A MUM has shared a genius idea to keep her toddler occupied for 30min when she needs to clean the house – and parents are loving it.

There's no denying that parenting is hard work – and mum Abby Franco certainly knows a thing or two about it.

But to make her life a little easier for when she wants to tidy up the family home, Abby has come up with an idea, which others have branded the smartest hack ever.

Abby, who posts under @abbyfranco6 on social media, took to TiKTok to reveal it – and we're obsessed.

According to the mum, believed to be from the US, the answer to some peace is quite simple and all you need is a cardboard box and some pencils.

To give her some time to sort out the mess, Abby simply put her toddler in the box with heaps of felt tip pens and watched the kid scribble all over.

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Sharing the hack, Abby claimed: ''This buys me 30min of unbothered cleaning.

''Work smart not hard,'' she chuckled in the caption.

And it appears that the trick has gone down a treat on social media, with 3.2million views and thousands of likes.

Fellow parents flocked to comments to thank Abby for uploading the clip, with one writing: ''That’s the smartest thing ever.''

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Another added: ''Sometimes you have to think inside the box!!

''Teaches them to be creative with their time and space.''

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''My daughters room was full of crayons, pencils, markers, construction paper, glue, glitter…. Kept her busy for a couple of hours,'' a second mum wrote.

''Mine would draw on themselves and leave the box spotless,'' someone else chuckled.

''My kids would just color all over and then jump out to color outside of it then color the walls,'' another person joked.

On the lookout for more parenting hacks? Well, mums have shared their go-to tricks, including painless plaster removal.

TikTok mum-of-two, Z’Anni G., has posted many videos and hacks to help parents.

But the one that's attracted the most attention is her plaster trick – it's so simple you have to try it.

“Want to take off your babies plasters off without tears and residue? I gotcha!''

“The secret ingredient – petroleum jelly and Q-tips."

If you've run out of Vaseline, the savvy mum claimed oil works just fine as well.

To ensure your baby is tear-free, first, apply a generous amount of petroleum jelly before letting it sit for 1-2 minutes.

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Once the time's up, Z'Anni said the plaster is safe to be peeled off – but make sure it's done gently.

Not only will there be no tears and sticky residue, your baby will also be left with extra smooth skin from the jelly.

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