I've been a dad to this very positive, entertaining little homosapien for nearly 6 years. .

There's a shit ton of stuff to know, and even more than a shit ton of books containing many and conflicting opinions on everything from sleep to potty training and all things in between. I'll leave it to others to argue Sears vs. Ferber and all that fun stuff.

In the meantime, I can think of two items, both door-related (sorry I left that part out of the title, because I wanted you to stay), that I found helpful and yet did not encounter anyone else writing about.

1) How to keep the light turned on in the airplane restroom without requiring your kid to be locked in there.

This can come in handy on the late night flight, especially if you've already traumatized your munchkin with the high-amplitude toilet flush. (Pro tip: Do not combine this with stories of grown-ups getting vacuum-stuck to the toilet seat.)

If you have an independent-minded toddler/little kid who wants to use the potty solo, it IS possible to activate the switch of the lavatory door and thus make the light remain on, without requiring you to lock your little adventurer in the bathroom.

This switch is located on the inside of the door, and you simply press it inwards and hold to activate the light.

Voila. No scary dark bathroom, and no "help I'm locked in" emergencies. Just the wide-opened door, fully-illuminated bathroom experience (as society never intended)! Bonus points if you have a boy like mine who pulls his pants down to his ankles to pee standing up.

I strongly advise you to ask for permission before messing with the door this. Otherwise your actions could be perceived as messing with stuff, which is probably right up there in the same category with smoke detector tampering and bomb jokes.

[ note: I originally published this on Quora.com as an answer to the question, "What are some plane hacks," here. ]

2) How to close the bedroom door without waking your infant.

This one is a no-brainer. The problem is, if you are sleep-deprived from the demands of an infant, you effectively have no brain.

Here's the deal. if you have wooden doors that clunk against wooden door jambs, and that little tap sound has ever awoken your kid, get some FELT. Not the past tense of "feel." The stuff you use to stop the furniture from scratching on the floor. This:

It wasn't just the striking sound would trigger my guy's super-human powers of hearing when I wanted him to stay asleep in the crib. Also, the sound of the un-sticking of the paint-to-paint contact would awaken him. This isn't the easiest to explain, but kitchen and bathroom doors sometimes have softer paint (maybe it didn't cure right or something- I'd love to hear from an expert on this). There is a slight stick, and so, when opening, there's a little "unstick" sound, which was often followed by, "DADDY what are you doing all the way over there????"

Got any pro-tips or parenting hacks of your own? Share with in the comments below.