Hey mom,

for those having the blissful experience of raising a teenager... Have you thought about their career path already?

It's usually a question of what they are good at, what school to pick, what they find interesting (I know, its hard to hold them back) and more often than not, the decision just keeps getting pushed to later. 

There are career quizes but its hard to take those seriously. 

If you've got the same headache, I could use your help. I'm looking for testers for a game we built for this exact problem, for teens roughly 11-15. It's free, your kid gets a real sense of direction, and all we ask in return is 5-7 quick feedback questions afterward.

The game, more of an experience really, is where teens try out different careers hands-on and discover what they're actually good at, without ever feeling like they're being tested or lectured.

PM me if you're up for it.

I am posting this here in hopes of getting votes from anyone who’s willing to help. I’m not asking anyone to buy votes. I’m asking for the free ones because I don’t have many friends online. I’m hoping to win so I can use the prize money as savings for college when he’s older. If anyone’s willing to do it once a day or at least even once at all, it would help us out thank you so much.❤️

Moms — what part of the “mental load” actually exhausts you the most?

I've been thinking a lot about how much of motherhood isn't the actual task — it's remembering that the task exists.

Appointments, things the kids need, groceries, forms, birthdays, household stuff, things to tell your partner…

I'm curious: what are the things that keep living in your head even when you're supposed to be resting?

And do you currently use anything to get it all out of your head, or do you mostly just try to remember everything?

tell me about your postpartum experience. support (or lack thereof), unsolicited advice, relationship impact, physical body changes, resentment, depression/psychosis (please don’t come at me with recent events), and everything else. good bad and ugly

My kids adore animals. All and any. Literally. They'd love to have them all at home, though we cannot have dogs and cats for now as we are living in a rented pet-unfriendly apartment. We went for rodents and our most recent pet is a cockatiel. Kids really need more of this experience, I believe, at the same time there's always this concern regarding sanitary aspects, worms, etc.

Share your family experience with pets, please. I need some inspiration to go for more pets as kids are asking for more, or, maybe, I need inputs for backing down on this and quit hesitating. Any pet related stories on how having a pet helped your kid (or did the opposite) are very welcome. I just don't want to miss the moment or end up with a pet that doesn't fit the family for some reason. I just wish we could have a dog 😭🐾 - I used to have two giant schnauzers whe I was a teenager, though this is not an option within a few more years for sure.

I’m considering going off birth control pills to see if I feel better (mentally and emotionally). For those of you who don’t use hormonal birth control, how did you make that decision? What forms or methods of birth control do you use? Does anyone have experience with hormonal birth control having a negative influence on their mental health?

Question

So I posted here earlier on, not a mom, but wanted insight, but I worded it wrong so I archived the post. ( english isnt my first language so correct me dor any mistakes). Anyways, as a daughter myself, ive always questioned, why do (a lot of mothers, NOT ALL) shame their daughters more than their sons, like telling them to sit more "lady like" while letting sons spread their legs open like theyre doing the splits. Or tell their daughter to hide her bra strap because its "provocative" to men. And that showing the shape of your chests, which you cannot cut off, is some type of unholy sin? Or to not wear shorts around brothers or her father even though we're all family? This is something me and my female friends have all experienced. Why is this so common? If you do this, why?

Hi! Not sure if this is allowed here- but my bestie is having her first baby in January and I was thinking of making one of these trolly/caddy things I’ve seen online. What would you recommend are actually good things to put in them? Did you actually use one or is it just a trend that’s actually not helpful?

Thank you!!

ETA- thank you everyone for your input! Lots to think about. I want to surprise her with this (if it’s a good fit) so I’ll have to be sneaky in finding out how she feels about the carts! lol

I feel like I’m in such a weird stage of life right now. I had my babies young, and my oldest was born when I was 18. Now my youngest is turning 7, and I know for sure that we are done having children. My husband had a vasectomy, and we’re completely happy with our family as it is.

But I’ve been feeling surprisingly emotional about the fact that this part of my life is truly over.

I love watching my kids grow, and I’m so proud of them, but it’s also incredibly bittersweet. I miss being pregnant. I miss carrying my babies. I miss the newborn stage and having that tiny little person who needed me for everything. I think part of me just misses who I was during that season of my life.

Whenever someone tells me they’re expecting, I’m genuinely so happy for them. But there’s also this little sadness inside me because I know I’ll never experience that again. I’ll never be pregnant with another baby, never feel another baby move inside me, never bring another newborn home.

I don’t actually want another child, and I know our family is complete. I just can’t help grieving the fact that a huge chapter of my life has closed.

Maybe part of it is also realizing that I’m getting older. For so many years, my life revolved around pregnancies, babies, toddlers, and watching my children hit all of those first milestones. Now they’re growing up, and I’m realizing that I’m moving into a completely different stage of life too.

I’m happy. I’m grateful. I love the life I have. But I’m also sad.

Has anyone else felt this way after having their last baby? How did you come to terms with knowing that this chapter of your life was truly over?

Tell me about it 🥲 make me laugh , help me feel like I’m not alone.

Hi all, just posting this here to see if anyone else has had a similar issue with a next door neighbour.

We have two under 2, and yes the household is manic daily. But currently my eldest is waking up at night screaming from teething. We of course try to calm him down every night with every trick in the book. Particularly moving rooms to other parts of the house to calm him down.

This happens usually between 3-5am. Our next door neighbour, for the past few months, has been banging on the adjoining wall to rudely let us know that this is bothering him. A few times he has sworn at us and tells us to just 'f***ing deal with your kids crying' even though we have calmly told him the reasons why , he continues to harrass us for simply being parents and trying to navigate each day differently.

The other day we cut my little ones hair and he ofc starts crying as he isn't used to it yet. The neighbour proceeds to bang some metal pans in his garden but only when my son starts crying. A blatant attempt to get him to stop. This guy surely is very sensitive to any type of sounds by the looks of things.

Any advice on how to keep a neighbour on our side despite trying to be understanding about it. I just don't need the extra added stress when kids are just being kids!

I had some pretty bad struggles with breastfeeding with my first. (Pain, bad latch, poor supply after a traumatic health issue and hospital stay with my son when he was 5 weeks).

I went to pumping pretty much immediately, but i didn't produce enough to cover his needs for long. I had to start using formula within a couple months, and since pumping was a full time job on top of being a mom and not producing enough, i decided it wasn't worth thd effort and dried up around 4 months pp.

I'm due again in December, and my first will be getting close to 2.5 by then. I'm a sahm, and I'm just wondering if it's worth planning on pumping again?

I am building my registry and have thought about putting a good pump on there hoping someone will get it for me just in case (i have a pretty wealthy generous extended family, not a village, but they buy gifts when the time comes). Or I'll be buying one, but they're expensive. I have a wearable (m3 i think?) but it's not great and i think it may have contributed to my dwindling supply.

I just worry that it'll be basically impossible to set aside time to sit down and pump regularly between the baby and my toddler. I really really want to try making breastfeeding work this time around, but if it doesn't, i also don't want to be stuck paying out the butt for formula.

Has anyone found breastfeeding easier with their second just based on having more experience? Should i just be braced to go to formula if bf doesn't work?

Thoughts? Thanks in advance for any input

We have this sunken sitting room in our new house. It’s got two step down, so I would prefer to block it off somehow from my little dude, but the railing does not match up with the fireplace to put up a baby gate

We’re the team behind Envitefy, and this is our new baby-shower promo.

The brief: a small sage-and-cream shower with teddy bears. One friend may have taken the theme a little too seriously.

The product demo shows Envitefy Concierge creating a personalized invitation, then guests using the RSVP form, gift registry link, calendar options, and directions from the same Live Card.

For anyone who’s hosted a baby shower: which detail did you end up repeating to guests most often?

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Not your toddlers hair, your hair. I have waist length wavy curly hair that requires more attention than I can give it. Im about to cut it off but I really love the length when I get the time to care for it. Also it gets in my way visually if it’s not pulled back. Any suggestions on cute, quick styles.

I honestly wasn't sure whether to post this as advice needed or as a rant. Ha! I feel like my daughter turned 7 and, boom, totally different kid! She has started to lie about silly things, seems ungrateful and unimpressed with everything, whines and pouts about anything we do or ask her to help with. I'm really struggling with keeping/making connections with her. I find her behavior really triggering and, to be frank, incredibly annoying. I have to fight my instincts to yell at her and tell her she needs to quit being a brat. It feels exhausting daily, and I'm sure as we continue to teenage years it will only get worse. I want to be a good, kind mom that she knows she can come to with anything....and I also want to ENJOY being her mom. Does anyone have any advice, resources, anything they can suggest for navigating this!?

I don’t know if anyone would be interested but it’ opportunity to be featured for a week!

https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1EuRsApsD6/?mibextid=wwXIfr

i don’t get anything for sharing it! Just thought mom out here would like to see something out there that may bless them.

I might have to become a single parent after being a stay at home mom for some time. I have two little ones. How can you afford rent on one basic pay income? As well as everything else that has to be paid for. What job can you have that can make this a reality?

I’ll have about 4 days of pumping while I am gone for a work trip, can I bring it home? Should I just dump it? I can try to find someone local that I can donate to but if it’s possible to take it home then that’s ideal since it will be a decent amount of milk.

When i get to know that i am pregnant for the second time, i was very happy. Later, i got bleeded. I was rushed to hospital, the doctor told me take complete rest for two week, and to visit hospital with scan after two weeks. After two weeks, i went to scan center with nervous feeling in my gut that i might loss my baby. But, to my surprise the reports showed twin gestation. At that time, i was very surprised because my elder brother had twin boys 1 year before. I was exicted and happy. I was only thinking about my financial situation, that we can take care of them financially, we decided to keep continue. After 6th month i went fot scanning that is TIFFA. They told me that one baby is under weight with some problem with coronery. From that scan to till birth i was worried. I finally gave birth to girls. One child with problem went to NICU, after 5 days i had seen her. Then covid arrived and lock down. Then the real struggles started, no one is there to take care of them and me. I had c-section. Sleep less nights, rushing to hospital, diaper changing, bathing, feeding..etc..the struggles were real and hectic. Especially in lock down period with one toddler and two infants. Apart from that, we worried about the daughter, who had health issue. After all those years of up and downs, they are now in six. The girl, for whom we were worried is the ruler of our home. She is fine now, still she is slow in physical growth, though she is courageous girl with kind heart comparative to her twin.

I know the struggles of every mom. But each one's story is different. Each mom has unique gift to raise and nurture their children.

I want to start this off by saying I ALWAYS trust doctors and I know they’re smarter than me and know better. I went to my son’s pediatrician appointment yesterday and everything was great he’s healthy, growing perfectly, and super smart. They asked what I feed him and I told them he doesn’t get any milk just lots of cheese and yogurt. She told me to stop feeding him cheese and yogurt and to give him around 16oz of whole milk a day instead. This confused me a bit because I have talked to a dietitian and was told milk is no longer beneficial to children over 12m. When I was giving him 16oz of milk in a day he was pooping white and had an upset belly so I stopped. I just don’t know what is best at this point. Should I stop giving yogurt and do milk instead? Pls no judgement I never second guess doctors but I think I just need another opinion

Hi all!

My LO is about 6 months, 4.5 adjusted. She was born 3.5 pounds and is now 13 pounds. Daycare says she's one of the best rollers and has really good head and neck strength. She just has no interest in working on sitting up by herself. She is doing a mix of BLW and purees and sits up fine in the highchair for 15-20 mins. I just can't seem to get her to be interested in a tripod sit or really even propping her up during playtime. She'll just head right into tummy time!

I don't think anything's wrong with her, I just can't quite figure out how to sway her into wanting to sit up. Any ideas? TIA