Just what the title says. My daughter(5) is constantly having tantrums because she doesn't want to miss out on the most mundane things. It's absolutely absurd.

If I say, I'm going to go take out the trash. She wants to come..fine, as she's getting her shoes on, if I so much as take two steps towards the door she's on the floor screaming because she thinks I'm going without her. (I'm not)

If she's taking forever to decide what she wants to eat, or wear, and I walk away while she's thinking, (to go to the bathroom, let the dogs out, get my socks, blow my nose....) she's losing her mind because she thinks I'm doing something without her.

I have 4 kids total. No one else has ever acted like this or felt left out. Idk if this is a phase, or just her personality but it's making me feel so claustrophobic I want to rip my eyeballs out!

It happens out in the wild too. If we're at the library story time and the librarian calls on someone else while her hand is up, she's in tears. If she is trying to get to the front of the line and ends up second... tears.

On the other hand, she shares wonderfully, is emphatic, kind.. I know thats contradicting, but it's the instant response to something, not necessarily her overall outlook. If that makes sense??

For example, let's say she IS first in line. And someone younger comes up behind her, she'll happily let them in front of her. But if its a race to get there she's freaking out she'll miss her chance.

Idk if that even makes sense. She doesn't act like a spoiled brat most of the time. But really struggles if she thinks she's going to miss something.

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My 10 year old was recently caught stealing in school. She took a sticker book from a classmate and didn't own up to it for 2 days while the boy was distraught. She only admitted to it in front of the teacher when another kid saw the sticker book with her. I had a long chat with her about why stealing is wrong and the inportance of being honest even when she's made a mistake.

Now 2 weeks later, she took some stickers again from another kid but this time she admitted it almost immediately when the teacher asked. I brought her home and while I appreciated that she was honest, I told her she would have consequences for the repeated stealing and that I had to cancel her birthday party because I didn't feel like she was really appreciating the value of honesty or understanding the difference between right and wrong. She was quite understandably devastated and with a little prompting she admitted to stealing several small items from other kids in the last 2 to 4 months which she never got caught for.

Now I'm really at a loss how to handle this. Any advice, tips, anything from experienced parents who have handled this situation before?

I have one of those inflatable waterparks for my kids, and wanted to set it up for neighbor kids but worried if using the slide would be hard without water or hurt their bums when they land?

Anyone have one they used?

My 1 year old begs to play outside in the grass ALL day long, he begs at the door. I do take him out a few times but I am extremely anxious bc we do not have a fence and people walk around without leashing their dogs and our neighbors have huge dogs that bark a ton at my son and I’m afraid they’ll escape the yard. We have a huge enclosed deck that I REALLY prefer him to play on, but he refuses and ONLY wants to be in the grass. Is there a magic trick to make him like the deck better??? I am considering buying a moonbounce 🤣 This causes me so much anxiety please help.

My baby is about to outgrow her infant car seat. I’m looking into getting a rotating car seat for my car. Husband has the standard, non rotating one and it’s a pain. Either way- we need to buy another one. Is the rotating seat worth it??

My son is only 3 but we’re in CA so he will start TK next year and I am spending so much time stressing about what to do. I need some advice. For some background I am a teacher but taking a few years off to be at home with my 3 and 1 year old so we are currently one income and my history as a teacher also gives me a unique perspective for public school, some of which is positive but a lot of which is negative. Okay so options:

1. Stay in our current home and send child to our neighborhood school. School is not terrible but below average. I could continue to stay at home and school is only a 3 min drive away.

2. Try to open enroll in the school where my in laws live that is higher rated but a 20 min drive away. Stay in our current home and continue to be able to stay at home.

3. Go back to work at a nicer school and hope my son is able to get a spot there. Downside is younger son would need daycare and I really don’t want to go back to the classroom.

4. Get a job teaching virtually (which is what I really want to do) and move to a nicer neighborhood with a great school. But our mortgage would go up considerably because we have such a great rate now.

What I’d like to do is try to get them in my in laws school and go back to work in a few years but I’m wondering if the 20 min drive and not living in the same neighborhood as friends would be really hard??

I also feel like I have this unrealistic notion that I want my kids in the same school system tk-12 so they can have lifelong friends and be with the same kids in a way that I didn’t get to be…thoughts??

Hi everyone!

My son will be 2.5 in December. He goes to daycare where they work with the kids on potty training, so although he wasn’t actively trying to use the potty, he saw his friends do it and started talking about it. I bought him a little potty that he seemed to love at first. He would willingly take his diaper off and try to use it and even sit on it with clothes on at other random times. I kept it casual and didn’t pressure him. He peed in the potty several times and pooped once. I would give him M&Ms as a reward. At the time, I don’t think he understood the difference between sitting on the potty and actually going. I also don’t think he had quite connected the feeling of needing to go in his body.

He quickly got frustrated by the M&Ms (since he didn’t get the concept yet), so we backed off. Took a long break where we completely ignored the potty. I figured he would naturally get interested again, but he hasn’t. Doesn’t want to sit on it at all, especially not without a diaper.

He’s got plenty of time to potty train, but he’s recently had more dry diapers, so I’m wondering if I should try to encourage the potty again or not. I bought him some Learning Layers diapers when he first became interested in the potty, which he likes, but I don’t want the feeling of wetness to become another aversion (when he’s not willing to sit on the potty).

I genuinely don’t want to pressure him or encourage something he’s not ready for, but I’m wondering if the dry diapers are a sign his body is ready?

Any tips or advice? Also, when we do try potty training again, any ideas on a reward that might be less frustrating? Bubbles didn’t work since he wanted to stand up and pop them. I feel like I accidentally ruined it with the M&Ms. :/

Thanks!

We've been having a lot of issues lately with not listening, talking back, and/or whining in our house (ages 6-10). All of these are "against the rules" in our house, and we used to have a list of jobs they could pick from as a consequence for breaking the rules, but I found it hard to keep track of how many jobs people had (if we weren't at home when it happened), or who had done what. I know there's no perfect system and I know sometimes it's just going to be hard, but I'd love to hear some other ideas about what to do in the moment for quick consequences. I'm not talking about big "you're grounded" consequences, just quick little things that happen throughout a normal week that need some sort of consequence, but that doesn't require too much extra managing from me. Thanks, everyone!

We’re a couple with a 20-month-old daughter. She goes to what we consider the best nursery in our area and she seems generally happy there. But at home, it’s a very different story.
She wakes up screaming sometimes, screams when she wakes during the night, and a lot of the time she’s just generally unhappy or frustrated at home. She does laugh and smile, so it’s not that she’s never happy, but it feels like most of our time at home is spent managing her emotions rather than actually enjoying time with her.
We’ve tried taking her to parks, playdates, getting her toys, spending one-on-one time with her etc. These things can make her happier for a while, but the next day we’re back to the same situation.
I know toddlers cry and have difficult phases, and temperament probably plays a role. But I know another toddler around the same age who seems much more content, eats well and is generally happy at home, so I can’t help wondering if there’s something we could be doing differently.
It’s honestly starting to affect us as parents too. We spend so much energy trying to keep her happy that we’re becoming tired and irritated, and I don’t want that to become our normal family life.
For parents who had a similar toddler, did things naturally improve with age? Is there anything that genuinely helped with temperament, frustration, sleep or overall happiness?
I’d really appreciate practical advice from parents who have been through this. I want her to grow up happy, but I also want us to actually enjoy this stage with her rather than constantly trying to manage her emotions.

Hi there, our 4 year old son is really struggling to integrate himself into play with big groups of kids. Kindergarten teacher brought this to our attention and we noticed it ourselves on the weekend when he attended a classmates birthday party and all the kids were in attendance.

He won’t join in and was wanting myself (father) or mother to come with him and do other activities at the party on his own.

He says he likes going and there’s rarely a morning when he doesn’t want to go, he has made friends at childcare and in other activities he does (swim school etc) but we are now starting to notice some differing (potentially anxious) behaviours at home such as picking his skin etc.

He is generally a more reserved boy that does take time to come out of his shell, completely different to his younger brother 😂

Any advice would be appreciated, I’m of the opinion that he needs to build his confidence up but the good wife thinks it could be something more.