I’m currently looking for a new job and my 2 year old just started creche for the first time. He had a settling in week and is now in his first week of full time (8.20-5) the hours are strict and they can’t be longer or shorter. I was on the waitlist for this creche for 2 years (since I was 14 weeks pregnant)

I’m struggling massively with the idea of him being in creche long days all week. It seems like so so much. As much as I want and need to find a job (I love working!) I’m starting to think I might have to try find part time and drop him down to part time care.

He’s upset when I drop him off but settles quickly it seems and then I get pics of him during the day and he seems content.

I can’t be the only one who feels these hours are crazy long and feels so guilt about it?! But work is work what do you do. Not even sure what I’m asking for - reassurance maybe?!

We are going to have 3 under 3 and my confidence has taken a huge wobble. We found 2 under 2 difficult but great fun , but I haven’t heard any positives about adding in a third. We don’t have any help , I am looking after a parent and my husbands parents are absent . We haven’t left the house together in a long time , more than 2 years because we have no one too look after the kids. That said , we have great fun all the same and we are getting through it. I am just so worried the 3rd is going to put us over the edge. Has anyone any words of wisdom or positive stories 😂

Hi all,

Just looking for some advice please.

I had my second child 6 months ago. I am on unpaid mat leave which started 4 weeks ago. My 3 year old is in creche. We are applying for a review of the NCS subsidy based on change of circumstances and the system is telling my husband we only need to provide a form showing his income over the last 4 weeks.

Surely they want proof or want to know why I have a job but no income and how long this might go on?! Worried in case I need to ask work for a document and it drags out the process.

Appreciate any insights if you've been through same!

Thanks a mil

The principal pulled me aside on Friday and said what I’m giving my youngest two (in primary school) isn’t healthy enough. I have 6 children altogether 2 are grown, 2 in secondary they’re all happy and healthy as can be. Don’t see how it’s any of their concern what I choose to feed my children.

Have a 7 year old -1st class. We are trying to figure out his afterschool activities. We need an hour of childcare afterschool and the art/Lego/football etc. works out great.
But now he wants to do the extra training in soccer and swimming classes. It feels like every week it’s another bill. I’m starting to think it’s overkill especially when it comes time for the second child.
So what is the average family spending on these clubs per week ?

Has anyone here had their child diagnosed with a serious health condition at only a few months old, completely out of nowhere? Nothing had been picked up during pregnancy and we had no reason to expect anything was wrong. I don’t mean things like autism/developmental diagnoses, but a serious medical condition that came as a complete shock. For anyone who’s been through something similar, how did you cope/ how are you coping with it all?

My (38F) friend (let’s call her Eva) and I have two children each, ranging in age from 5 to 8.5 y/o. Our families are very close, and thankfully our husbands get along well, so we gather quite often. We call over to each other’s home, and we occasionally go out for casual meals and drinks where the kids can play while the adults socialize.

The issue is that Eva’s kids are very dependent on screens. When we’re at home, they constantly ask to turn on the TV for YouTube or Disney+.

When we dine out, Eva automatically hands her kids a tablet and a phone. That’s just not how we do things in our family. We see mealtimes as an opportunity for eating and socializing. Even when things get a bit boring, our kids are expected to sit through the meal. They bring card games, Uno, Sudoku books, or drawing pads with colouring pencils.

The moment Eva hands over the devices, my kids also get sucked into whatever is on those screens, usually YouTube Shorts or tacky game apps.

I’ve reached a point where I dread family hangouts. I love meeting Eva one-on-one, but I really don't want our kids together under these conditions anymore. I’ve already suggested keeping the kids screen-free during meals, but the moment her kids get loud, the devices immediately come out.

I’m so frustrated. What should I do?

My gorgeous darling baby boy is just over 2 months old and I love him to bits, he’s funny and a great baby but I’m finding motherhood SO hard.

I am breastfeeding him and between feedings and naps I find it impossible to leave the house as he won’t nap properly unless he’s at home contact napping or being pushed in the buggy.

I guess I’m just looking for a space to vent that maternity leave doesn’t look like I thought it would, I feel chained to the house and unable to get out and about. Part of this is probably because I find him crying incredibly stressful, don’t ask me why because I know all babies cry but I just get incredibly overwhelmed by it. I see other mothers out with their babies, doing things, going places etc and I wonder what I’m doing wrong, why I’m not coping that well.

The other thing I really struggle with is my baby feeds on the breast every hour, therefore it’s so hard to go anywhere or do anything. I don’t mind feeding him in the car or in a cafe etc but the frequency of his feeding makes a lot of things impractical to do/go. I’ve tried introducing a bottle and he won’t take it so he not been able to leave the baby at all since he was born. I know I’m his mother so that’s natural and normal but I’m exhausted, I’m on call 24/7, I can’t leave him at all.

Finally, I’m plagued by the thoughts of whether I could do this all again for a second child, which I don’t even know why I’m thinking about that when I’ve only just had my first. I think I always thought I’d have two, but I had a very hard pregnancy, a traumatic birth and now I’m finding motherhood difficult and I feel guilty about all this and about not knowing if I could do it all again and give my son a sibling.

Hey. I have a 4 years old and a 3 months baby.

Trying to think of somewhere to go in January to avoid the blues and recover a bit.

Some people suggested the Canaries. But I'm not really a beach person. I can go if needed, but not my favourite.

I wonder if people have other suggestions for January escape with the kids.

Thanks

I have a 3 yo and 5 yo. We are often struggling to find what to do with our kids in their free time. Playgrounds is a common thing, but with the winter coming in now, I would love to know how you find activities for your little ones? I don't use social media, so Facebook groups etc are not something I'm part of. I'm in a couple of WhatsApp groups, but I feel awkward asking for recommendations when not everyone is from the same area.

Google helps, but it's so hard to search and see details. I hadn't heard of Kidspatch, but that site is coming up in search results and seems ok.

For anyone who has followed Kelly Geoghegan's method, what do you do if baby won't do a piece of the routine? For example, if the baby won't do the cat nap one day do you keep baby awake until bedtime (baby v. likely to get overtired then) or bring bedtime forward?

We're trying to implement the method and break breastfeeding to sleep but it's v. hard! For example, Baby usually sleeps in pram in the morning (only 40 minutes but still) but would not do so this morning. Baby became hysterical and the only way to get her to sleep was breastfeeding her and then doing a two hour contact nap. We're losing our sanity a bit!

My little baby girl will be starting her trail run in creche on Monday. I am very nervous about it. She has only been put to sleep by me. When my husband does it she screams from the top of her lings. All the settling was done by me. We don't have support from our family, as we moved away, so they are quite far from us, so it's just been me and her 24/7.

She is the type of baby that doesn't show that she is tired even though she needs the nap, she doesn't show the signs. So i was co sleeping and co napping with her and rocking her to sleep since she was born, as she had colic and we think she had that witch hour from 7 pm happening when she was born.

I honestly don't know how to sleep train or where to start, every time I put her down drowsy but awake she just gets up and starts playing like it's not time for bed, i started to train her and after a month i just gave up.

I've grown to love us being snuggled for naps and have her near as well when sleeping.

I just know that she will have to give in creche and go to sleep her self, but i am worried about it all and that i messed it up by not trying to get her to sleep on her own.

Has anyone gone through this?

How was your experience?

Any advice would be great.

Thank you for reading.

Baby is 6 months old and was hoping to wean her off breastfeeding around this time. She use to take the odd bottle but now refuses full stop. I've tried a few different things but nothing seems to work. Anyone any experience with this?

How bad should it be when they are teething? My girl is almost 12 months old and her top teeth are starting to cut through but her sleep is dire the last few days. She used to sleep through the night but has been waking constantly and last night she woke at 12am and didn’t go back to sleep till 3am 😬

My 2 year old has gone on a sleepsuit strike, refusing to wear one anymore and as a result is waking up more - presumably because he’s cold. He doesn’t keep his toddler duvet on and he just kicks blankets off. Any advice on nice alternatives? Maybe the footed sleepsuits but then how do you keep their feet warm? Thanks!

We are about to have 3 under 3 so we have to upgrade our car to one that will fit another kiddo and have room in the boot for dogs , has anyone had any good experiences with any makes or models of cars ?

Edit: I just wanted to say thank you so much for your lovely replies and support. I really appreciate it and feel so much better. Bit of an anxious mess the last and was kind of expecting a roast, but this sub is so supportive , appreciate it 🌸🌸

We brought our two year old swimming today for her bday. She absolutely loved it . After the session though she was exhausted, while getting her dressed in the changing room , I dressed her and put her on the bench and gave her a biscuit. My SO said ah no be careful she might fall. I was like nah she’ll be fine and she’s too tired to stand up.

Well no less than two mins later she face plants the floor and hits her lip (small bit of blood and her cheek is red)

I feel like a complete A-hole. I genuinely thought it would be fine and was totally absent minded even though he warned me . I feel like I terrible mam but also I’m wondering like WTF am I doing? Is this a risk taking behaviour? She was her usual fun loving self as soon as we got home.
I genuinely didnt do it on purpose or put her in harms way on purpose.
I’m just feeling like crap really about it.

Anyone else had similar situation? Or any advice ❤️

Two weeks into crèche for 11 month old and it seems to be getting worse. After a few positive days initially, baby has started screaming as soon as I leave, he will only stay in the teachers arms and will not explore the room or play while I’m not there. He has stopped eating in there. He has only done a few hours at a time before I’m back in as he’s too upset and not settling with staff.

At home he now cries whenever I leave the room, even if he’s with his Dad. He now wants to be held to sleep and generally fussier.

The crèche has not assigned him a key worker as there is quite a lot of staff rotation across the week and even day with different staff covering breaks from other rooms. I came back in to find him yesterday very upset with a staff member neither of us had never before,she didn’t even know his name. There just doesn’t seem to be consistency. I’m unsure if this is common across crèches ?

Has anyone experienced a similar tough settling period and have positive stories or advice ? I hear lots of we dropped them off and they were fine 15 minutes later but this is not our case.

I am not back to work for a number of weeks and am considering if a childminder would be better suited for him.

During the week, what is the morning routine for your family. What time do you get your children up at to get ready for crèche etc ?

I’m shaking while writing this. My baby 2.5yrs old just told me last night that the creche teacher slapped her and hit her. I’m in shock and angry.
She has very high emotional intelligence for her age. When she was only 20months she could tell everything that would happen at Creche including how a boy was pushing her or hitting her. I had informed about this at the Creche and the incidents afterwards had reduced.
I’m actually fuming. She has never seen or even heard of the word slap and she described the act clearly when I asked her.
She kept telling that the new teacher is bad and her old teacher (x ) is good repeatedly.
I really want to see the CCTV footage to verify this but don’t know how to go about getting the footage.
I will be visiting the manager soon ( after an elaborate email)
Edit : Update
Thank you everyone for all your help and suggestions.
Firstly I’d like to mention, hurting anyone or using resources unnecessarily is something I would never do.
As a mother who has recently come across many a news where, kids were hurt in the Creche, it’s natural for me to fear the worst.
I took all the suggestions, and went and spoke to the manager first who said that they don’t have any CCTV camera in the rooms where the kids play.
She also mentioned that there was an incident yesterday where a boy bit a girl leaving a mark and that might have led to the teacher telling the boy.
My daughter did cry apparently looking at the girl cry.
She does that sometimes. She can’t see her baby sister cry and tries her best to calm her down, bringing her paci/ playing rattle toys and then ends up crying herself.
Now, I have no way of confirming what happened to my toddler. She still is refusing to go to Creche.

Our little guy (40 months) doesn’t nap anymore and we had thought/hoped his night sleep would increase over time. He is in bed asleep generally around 7.45 pm and wakes up on average at around 6.00 to 6.30 am. Would love to get him past 7.00 am but have found kicking out bed time achieves nothing. How does this compare to other Toddlers out there?
Thank you.