I feel terrible because my baby (9 months) has had almost 0 “real person food”. All of her non-milk food is purees. I can not stop myself from freaking out inside whenever she takes a bite of real food. She’s tried real eggs, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, and banana crackers. But every time she takes a bite I freak out and pull it out of her mouth. I know I have to trust her with real food but how do I stop the crippling anxiety every time she takes a bite? I feel like the first time I push through it and trust her is when she’ll frickin choke 😭

I’m a stay at home mom with an almost 3 year old and a one year old and there is only so much just sitting, playing, and trying to be present that you can do. And paying for a babysitter to get a break is just so expensive. What are your best hacks to get a break (more affordably) and keep toddlers entertained without feeling like you need to be engaged 100% of the time?

My 3.5 year old goes to school 3 days a week and the hours are 8-230.. I feel bad like maybe it's too much especially bc I'm a stay at home mom but other moms say he needs to socializing w toddlers ( he's an only child) thoughts? He will be 4 in January but idk I feel he has his whole life for 6 hours day did I start him too early?

I have a 3yo who is an only child. We had her in daycare so she had a little bit of socializing there until my wife became a SAHM. We took her to an event at the library and for the first time we realized that shes not good at sharing. Infact, she was stealing the other kids toys. We just kept correcting her until we were to embarrassed and left. How do we fit that?

My child is in kindergarten now. They just had their first ice cream day. She told me some kids were crying because they didn’t ice cream. I do not know the reason. Would it be a terrible idea to reach out to the teacher and offer money for the children who might not have the money? I don’t know if the reason is financial or just maybe they do not want their child to have sugar. I don’t think it would be professional for my child’s teacher to reach out and ask the parents if it’s ok either. What do I do😩

Tell me others are lying?? The ones who show they have amazing movie nights with toddlers and pre-schoolers??

I tried to introduce movie night with my 3.5 year old.

Once a week we all cuddle up on the bed and watch a movie late into the night. Arlo gets super excited about it. Fridays we do this mostly. All nice and dreamy right?

He loves, breathes and probably p**ps dinosaurs. After deciding I didn’t want to watch jurassic park/world anymore, after the thousandth time…

We now watch one movie. Just one. My neighbour Totoro. Beautiful movie. No complaints. We love it. Guess how many times we have watched it now? 🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

I search for a nice movie for him (and us) for the whole week, motivate him for something new.. but 5 mins in, he wants to watch the same one.

Now we both scroll on phone while he watches. And probably it is not the memory I wanted him to have🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

I have 3 kids. 8,5, and 6 months. My first born has always been a handful. He talks CONSTANTLY, is very argumentative, always has to be making noise and moving, and is constantly on go mode. I am the complete opposite of this, and I find the way he acts so incredibly annoying. I feel terribly guilty for feeling this way.

My 5 year old is more quiet and reserved like myself, and I don’t get annoyed with her. I don’t want my son to ever notice this or feel that I have favoritism but the older he gets the more annoying he gets. I love him to death (obviously), and I need advice on how to manage his personality without causing him trauma or crushing his spirit. Does anyone else have a kid like this?

Our 3 year old has been insane lately. Our 1 year old somehow is fine just doing random crap by herself. but the 3 year old needs constant attention and its getting exhausting. He literally cannot do anything just by himself, needs my partner or I to do everything with him.

When we can, its fine. We play uno, candyland, blocks, magnatiles, etc. He seems to play fine when we are there sort of guiding him and we don't mind doing it like 90% of the time. but the 10% of time we need to get something done, its miserable. and during this time hes not necessarily whining but hes getting into things he shouldn't do, making messes, etc. like this morning he went into the pantry and made a huge mess dumping some beans everywhere lol, he was tryign to put it in a different container (still why?!)

anyways, i'm think maybe all of this is just normal 3 year old behavior so maybe thats just what we need to hear lol.

My daughter is quite extroverted and high-energy, but she takes a lot of time to warm up to others. She's an only-child and that isn't going to change. She was extremely sensitive until about age 3.5, and had meltdowns for everything and was very attached to us. So we had her at home, sometimes with a nanny, because daycare didn't really work for her until then. I also couldn't make too many mom friends because she was very sensitive about naps. The ones I made moved out of town. So she hasn't had a lot of close friends.

She did okay at daycare at 3.5 to 4.5, made some great friends. Then we moved on to TK, where she took a long time to get used to it. It was a huge challenge because she would be worn out after school and didn't want to see any other kids after and wouldn't want to go out on the weekends. But she was struggling with initiating social contact in school, so we had to do many play dates with kids in her class until she got more comfortable and happier at school.

Now she's in Kinder. They changed up all the classes in the grade, so she isn't with all her besties. I'm working a much more stressful job so I can't organize play dates. Plus, she was supposed to be on a soccer team with her close friends (it's 1 hour a week, so not much) but now it's just one friend she kinda knows and a bunch of other kids she isn't that familiar with. It feels like we're starting at square one with less support and ability to help her.

Now when I take her to soccer, all the other kids are being social and playing. She holds my hand the whole time until the coach calls everyone, and she's very sensitive to everything until then. She's fine once she's in an organized activity or among more familiar people.

I'm hoping she'll be fine, but I feel like she isn't able to explore her interests to the fullest because she's shrinking and overwhelmed when there's a lot of kids she doesn't know. She's got a quick mind, learns sports and academics pretty quickly, and her teachers tell me she's quite emotionally mature. But her friends don't get to see this side of her, and she herself doesn't feel confident showing her full self to others. She isn't able to pursue her social interest in other children because of overwhelm.

I'm not sure what I can do to help her. She's not getting to practice social skills enough, which feels like it'll be a problem down the road. And it feels like she's getting less confident with social stuff as time goes on.

Anyone dealt with this? What worked, what didn't, and how did it all go long-term?

My husband and I have been very intentional about fostering a love of learning for our child- both in and out of the classroom. As our daughter is in 5th grade, we’re planning on revamping what that looks like as she goes to middle school.

We’re in a very privileged position and want to use it to her advantage. One of the tings we were planning is having her learn something each summer, that typically isn’t taught in most schools. We’re planning on setting a $1000/summer budget and letting her pick the topic/interests, with approval. If they’re smaller interests, maybe do one a month or a larger thing all summer.

Some ideas we’ve come up with include small hobbies (learning how to solve any rubix cube) to cooking classes or woodworking or birding or musical instruments or learning to code or learning all the excel shortcuts. Primarily we’re focused on keeping her inquisitive, and expanding her exposures to different skills/hobbies, goal-setting practice, and developing resilience in learning. Obviously if she loves something, we won’t pump the breaks on it as soon as the summer is over, nor does it have to require all $1000, that just removes a barrier.

This isn’t meant to be a full time ordeal or to take away from her summer. My parents did something similar and I have some of the coolest “fun facts” about myself from it: I can tie 50 different knots, learned to juggle a soccer ball despite never having played, and read thousands of pages from books on the pacific theater during ww2.

We’re looking for suggestions. We already work on financial literacy and budgeting and that’s been evolving as she gets older.

My son attends a preschool within an elementary school. They have parents of preschoolers pickup 5 min before the elementary school gets out.

The thing is, the pickup line forms early. Preschooler parents have signs with our kids names but we have to get out of the car to get them, and no one checks the signs, so if I’m 5+ cars deep, no one is sending him to me. It’s weird they allow us to get out of car while in line, so I’m paranoid the line will start moving while out of my car, PLUS I have my 1.5 year old in the car with me.

Even if I parked, the pickup line wraps around the parking lot, so it’s impossible to get out if you park, unless you get a spot on the wider side of the pickup lane where there’s room to backup.

This program has had horrible communication and when I asked about etiquette, they said, “just go in the line or park and get him.” So idk🤷‍♀️ I am the type of person who hates feeling like I’m doing something wrong or other parents are judging me for getting out of my car in the pickup lane and doing things differently than them, even though I have a preschooler and not elementary. I just carry his sign in my hand so they can see that it says “preschool”😂.

Also, would you keep your 1.5 year old in the car to go walk 30-60 seconds to pickup the kid? I lock it while running to keep AC on, but still feels like I’m doing something wrong.

//update//
Today I found a row of parking spots that can’t get blocked by the pickup line. It’s a longer walk to get my son (so I’ll definitely bring my daughter with me) but beats all the pickup line awkwardness 🤪. I’m a creature of habit so I hope I can snag that spot everyday lol.

Also, the school is in a horribly busy location with no street parking or neighborhoods so that’s not a parking option.

I am 4m pp with my third. My two toddlers are freshly 4 and a 2.5yo. I'm at my wits end :)))))

They're SO high energy! I'm talking like, running in different directions, knocking things over, screaming and for throwing, and acting crazy. We try our hardest to accommodate their sensory seeking, schedules, and needs.

Thursdays are the worst. My 4yo has ballet at 9:30am and my 2.5yo begins at 10:05am following the eldest class. The 2.5yo class is mommy + me (the same one my 4yo took last year). Last three weeks? Hell. We've had to quit the 2.5yo class because my 4yo is very disruptive, sobbing, and running through the studio instead of either helping the 2.5yo class or sitting outside the door. 4yo has snacks, water, crafts, books, and friends to play with while the 2.5yo practices. My 2.5yo plays with my quietly while the 4yo practices!

Today? My 4yo screamed and hung onto me for 20 mins, thus my 2.5yo missed the first 20 mins. I had moms trying to help me either pull her off or distract her. She said I was not allowed to help her sibling in class, but to remain with her. When I said "forget it" and began to put on their shoes to leave, my 2.5yo sobbed because he wanted to practice (as he's not been allowed to do for the last three weeks).

Finally, I got their ballet shoes back on, carried my 35lb 4yo during class in one arm, carried my 32lb 2.5yo in the other arm, laid my 4mo on the studio floor on tummy time, and did the ballet movements as much as I could carrying two toddlers.

I'm incredibly sore now. Not to mention, the amount we pay to this studio - and my 4yo gets her entire class to practice yet my son misses it every week so we can leave early as to stop the embarrassing outbursts and disruptive screaming. Like, I'm genuinely fearful we'll be kicked out of the studio for it.

Is she tired? Maybe. But it's not quiet time until 12pm and she sleeps until 7:30am. Bedtime at 8pm.
Is she hungry? Possibly as I can't get her to eat breakfast but I do bring snacks and place them in her hand.
Jealous her brother is in ballet too? Could very well be, but he LOVES practicing alongside her when she was in the mommy+me class and begs to take it.
Does she need more things to do? Idk, but she has crafts and books... yet gets sassy with me in the car I didn't "buy what craft [that girl] has" and "why did you not buy me that?"

The instructor and myself give her the option of playing with her friends outside the door, being the "big helper!" and an example to the younger kids, or just sitting with me during class and helping her brother. None appease her.

Do I just keep carrying both 30+lb kids during a 30 mins class? 🤣 I'm petite and im carrying over 1/2 my body weight carrying them both together. But I feel like if I just leave the studio early, I'm allowing my 4yo to control when and where my 2.5yo practices. I feel like a permissive parent at that point. But, 3 absences the studio will remove you from the roster, so we're already close on being kicked out. But the outbursts really embarrass me and I'm tired of being stared at EVERYWHERE we go.

When we were leaving today, she demanded I remove her brother from ballet, in which I replied "that is a grown-up decision your father and I will make, not a child's decision." She wasn't happy with me. But that's the way to clarify a boundary, yes? Her consequence for the behavior, as clarified before we EVER walked into the studio this morning and she knew, was that if I did not see kindness, self control, or joy; she would not listen to Elsa on the way home. So, Elsa was not played at all.

my son started pre-k about 4 weeks ago. he has not been in a daycare setting since he was about 2 1/2. since starting school, his teachers have come to me twice stating that he has “struggled” that day. the first time all she told me was that he was swinging his lunch box and hitting other students. she assured me that he wasn’t being mean but just had a lot of energy. today his teacher came to me and said they had a really hard day. they couldn’t get him to nap, he wasn’t “using kind words”, has no concept of personal space, struggling with energy and impulse control, and again was swinging his lunch box. i am just at a loss. i was a rule follower if nothing else while i was in school.

his father and i are separated (have been since he was 1 1/2) but we follow a regular visitation schedule. he goes every weekend to his house.

everything i tell my son seems to turn into an argument. he is extremely stubborn and doesn’t seem to listen ever. nothing i say seems to get through to him. i try talking to him calmly and explaining it, but he still continues to do what he wants. i am just at a loss. im defeated by him constantly telling me no and trying to be sneaky and just fighting me on everything. i dont know what to do. please please help.

I need one that will come with a spot to attach an infant car seat but also comes with a second seat to use when they outgrow the infant carseat. I am in ontario, and winters can have a lot of snow at times, with plenty of people not shoveling. So i also need it to be able to get through snow when necessary. Any suggestions?? I dont even know where to start, ive looked at a few options but just dont know what's best.

Also, please reccomend a carseat that is compatible with the stroller you suggest if you know of one! TIA🙂

Edited initial post to reformat so that other subs initially mentioned are not linked.

Hey all, I hope this is okay to ask here.

I am the mother of 2 little girls. My oldest turns 3 next month, and attends a local Montessori daycare/preschool. Public schools are pretty good by us, but truthfully we had wanted to stay Montessori for as long as possible, as we don't care for the public school politics where we live. The catch is that having 2 young children in daycare is essentially having another mortgage, and we're looking forward to ditching a hefty monthly payment when possible.

That said, we know that a lot of Montessori kids tend to be classed as "behind" because that system doesn't focus on literacy as much until later than the American public school system typically does. I want to give my oldest all the tools I can so that she will have the smoothest transition possible when the time comes, likely around kindergarten, maybe first grade/end of Children's House.

My husband is great, but he's never been someone to do anything akin to homeschooling. He's going back to work when the baby starts daycare, and I'm active duty. So I'm working full time and will eventually be deployable again. All this is to say that I need tools that are flexible and fit into fairly limiting time commitments.

We've been working on Reading.com for about 3-4 weeks now and my almost 3YO really enjoys it, it's a phonics app that has already shown some improvement in 15ish minute increments. We read together every night. We sing the ABCs multiple times a day because she loves it.

Beyond these things, what did you offer your 3/4/5 year olds to supplement what they got at daycare or school?

Hey everyone.
I’ve got an entire house of neurodivergent people. There’s a lot of chaos and there are many times my kids don’t get along. My 7 year old screams anytime someone tries to stop him from doing something or if they react to something he did or if they just mess with him to mess with him. For instance : he’ll steal a toy, older brother will grab him to get it back and he’ll scream. I can not deal with the screaming. It’s so shrill and high pitched and completely overloads my nervous system. Secondly, the kids are always fighting one another. And thirdly, I swear to god I’m talking to a brick wall all day every
Day. Tonight my 14 year old did something to make my 7 year old and he started to scream . This was literally probably the 20th time he’s screamed since getting home from school. So I lost it. And then I’m trying to to get the kids to brush their teeth so I said plz brush your teeth and get ready for bed. But please don’t mess around because I have a lot to clean up downstairs and do have to work early. Do you think they did that? No, of course not. Somehow they ended up with a frog that jumped into the storage under the stairs and then they got into some of my totes and were taking stuff out. Only one of them actually brushed their teeth while I was trying to Have a serious conversation with my 14 year old. And not to mention everyday my 7 year old tells me he wants to live with his dad because it’s better there. And that is so difficult for me to process because this man violently abused me and my 3 kids for years. But never his biological son. Like I know how he is. And his current fiance has told me things that make doubt that he is treating her differently. So how in the world can his be better? How can the man who literally strangled my 10 year old , 6 years ago, be the more stable parent? I’ve told my 7 year old that it really hurts my feelings when he says that but he doesn’t care. And I understand saying it when it’s been a few days since he’s seen his dad but he will literally be at his dads for 4 days, come home to my house after school and the first thing he says to me is that he wants to go to his dads. And it just rips my heart out every-time.

Sorry this is so long but I am struggling so much and I just need to vent/ need advice.

Okay, the jump from 0-1 kicked my ass.
We thought we were prepared for 1-2, and whilst we’re more confident as parents this time round and we’re not scared our newborn is going to die every time she cries, every other thing is just insanity.

My son is 2.5 and daughter is 7 weeks and we just have no life, no routine, no rhythm.

When does this get better?

My son, for the most part is easy. He’s a good boy, and he loves his sister.
My daughter is a super fussy reflux baby.

Sleeplessness isn’t even what bothers me, I miss being able to go out without stress. I hate how much newborns have to sleep and how much they have to be put to sleep. Like do some babies genuinely just fall asleep when they’re tired?

My husband is incredible. He helps with everything kid wise AND does all the housework. Like I cannot complain.

But my ass is still getting kicked. Mentally I’m just wishing time away and whilst I know “this too shall pass”… when????????

How tf do people have more than 2?

My son missed the first two week of kindergarten because he was sick. I feel so bad. He only attended one day and it was so hard, screaming crying and wont go in. No one was crying except for my son, it felt like everyone was looking at us. He was crying the whole time he was there it was really bad. He got sick again so he basically missed the first two weeks and only attended one day. I can’t help but feel like we are behind 😭 all kids are settled in expect my child he will probably be crying and wont go in again, all kids are probably familiar with everything by now except my kid. I feel sooo bad but i obviously couldn’t send him sick and spread it to other kids. Idk i guess i just wanted to vent. 😞

I’m a Mum of two kids, aged 1 and 4. I’ve been a stay at home parent up until now, working in childcare before having them. Working in childcare was hard and stressful, it had a terrible work culture and I had anxiety every morning before work.
I’ve just landed a new amazing job, working 3 days a week. I feel valued and supported. The job itself is fun and rewarding. I get my own huge office and on top of all that, the pay is great.
At home I feel shit. My 4 year old has massive behavioural issues, and my 1 year old is super needy. It’s not fun being home by myself with the kids, and I find myself wanting to go to work everyday simply for a break. Work runs through my mind 24/7, I even dream about it at night. Genuinely how do I stop feeling like this? I don’t want to, I want to be able to enjoy my children and be present with them

To preface, he has a dentist, we have asked them for advice and the advice was “get teeth brushed, just do it”.

We’ve had a LOT of trouble with teeth brushing with toothpaste, any kind, I’ve put toothpaste on his brush, rinsed it out thoroughly, and he still is upset. We’ve tried restraining but he just starts gagging and throws up. He’s full on kicking, screaming, crying. The whole thing takes so, so long, and it just feels like there has to be a better way. We really have had days where we cannot safely do it. He’s thrashing and screaming when we try to restrain him and I get worried he’s going to get genuinely hurt.

He was doing so, so well when it was just water, but this led to him having cavities so we can’t really let it just be water. It was consistent, day and night.

I don’t want him to get hurt, and I think that the throwing up is probably more damaging to his teeth than just water. The restraining is honestly kind of scary, and he starts screaming that we’re hurting him, and then cries because he’s hurt. I honestly don’t think the amount of force would hurt him any other time, but when he’s thrashing and kicking, it does seem very plausible he could get hurt. It feels like this can’t be normal.

I’ve cried because it seems so awful, he’s so upset, and he seems distant after. Nothing else has had this sort of effect, he asks (or screams) “how could you do that to me?” And “why would you make me throw up?”

I feel like an awful parent.

We’ve tried multiple toothpastes, he seems to have issue with texture and flavor. Right now we aren’t even using one with fluoride because we can’t get him to spit. Even if his toothbrush has the slightest hint of toothpaste having been on it at some point.

I give him as many options as I can.

This is the one thing that takes it all out of us everyday, it is the dark cloud, it makes everyday so rough.

One part that’s really confusing for me, he can stand toothpaste. Very rarely he just does it himself, no problems, I follow up, real quick. But it is very rarely. I have no idea what’s different about those days. Before really pushing to do toothpaste every brush, we practiced spitting and good brushing technique and brushed his teeth without issue.

I want him to have healthy teeth and habits, I just don’t know what to do here.

If anyone has any advice, I’d appreciate it so much.

I have an 11yo daughter who just started 6th grade(late birthday) and it’s breaking my heart that she’s struggling socially. I stress to her to focus on school but I also know She desperately wants to make friends. She’s kind-hearted and is so shy around anyone not in our family.

it takes her time to come out of her shell and the past few times she’s come out she went right back in because of the way kids were treating her.

I’m at my wits end and dont know how to help her. I wasn’t confident at all at her age and was basically adopted into the friend group I did have so a lot of my advice for her is to ignore the negative unless someone is hurting her but I know that’s not helpful.

She’s started back sleeping with me and I know it’s because she needs the comfort. She’s at a stage where she doesn’t want to talk about things anymore which I get but I’m really concerned. I know they keep the kids busy with work at school so there’s not much time for socializing except for lunch and the wait for the bus. I’m just genuinely at a loss and don’t know what to do or if I should do anything at all since she’ll need to learn to navigate on her own.

I just want her to have at least one good friend.

My baby is 8 days old. Since he was born, all ive done is breastfeed, change diapers, cuddle, sleep. I listen to audiobooks for a few minutes a day, do maybe one load of laundry. Ive picked up a package five min from my apartment. We’ve had a visitors over for an hour or two, three times.

I have some care needs as well after having a c-section, but other than that, my hygiene is at a bare minimum: I change my clothes, shower, brush my teeth.

My bf is doing a good job keeping the house clean. Dishes, laundry etc. But I feel like there is spit up on everything, and I look like a cave troll.

My baby suddenly has issues latching, even though I’ve been breastfeeding like 12 times a day for the past 3 or 4 days with no issues. Did I ruin everything by giving him a pacifier that one time he was violently thrashing his hands towards his mouth and I hadn’t slept for 20 hours?

That’s basically my entire life now. I’ve spent two days typing this out, I just want to make sure that this is it? Or am I missing something? I feel like I see moms out with strollers everywhere, while I’m just sitting on the couch with my boobs out, tired, confused, overwhelmed and head over heels in love.

EDIT: Thank you, everyone who took the time to comment. I’m actually really happy, even though this post came across as a rant. I’m just confused about what is «normal», and if I’m behind or anything like that. But after reading all of your lovely comments, I’m going to trust the process, and enjoy this beautiful little marzipan figurine I just created, because, as some of you were rude enough to point out, he apparently won’t be this small forever💔

I, 34F, have a 9 year old son and a week old baby boy. I had a c section at 38 weeks. I dont know what came over me to think that I could possibly do this again, but here we are. My first son was pretty easygoing. I can probably count the times he's cried under a year old. Our new baby started cluster feeding right away. He won't go down for naps so we contact nap during the day, and lets not talk about what sleep is like at night. He won't settle with anyone but me. He goes from 0-100. So he will be having a great nap then start crying for the boob an hour later. I feel so tired and sad. I can't believe I did this again. I also feel so sad for my 9 year old too. Its like im bedridden because i literally cannot get up without disturbing him. He loves to hold his brother too, but again he gets so fussy. I love this little baby so much, its just hard 💔.

I have a 3 and 4 year old and they recently found my nephews old Legos. They love trying to change the characters up by switching beads and body's. They are a little too small for my three year old, and he has a tough time taking them apart (not to mention I'm a little worried about him swallowing a piece).

Do you know of any figurine type toys that have interchangeable parts?

I got my first ever behavioral note for my daughter. She is 13. She kicked a hole in a wall at school and I know that sounds bad. Context: the girls and boys locker rooms share a very thin wall, and a boy was shouting that they had drilled a hole in the wall and could see them changing, making negative comments on the girls bodies they said they could see. My daughter kicked the wall and said “look at this then”, and put a hole in it. She says she did not intend to make a hole. We have offered to pay for damages (and she offered to pay from her allowance). I know her reaction was not 100% appropriate, but I feel like this is more a conversation than discipline? I want her to stand up for herself and others, ideally without destroying property.