent a secret family handshake. Make it unnecessarily complicated, complete with finger guns, elbow bumps and an elaborate finale. Practice until everyone can do it without thinking.
10. Create a household awards ceremony.Hand out homemade trophies for achievements like Most Dramatic Sigh, Best Fridge Staring Performance and Outstanding Contributions to Leaving the Lights On.
Give Everyday Adventures a Silly Twist
11. Go on a colour hunt. Choose a colour before heading out for a walk and see how many things you can spot in that shade. Make it competitive or just enjoy discovering how many purple things exist in your neighbourhood.
12. Dress up for absolutely no reason. Wear fancy clothes to eat pizza on the couch, put on Halloween costumes in April or declare that everyone must wear a hat to breakfast. No explanation necessary.
13. Make an ordinary errand into a secret mission. Heading to the grocery store? Assign everyone a code name and a highly classified task, like locating the perfect avocado or identifying three suspiciously shaped vegetables.
14. Take a walk with no destination. Let the kids choose every turn, flip a coin at intersections or follow whichever direction has the most interesting-looking trees. Just make sure you can find your way back.
15. Host a very serious neighbourhood safari. Bring binoculars (real or homemade) and narrate sightings of squirrels, pigeons and neighbourhood cats as though you’re filming a wildlife documentary (or commentating a sports event!).
Make Your Own Ridiculous Traditions
16. Start a family nonsense jar. Fill it with slips of paper containing silly challenges, like singing everything you say for 10 minutes, balancing a spoon on your nose or inventing a new dance move. Pull one out whenever the mood needs lifting.
17. Give an inanimate object a birthday party. Celebrate the toaster’s fifth birthday or throw a retirement party for a worn-out pair of sneakers. Decorations optional. Speeches strongly encouraged.
18. Invent a family language. Make up words for everyday things and see how long you can keep them going. Who knows? Your new word for breakfast might still be in use when your kids are grown.
19. Have a completely unnecessary theme night. Turn Tuesday into an Italian restaurant, a medieval banquet or a fancy hotel dining experience. Make menus, assign roles and let the kids be outrageously demanding customers.
20. Create a family book of ridiculous records. Who can stack the most crackers? Who can make the longest paper chain in three minutes? Who holds the record for the most dramatic reading of a cereal box? Keep track of the winners and encourage challengers.
The Point Is That There Is No Point
Here’s the thing about “whimsymaxxing:” It doesn’t have to lead to anything. You don’t need to sneak in a learning opportunity, document the experience for social media or turn it into a cherished family tradition. Sometimes, doing something ridiculous together is enough.
And while younger kids might jump at the chance to throw a birthday party for the toaster, don’t underestimate the appeal for tweens and teens. They might roll their eyes at first, but there’s a decent chance they’ll be the ones coming up with the most absurd ideas once they get going.
