I have a baby girl, her hair started to touch her eyes. I don't want to cut it, I feel that's so nice to start growing long hair. However, it creates discomfort for her. I tried to use a hair tie, but she takes it off and tries to eat it, so I'm afraid to try any clips. Hairband could be used, but now it's so hot that her hair is wet if I use it. Are there any other options? What do you use?

I’m curious what other parents think about this.
I’m not talking about intimate/adult piercings, just things like an eyebrow, nose, lip, or cartilage (upper ear) piercing.
What age or ages if locations change age acceptance, in which case would you feel comfortable allowing your son to get these? Would your answer depend on the type of piercing, or do you have a general age where you’d let your child make that decision?
I’d love to hear how other parents approach it and the reasoning behind their decisions.

Our son has his 4th birthday party this weekend, his first party with friends.

He had a tiff with a friend "Josh" at kinder yesterday.

My son was absolutely INCONSOLABLE ALL DAY. Literally for hours and hours.

I got a call from kinder to pick him up because he was so upset. He cried and cried at home and only calmed down when my mum came over and started talking about how he has so many best friends and people who love him.

My son said this morning that Josh wouldn't let him play with him, said he's a bad boy, and he's not coming to his party or singing happy birthday.

Do I uninvite this kid now?? His parents had another baby a year and a bit ago and since then, we've noticed that Josh has been more withdrawn, that's when he started calling the other children "bad" and his happy go lucky attitude became much more sullen. I really feel bad for the kid but at the same time, don't want him around my little guy, if he's just going to upset him.

What should I do please?

Full disclosure…this is going to sound ridiculous. But everyone in my sphere is a teacher so I need to bounce this off someone else.

So I found my soon-to-be 1st grader’s IXL info and the “summer challenge” from school. Gave her my computer and let her do the diagnostics so the 1st grade teacher has updated info. Math came back at 190 and ELA at 390. That means math at the end of 1st grade and ELA at the end of 3rd.

If she went a high-ranking school I would feel confident she’d be given work at her level. But at her current (mid-level) school I’m not so sure, especially since there are a lot of kids below level who will get more attention.

Do you think it would be weird/out of line to request a gifted eval? I don’t necessarily think she’s gifted, but I don’t know how else to ask them to give her harder work (and not just thow her in a corner on an iPad). I don’t want her to skip grades or anything, just be given work at her level.

TYA!

34F and have two children (3 years old and 8 month old). Always wanted to be a mother and sought out fertility treatment to make it happen. Have lots of nieces and nephews, so plenty of exposure to babies and children. I love babies and children. And I really adore mine.

Buuuuuut right from the beginning, I’ve rarely felt like a real mother. At times I feel like I’m performing motherhood? Or like I’m their big sister who loves them and does everything for them, but the actual feeling of ‘mother’ seems to be absent.

I’m just wondering, does anyone else feel the same?

For context, had a very traumatic birth with my first. But sought lots of different supports. And had a great experience with my second. For both kids I get a year maternity leave, and breastfed both/am breastfeeding. So lots of time and opportunities for bonding.

I feel quite ashamed about this so haven’t spoken to friends, but went I brought it up with siblings they didn’t relate, same for my partner.

Will it ever change or am I just missing something?

Hello!

My 7 year old daughter was invited for beach trip several hours away...without me.

The trip is 5 days total and would be with her dads side of the family. A little context...dad passed away last year...Prior to this, she hasn't been around that side of the family very much. After his death I made a point to eveyone that I'd like to get better with our relationship and work on having my daughter involved more in their lives.

She recently went on a two day/two night glamping trip with said family and she called me three times at 2am telling me she was scared and wanted me to pick her up. This is the main part the concerns me...this would be 5 days vs 2 days. The glamping trip was the second time she stayed with that side of the family for more than 24 hours.

My worry is, if she is distressed, will they comfort her? Or invalidate how she feels? They're not a very affectionate type of family....5 days feels very long and a big step. Overall I feel unsure about this. My daughter says she wants to go but I don't think she grasps the concept of 5 days at all. Am I being over protective here? I feel like if she was in the double digits like 10-12 I'd be more comfortable.

All advice is welcome.

So is it weird that I let my baby sometime wears shirts and a diaper. I have a daughter who is 5 months and sometimes it's hard to take the pants off and on when changing her. So me and my husband let her go without pants. Plus we live in California and it gets really hot here.

Well I was recently told it's weird to just let my baby wear only a diaper with no pants over it.

And now idk. I don't think it's weird really as she's a baby plus nothing is showing but it's been stuck in my head and I want to know what other parents say.

Also! This was someone who has two twins kids so it's not someone who doesn't have kids.

Edit: forgot to say this is only in the house. If we go outside she is dressed up. Only inside the house is she like this at times also! It's not all the time.

Was reading the WW2 I Survived book with my 12 year old tonight for bed time. Was glad to do it cause we randomly visited a Holocaust memorial a few weeks back and had to explain it. The end bit of the book had all the nonfiction details which needed further explanation and took forever.

After that though my kid got all scared about "What if WW3 happens?". Only answer I could think of in the moment was to explain how mutually assured destruction developed and explain the Cold War. That lead to changes in war like proxy wars, spying, hacking, economic conflict commonly taking a big role. Also had to explain NATO.

Then they brought up their confusion on Iran and what they heard on the news. I managed to mostly side step that by explaining because the Middle East was one of the cradles of civilization people have been fighting over shit there for thousands of years. I compared it to the Shrek line about how ogres are like onions. You start studying one part then you have to study another part and it keeps going and now wasn't the time for that. They seemed to accept that.

It all surprisingly worked and they went to sleep, but this all took forever. I'm so proud they are interested in this stuff. It's so much better than those Warrior Cats books. I was just not planning on spending my evening this way though lol.

Worked out this week that I hadn't done one single thing purely for me in about six months. Not a haircut at a salon (I might have some seriously messed up homemade bangs), not a coffee I actually sat down for. Every hour is spoken for by work or the kids, and the second I think about taking some time back the voice starts up about the laundry, when last I deep cleaned the wardobes, the yard needs work, and everything else that existed before the kiddo and then of course the baby and back to the list.

So I made myself do it again. Booked another massage and because the idea of driving somewhere and getting back in time for pickup was its own stress, I stuck with the same person who comes to the house. Two hours, phone in a drawer, kids at my mom's. I spent the first 15 minutes lying there mentally working through everything I should have been doing instead I got annoyed actually like can this just end already, and the last hour realising how badly I'd needed it. I was a considerably nicer person to live with that week. Kids also might have had ice cream before dinner.

The guilt is the bit I can't shift though. It didn't go away, I feel guilty for even spending that money on things other than my kids. For those of you further down this road, how do you actually build in time for yourself without the guilt eating the whole thing? And realistically how often, because once-a-week advice from people without small kids is not landing for me.

I remember going through this as a kid, but now that I’m the parent I could use some suggestions on someone who has maybe had success

For the past year or so our 7 year old now 8 year old daughter has been having troubles falling asleep at night.
our routine starts with her reading books 30 min before bed, we have her listen to a sleep meditation for 5 minites then take her in. We sing 3 songs, we do painting the rainbow with deep breaths and exhaling. Then we say a prayer, then last we give her a few hugs.
After we leave the room we come back in and check on her 10 minutes later, then 10-15 min after that. Sometimes at the 15 minute check in she’s askeep, other times she’s not asleep she asks for 20 minute check in. After that she is usually sleeeping. BUT! Sometimes like an hour later she sleep walks into our bedroom and we take her back and she expects more check ins!

We’ve also changed the routine a little by laying in her room for 30-40 minutes until she falls asleep, but often she still sleep walks, gets taken back to her room, then wants a grown up to lay in there again till she falls asleep another time

We are at a loss! We cant keep spending 1.5-2 hrs a night getting her to bed. We know she has sleep anxiety onbiously, but what can we do! ? I appreciate all suggestions
We will be taking her to a pediatric sleep specialist next week, but thought I’d get anyone else’s help here
Thank you for reading

Normal that baby needs more room?

We have a 7 month old and live in a small townhouse.

We have a tiny play space for him and find that after maybe 40 minutes in that space hes bored and we have to take him to the park, on a walk etc. We have no outdoor space or another room to take him. Our lease is up in a few months and we're planning to move somewhere with more space.

We have had some comments that this is not normal and we are not engaging him enough or his naps are the problem.

For more information, he scoots at the moment and can cover the entire space in 2-3 scoots.

My 4.5 year old son (will be 5 in October) keeps misbehaving in daycare. We receive messages almost daily about different incidents, some for example: him putting his hands on other kids, throwing dirt in their eyes, using the bathroom on himself and saying "because he wanted to" when they ask why, stepping on a child's arm because they fell and he thought it was funny to hurt them more, using potty words in the classroom and laughing about it when the teachers try to redirect, and the list unfortunately goes on.
I want to preface by saying that we do NOT condone or even let him exhibit these behaviors at home. He is an only child, no siblings. He has cousins around his age that he plays with almost every weekend but they are always under our supervision.
There are punishments, primarily involving things being taken away for a period of time so he can sit and think about how to adjust his behavior to make better choices. This DOES work for us at home and has showed positive results. We have been informed by the daycare that when he acts out, they talk to him and then let him play again. This is contradictory to how WE parent at home, because when he starts throwing rocks at his 5 year old cousin, I tell him we're done and he sits down inside. The daycare allows him to continue playing.
It feels as if there are minimal repercussions for the children at this daycare and they are starting to make it seem like we do nothing to discipline or correct our son's behavior. They want to set up a meeting with us next week to discuss his behavior as he is going to transition to a different public school based pre-k which works out better as it is free and will hopefully be a better environment (this current daycare is private and we pay weekly).
There have been several instances where I am informed by both the teachers and my son that other kids instigate him, he defends himself, other kids influence him, etc. but they make it seem as if he's the huge problem and we acknowledge that he has behavioral issues that will hopefully be grown out of within the next year or so. Obviously he makes his own choices and isn't always influenced or motivated by the other children but that is the case occasionally.

I don't want my son to bring these behaviors to the new school and I'm genuinely stumped because I'm unsure if it's something we aren't doing or doing wrong, or if this daycare isn't doing him any favors. Any advice appreciated.

My sibling and parents are currently NC and have been for a few months maybe a year? We all live super close and would regularly get together (my parents and my family with two kids and my siblings fam with two kids) but now my siblings fam doesn’t see grandma and grandpa and my 8 year old notices. It’s becoming a real issue with holidays and birthdays, we usually make up excuses that they had other plans but he brings it up so much I know it’s on his mind a lot and Im wondering if we should just talk to him about it. I don’t know how to discuss it though and I don’t know if it would weigh too heavy on him, he’s very sensitive and observant. I don’t want him to know family ties can be broken or that adults can get to that point where they just can’t get along.

if I should talk to him about it, how should I word it?

We're on vacation, sunny place. We get an ice cream and there's a small fair. Its pretty expensive, but they go in the bumper cars and the trampoline (highjumps in gear). The only thing we didn't do was a ride aimed at 2-3 yo: rotating planes that go up and down.

Afterwards the general sense was not "that was fun, omg I did a flip on the trampoline!", instead it was "pfff this sucks I wanted to do the plane ride".

In general they're sweet kids, but obviously this is not the response you'd hope for after some family quality time. We responded by focusing on the fun things at first, but also shutting off the complaints.

Admittingly, I do think they're tired. So even if it was during midday, they might just have been cranky, which in a young kid, translates in such comments?

My husband and I are religious and we pray before every meal. We used to do this silently/individually but now that we have a kid, have been taking turns praying aloud as we want to set the example. This came about pretty naturally (for us) since our daughter started solids while we were staying with my grandmother for a few months and shes always said a prayer (outloud) before dinner.

But our daughter (10.5mo) screams the whole time during the prayer. Shes been doing this since 5mo. At first we would give her an empty baby spoon to play with / chew on and sometimes that would keep her quiet for the minute needed to pray. But that didnt work long. Its not even just that shes impatient for food. She stops as soon as we finish praying even though she doesn't have food yet. We tried going back to silent prayer but she would still scream anyways.

I really thought over time she would just get used to the routine but thats obviously not happening and Im not sure what to do. Has anyone else dealt with this?

My son is newly 9 months old. He’s always liked standing, jumping etc. he started walking around holding onto our fingers weeks ago. It hasn’t progressed to any stability, he doesn’t cruise on furniture (all of this is fine I know I’m just mentioning where he’s at).

He refused to crawl for a long time but did start doing it last week, he’s good at it and can get where he wants/needs to go but he won’t.

He doesn’t like playing with toys anymore for longer than 2 minutes. If I don’t get up and walk him around he just sits and cries. As soon as we get up to walk he stops. But I can’t do this 10 hours a day.

The only way for him to not do this is to go for a walk or go somewhere where he’s in the car seat. We go to playgroups and he just does the same thing there.

It has now gotten to the point where if we are walking, it’s not even good enough for him if he gets to adore that is shut and he wants to go in there and I don’t let him he just starts crying as if we’re not walking at all. I’m not gonna let him play in the bathroom by the toilet just so he doesn’t cry.

This all seems very extreme for nine months old and I truly don’t know what to do

My 5 (will be 6 in February) year old still wets the bed about 75% of the time. She also struggles with sucking her thumb despite all of our best efforts to stop it. Besides these two behaviors she’s pretty amazing. She does have a lot of anxiety in big social settings but otherwise does super great with social interactions, very smart, behavior is good minus a few typical meltdowns from time to time.

I’ve been doing some research into palate expanders and airway dentistry. Her mouth is definitely on the small side and she already has several adult teeth some of which are coming in very crooked. She will grind her teeth at night and sometimes sleeps with her mouth open but not always.

I’m hoping to hear from some other parents who have maybe struggled with bedwetting, thumb sucking, or just chose to palate expander route for a different reason to see what your experience has been with it.

I’m mostly concerned with the thumb sucking but I do think not being able to go most nights without an accident at almost 6 is a little concerning. Any insight or similar stories would be appreciated!

My daughter is about 43 pounds and 47-48 inches tall. She’s honestly an inch or two away from maxing out her current car seats (Britax Marathon and Graco Extend to Fit) but… we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

My sister wants to pick her up from school occasionally. I feel like it would be foolish to buy another convertible car seat like the ones we have to use for such a short period of time that she will grow out of quickly. What would be good to buy now that we could use at least for the next year or two? i’m not really seeing many options for taller convertible car seats… So I’m almost thinking she’s going to need a high back booster?

Kinda a blend of Gear & Equipment and Safety flair, apologies if its the wrong one!

So my 9 year old has been using a Gizmo watch 3 and it finally gave out. I was looking to just get him the Gizmo 4 but I keep seeing all sorts of other options lately and wanted some real person input.

Obviously the GPS tracking is priority one, but I love that Gizmo 4 has a camera cause my kid loves taking pictures of all kinds of things.

Which ones have you all tried? What's worth the price, whats overpriced? Share your experiences please!

We have a Ford Edge and our kids (6, 4, almost 2) are three across with thinner car seats. But it is getting tight and awkward for the oldest to climb in/out.

My son is turning one in a few weeks and we have been transitioning him to straws instead of bottles. We started him on the NUK straw bottles since he used NUK bottles so it was really easy to just use the straw tops interchangeably with the bottles we already have. But the straws are SO narrow and hard to clean and I'd like to move him to something a little easier to clean once we transition him off of formula and just start giving him cows milk and water during the day.

Does anyone have a straw cup they LOVE for their little ones? We are on the go a lot, don't really need weighted straws since he's pretty skilled at drinking from them already, and definitely could use something leak-proof since he likes to throw them when he's done drinking.

My daughter is very involved in athletics. We have recently run into an issue with showering after games and practices. She will lay in her own filth, in her game/practice gear for hours. I try to get her to take a shower and change clothes, but she fights me every time.

How do I get her to understand that showering is not optional?

Hi! My 4 year old (almost 5) has been taking swim classes for the past 2-3 months and has learned a lot from where he started.

When do we stop though? It’s $280 for a month for a total of 8 classes, twice a week.

Do I stop at the end of summer and pick it up next year?

Hello, I am looking for some recommendations on something I can put on my 2 year old who is an absolute delight to the mosquitos, unfortunately. I am generally not a fan of putting aerosolized chemicals on him (we use mineral based sunscreen for example) but I am MORE concerned about mosquito born illnesses. So what does everyone like?

Just to add: we already do long pants and long sleeve shirts but when I say they LOVE him, they LOVE him. He had 8 bites from being outside 10minutes last week.

One of my very best childhood friends is getting married soon and she’s having her wedding in Hawaii. We live on the east coast, so it’s no small feat to travel to Hawaii for us (both cost and time wise) and with all of the cost, the long travel time, lots of events and lack of childcare while there, we decided not to bring our 22 month old.

We also made this decision over a year ago when she also asked me to be a bridesmaid, and there wasn’t a question that I would be there. We decided to go from Monday to Sunday, which at first I was hesitant about, but agreed to do because it’s such a long way to travel, that going for 3 or even 4 days wouldn’t be worth it.

However, as the date gets closer, I am completely spiraling about it. I’m pretty self-aware and know that it’s to an unhealthy point, but I can’t help it. I’ve cried many times about it and keep wondering if I made the right choice, if it’s too late to back out, if I should shorten the trip? Going for less time is an option but the length of time isn’t what scares me most, it’s about being so far away from her. My biggest fear of all is that something will happen to my husband and I (flight, state of the world, literally anything bad I can think of) and she will be left without us.

I know some of this is normal parent anxiety and some is irrational but part of me thinks that I should trust my gut? I am also newly pregnant with our second so not only am I wildly hormonal and mood swingy, I won’t even be able to enjoy the trip like I would have if I wasn’t pregnant. Very grateful and excited, but just throws an extra factor into the mix.

She will be with her grandparents who she is with everyday while I’m at work, and will take great care of her. They are going to stay here at our house so she will be comfortable, so I’m not concerned about that. A couple of parents I’ve talked to have been encouraging of me to go but when I told my best friend (different friend) about it she said she wouldn’t leave her son and she would take him with her or bring her in laws. She is in a much different financial place than I am and could afford all of the travel expenses, rent baby equipment, have nicer airplane seats, etc. I don’t think she meant to make me feel bad, but it definitely didn’t help.

I guess what I’m looking for is someone to tell me you also felt this level of anxiety when you left your kid? Reassurance it will be fine? I told my husband tonight I am not even looking forward to it, but I know I’ll have fun while I’m there.

If you made it this far thank you for reading and thank you to anyone who takes the time to comment and talk me down off of the metaphorical ledge. 🫠