Angus MacGyver was a genius, if you ask me. He could diffuse a nuclear weapon with a blade of grass, plug a sulfuric acid leak with chocolate, make a bomb out of chewing gum and use a magnifying glass made of a hairpin and wine to read names of spies from a watch.

    And he did these things within a time span of 30 minutes in order to a) slow down an approaching drug lord (and an army of soldiers), b) save the world from a nuclear apocalypse, or c) rescue someone from certain death.

I was never a big fan of the show, but while recently reminiscing about it with a friend, I began thinking about how alike we parents are to this mulleted super-genius. After all, when facing the trying moments of parenting, don’t we all reach down inside to tap into our inner-MacGyver?

   One particular instance in which I had to think on my feet comes to mind. I was at Target with one of my daughters—she was about 2 or 3 at the time—and as I was lifting her from the basket to the car seat, I noticed a certain odor. I’m sure you know where this is going.

   Knowing that I was about to “draw the brown card,” I spread out my handy-dandy portable changing mat on the tailgate of my car and went to work doing what needed to be done. And boy, was it ever a doozy!

As I reached for the baby wipes, I realized the lid was open, which meant the wipes were as dry as dirt. “Hummmm,” I mumbled to myself searching through my diaper bag. “I just need a little moisture to finish the job properly.” Then BAM! I came upon something that hadn’t been around for long. It was a new product I had just picked up at Bath and Body Works—hand sanitizer. And it smelled good, too! “Problem solved!” I thought as I dabbed a small amount on the fleshy portion of my daughter’s derriere.

   What happened next haunts me to this day. The shriek my daughter emitted was quite similar to the screams of the “Star Wars” robot, R2D2. Who knew something that smelled so lavender-y would burn like the dickens? OK, so this was a MacGyver parenting-style fail.

   Even though my MacGyver moment failed miserably, there are a few I found online that may work far better when necessity becomes the mother of invention (I’ve only listed a few; visit www.mommyish.com/macgyver-parenting-style/ for more laugh ideas):

Out-Of-Nowhere Diapers

What you need: A set of keys, an old T-shirt, five paper towels (folded), two rolls of duct tape.

What you do: Distract child with keys, form T-shirt into a sort-of diaper shape, wad paper towels up into crotch area, secure entire shebang with a ton of duct tape. Hope for the best.

Jury-rigged Sound Machine

What you need: A pound of rice, two paper plates, a stapler and a tube of Bengay.

What you do: Pour rice onto paper plate, staple other paper plate on top, and rotate at regular intervals to make the soothing sound of rain. Apply Bengay when muscle death begins to occur.

Toys

What you need: Tampons

What you do: Scatter tampons on floor. Give up on life.