Chrissie Swan told us the parenting hacks she swears by.

Australia first got a taste Chrissie Swan back in 2003, on Big Brother. Almost 21 years on, she's a beloved public figure known for shining on TV and radio.

As such, her sheer brilliance kept her at the forefront of Australian media, and that extends to her parenting tricks too.

As a mother to Leo 15, Kit, 12, and daughter Peggy, 10, Chrissie has simply had to... adapt... to the challenges of raising two pre-teens and one almost-there-but-not-really-at-all-there adult. 

Over the last 15 years, Chrissie has been really good at sharing her best parenting hacks with her followers. Like really good. 

Here are four of the best parenting hacks from Chrissie that she swears by.

A built-in doorbell. 

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On The Chrissie Swan Show, the TV and radio personality shared a "life-changing" hack that we personally believe every single parent to a teenager should incorporate into their lives.

A doorbell. Stay with us.

Last week, Chrissie told podcast listeners that she has been dealing with a video game-obsessed son for a few years now and as such, finds it hard to get his attention.

"My [son's] idea of decompression is screaming with his friends playing a game," she said. "What it means is he doesn't hear when I'm calling for dinner. It has driven me crazy for about two years."

So you know what she did? She bought a doorbell.

"I went to Kmart, and I bought a doorbell. The button of the doorbell is next to my knives. I hit the button, they come for dinner," she said, adding the actual 'bell alert' is in either of her sons' bedrooms. 

Funnily enough, Chrissie told us it really does work. 

"Peg used it tonight when I'd served up the fried rice and when she heard her brothers scream, 'COMING!' within SECONDS of the 'ding dong' from their bedrooms, she exclaimed, 'Wow! It really works!" she explained to Mamamia. 

Chrissie Swan's genius doorbell hack. Image: Supplied. 

Toilet paper hack. 

Newborns are adorable until there's a sickening scent wafting through the air. It doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing — a baby's bowels have no concern or regard for the likes of others. 

It's a problem most of us have to deal with, even the non-parents! Luckily for us, while Chrissie might be out of the woods when it comes to toddler poops, she sure did develop a pretty wonderful trick to deal with the smell. 

Back in 2015, the podcast host shared a photo of herself with wads of rolled-up toilet paper up her nostrils. 

"I have probably changed thousands (millions?) of nappies over the last seven years… But sometimes the horror is so fresh and nasty you have to resort to desperate measures like plugging your nostrils with toilet paper," she explained.

"Has anyone else done this?"

If you want a nonparent's advice, it's also a good idea to keep an extra roll of toilet paper on hand for all the guests who have to sniff your baby's poo stench, too. I say this with LOVE, people. 

How to free up your weekends.

We love celebrity hacks 'round here. They're usually pretty simple and sometimes not all that relevant to the lives of normal people, but a few years back, Chrissie did what every parent would want to do. 

To free up her weekends, to give herself some peace and to let her kids finally get a bit of a break, she let her kids quit their weekend obligations, like sporting competitions, lessons or training sessions. 

No more unnecessary multi-tasking. No more inconvenience. 

"I stopped the weekend sports. It made them miserable. It made me miserable. None of us were enjoying it. We were doing it because we were told that we should do it," she told The Imperfects podcast. "So instead, we are currently on the hunt for the best butter chicken in Melbourne." 

A three-tiered cake for $15.

Want to ball on a budget? 

Here's exactly how thanks to Chrissie who actually showed us how to save time (by literally not baking at all) and money (by saving about $100 — give or take — by not spending more than $20 on a cake) when it's your kid's birthday. 

Back in 2022, the radio star said she'd spent exactly $15 on her kid's birthday cake by buying three $5 mud cakes from Woolworths, removing the icing from two of the cakes and piling them on top of one another. 

Chrissie Swan made her own three-tiered cake. Image: Instagram @chrissieswan.

To make sure they stayed put, she put her own choice of icing between each layer and then iced the outside of her creation, too. 

As it turns out, it was actually a big hit with her family.

"Okay so my newly minted 11-year-old wanted a chocolate cake for his birthday and I find there's no better mud cake than that $5 mud cake from Woolworths," Chrissie wrote in the caption. "And also [it was] delicious."

What are your favourite parenting hacks courtesy of Chrissie Swan? Tell us in the comments section below.

Feature Image: Instagram @chrissieswan.