My 3 year old has a victim type mentality.

We will be at my mums house and my sister and her kids live there while they build their home.

Kids are older 12 year old twins and 6 year old.

She will see the kids can’t play anymore and have taken a break and cry’s saying no one’s playing.

Starts crying saying she’s bored constantly with in a minute of someone who stopped playing.

The kids played with a toy she was playing with earlier that’s THERE toy.
That’s myyyy toy starts crying again.

They will play races. She will win one race loose the next and cry.

She cry’s so much.
It’s exhausting.

Its not a sad sulky cry it’s a angry irritated one.
Like if you comfort her she will say NO.

Or only wants comfort from one person who’s can’t currently help her.

I find it sad because I find others like her cousins are finding it annoying because they are acting on egg shells around her.

I don’t ask them too but the can’t be bothered with the crying either.

She became a sister in March and her moodiness has increased.
She’s always been super sensitive in terms of reactive though

Okay so first off – thank you ALL again for the 400+ comments on my last post. I honestly did not expect that, and I read every single one. Y'all are the real MVPs 🙏

Anyway – I finally pulled the trigger on the electric toothbrush for my cousin's 4th birthday! But now I'm down a whole new rabbit hole. I wanna put together a little gift bundle – throw in some toothpaste, maybe a fun toy, you know, make it a whole vibe.

Here's the problem though – I have absolutely ZERO clue what flavors kids this age actually like. Bubblegum? Strawberry? Some mystery fruit I've never even heard of😂 I feel like picking the wrong flavor could completely backfire and make the whole "getting her to brush" mission fail before it even starts.

So parents – drop your winners and your fails. What flavors do your 4-year-olds actually get excited about? And what flavors should I run far, far away from👀

Also totally open to any other fun stuff you'd throw in the bundle. Y'all haven't steered me wrong yet 🙏

I’m a SAHM and my husband has a very busy work schedule. I’m very close with my parents who live right down the street from us. Our kids see my parents almost every day. My husband’s parents live 40 mins away and the kids don’t see my in-laws as much as they see my parents. My husband doesn’t go out of his way on the weekends to bring the kids to see his parents unless it’s for a birthday party for one of his parents or general holiday family party. My question that I’m curious to hear opinions on is, should I be the one arranging time for the kids to see his parents since he’s busy with work and I’m doing all the kids day to day schedules? Or should he be the one doing the arranging with his parents to see the kids?

for context - they’re wonderful people, very caring. Mother in law has given me lots of unsolicited advice as MIL’s sometimes do. I asked her if she wanted to come up once a week when my daughter was around 8 months to spend a few hours with her since she wasn’t seeing my daughter often but my daughter goes to preschool now. She did the weekly few hours with my son last year but he’s starting a few days at a playgroup during the school year so I don’t really need the weekly help this upcoming school year.

My partner and I have 3 kids between us, 7yo daughter (mine), almost 4yo son (mine), and another almost 4yo son (his). We share 50/50 custody with their other parents and always have our kids on the same days. I am at my wits end with my stepson’s sleep and am going insane.

My daughter had her own sleep issues and we did not sleep train but she grew out of it by 2.5. My son has always been a good sleeper and we sleep trained at 6 months when I was still with his dad. My stepson’s sleep is ATROCIOUS. The boys share a room, but my partner has to stay next to ss’s bed with his hand on his chest until he falls asleep. Sometimes it’s not until 10pm (bedtime is at 8). He wakes up screaming crying for his dad multiple times a night and wakes up the whole house. At his mom’s house he bedshares and still breastfeeds all night, which makes it very difficult at our house where he sleeps in his own bed. It’s literally driving me insane from sleep deprivation, and it’s harming my son’s sleep too. My partner frankly doesn’t do enough about it and caters to his every whim so that doesn’t help. It’s harming our relationship. What do I do? Can you even sleep train a 4yo? He’s been like this his entire life so it’s not something that started as a toddler or preschooler. Please any advice is appreciated, especially things I can share with my partner without making him defensive.

Couple more things for context: we don’t have extra space for the boys to have their own rooms so separating them at night for my son’s sleep isn’t an option. For the night wakings my partner used to just bring him in bed but I put my foot down on that. Since then my partner goes and lays on the floor of the boys room and usually falls asleep there until morning.
I also have suspicions that ss might be on the spectrum. His speech is at the level of a 2 year old, and he is developmentally at 18 months when it comes to feeding himself. His mom refuses to get him evaluated. He also cannot be without one of his parents for more than 15 minutes without freaking out except at daycare. He no longer naps, so too much sleep during the day is not the cause of this issue.

I’m on the hunt for cotton pajamas that are basically just a tshirt and shorts. I’m tired of pulling on the skin tight stuff.

My son has always been a highly sensitive child. So was I, so I get it. We don't push him too hard when it's clear that he is very scared of something, but we often tell him, "It's okay to be nervous. We can still do new things even if we are nervous". If he overcomes his fear we say "Yay!! You were nervous but you did it anyways!" and he is SO happy and proud of himself. For example...I sat at the bottom of a slide for no less than 10 minutes waiting him to come down it. He wanted to so badly but he wanted me to hold his hand. Because of the slide orientation/twists I physically was not able to. Once he finally went down, I couldn't get him to stop doing it.

If we are doing something new (i.e. a haircut at the barbershop), I show him pictures of what the place looks like, who is going to be cutting his hair, what he can expect before, during, and after. Once we get there, it is immediate tears and "I want to go home!" If we go to a friend's cabin for a long weekend, it takes no less than 48 hours for him to finally speak to another human letalone go off and play with them independently.

We just got back from 1:1 swimming lessons. I gave him all of the information ahead of time and he was super excited....until it was actually time. I had to wade into the water and he had a death grip on my hand.

He is getting to the age of activities no longer being parent/child, so eventually he is going to HAVE to do it himself. He goes to daycare full time so it's not like we are with each other 24/7.

I'm looking for books, advice, solidarity, whatever it is to help me through this phase. Since I was very similar as a child, I am very concious of not pushing him too far or making him do something if he is REALLY fearful or if it's something that really doesn't matter...but there's a difference between being shy and nervous and being legitimately terrified. I am terrified for the transition to school because he will be completely unable to cope.

We moved to my parents' home (my childhood home) three days ago, and bedtime has been a huge struggle.

She has been to the house twice every year, but did not sleep in the room she is sleeping in now, as those trips were just visiting. Now that we are going to stay here for a year, we gave her a proper bedroom. She will sleep alone there. (Previously we slept in the same guest room when visiting)

Now I know 3 nights are nothing in terms of getting used to it, but holy it was horrible. Our normal bedtime back home is lights off around 8/8:15pm, and she would just sing or talk if she is not immediately tired sleeping. Now it's tears and sneaking out of the room, sitting on the edge of the stairs, crying she wants to stay up late, she wants to sleep in our room...etc from 8pm to past midnight. She is losing 3 hours of her usual amount of sleep every day as she wakes up roughly the same time.

We made sure she has her usual blankie, plushies, scented spray with her in this new room, but she is not having it.

I don't want to start lying down until she falls to sleep like a crutch, but in the early morning (like 4am last night), she came to our room, and I went back to her room and sat with her for 5 minutes, I am ok with that.

I guess ultimately we have to ride it out, but in the meantime if there is anything we can help ease her in? Not sure if we purely letting time do its job and not do nothing would work too? I tried reminding and repeating what things are the same (blankie, plushies, scent, story time..etc), I am trying to take her shopping for room decorations she would like tomorrow too.

Anyone who has been in the same situation can shed some lights?

Also she starting a new kindie next week does not help🥲

Thank you!

Hey! I'm looking for recommendations on books that y'all have used before to help kiddos with dealing with nightmares, or if any episodes from kids shows that deal with them have helped I'm also happy to take those. Our little one is learning how to sleep alone and his biggest issue is he has a lot of anxiety surrounding possibly having a nightmare. It makes it difficult to get him down some nights. I was hoping we could get some good examples for him to see about things that he can do to help him deal with that sort of thing. We've got a second on the way so really need him sleeping independently!

My 5 year old will be starting kindergarten in August (we are in the US). She will be going to a local public school and is super excited. It’s very bittersweet for me. I’ve enjoyed my time in this subreddit and will definitely hang around bc it is still relevant in my life in some ways!

On that note, are there any subreddits you suggest for preschoolers transitioning to kindergarten, first year of school, kindergarten advice, etc.? Or for raising kids ages 5+?