Clever trick ensures students will never want to untuck their school shirts for that “cool look” ever again.

While there are many guidebooks in the world to help new parents cope with pregnancy and looking after young children, when it comes to rearing teenagers, parents often find themselves walking treacherously into a whole new battlefield, where no guidebook or nugget of knowledge is enough to make them feel like they know what they’re doing.

It’s a stage in life when success tales from other parents becomes invaluable, and as one certain mother in Japan will tell you, this advice from others can be instrumental in making life easier for family members, especially when it comes to toeing the line with strict uniform codes at school.

The genius mum now sharing her knowledge with everyone online is Twitter user @matsukobucha. As the mother of a 23-year-old son, and a 15-year-old son now in senior high school, she knows just how hard it can be to stop teenagers from untucking their shirts for that “cool look” at school, so when she learnt about this clever strategy from another mum, she decided to pay it forward with this simple tweet, which has attracted a huge amount of attention online.

▼ It’s cool to untuck your school shirt when you’re a teenager…unless your mum does this to you.

https://twitter.com/matsukobucha/status/986003856340402181

According to @matsukobucha, all that’s required for this hack is an iron-on name label on the back end of the shirt, and the one she’s used is so big it would be impossible to miss if he ever thought to untuck it from his trousers. She says she’s written his name inside the label, so that if it ever does go untucked, he’ll be the laughing stock of the school.

While some online commenters wondered if this was actually a good thing to do to your son’s clothing, the large majority of responses were full of praise for the novel idea. One mum even said it’s something she also does for her teenager, proving her point with a photo of her son’s school shirt as well.

▼ This one reads “Goko desu”, which can be translated as “I am Goko”, taking the level of potential embarrassment to a whole other level.

Since posting her photo online, @matsukobucha has been overwhelmed by the response from parents who are keen to try the name-tagging hack on their own children. And as many have pointed out, not only is it a good deterrent against sloppy dressing, it also helps to distinguish the shirts of different family members on laundry day.

While it might not be a fool-proof solution for all types of boundary-testing teens around the world, for those needing a little encouragement to stay on the right side of the rules, this could be the nudge to get them there.

Source: Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Pakutaso