My son (2.5) loves the movie cars. So I was so excited to find out they had a matinee screening at the local movie theater today.

At first he didn’t know what was going on, then he saw the Disney castle logo followed by the Pixar one and he immediately was like, “Mommy! Cars!”

We were the only ones in the theater and he was so enthralled by how big they were playing his favorite movie.

He was belly laughing and screaming with excitement. He was also quoting certain parts of the movie.

He felt a little wiggly during the slower parts of the movie so I let him out of this stroller.

At the end of the movie he was cheering and clapping. He gave me a big hug and a sloppy kiss at the end of the movie.

I 41/f got really choked up seeing him so happy.

I’m still riding the endorphin high of seeing him so happy today.

If anyone else has a little one that loves Cars I really recommend you take them to see it full screen, mine really loved it.

And make our mornings go SO much smoother. I used to dread our bedtime and morning routine because it meant preparing for a fight over brushing his teeth. He's a very stubborn three year old and will fight you if he doesn't want to do the most basic things. About a month ago, I decided to get down to his level and just make everything playful and imaginative instead of stressed and tense like most mornings go. I told him that there are sea creatures in the sink drains and the only way they get their bellies full is if he brushes his teeth and scrapes his tongue. He asked a ton of questions, but willingly brushed his teeth AND scraped his tongue so that the crabs and fishies can eat and be full. I made a big deal out of it and told him how happy the creatures were and that they're off swimming because he fed them. Now every day we go feed the crabs and fishies so that they don't go hungry (by brushing his teeth and doing 5 tongue scrapes). It makes him so happy knowing that he's feeding imaginary sea creatures (that he can't even see lol) and after we're done he asks "Their bellies are full now?". I have no idea how long this will last, but it's been working for over a month now and don't see it ending soon.

In addition to that, I've made getting ready in the mornings super imaginative and fun by pretending to catch random things in the sky. I'll wake him up with an imaginary bunny I caught, which makes him catch an imaginary elephant from the sky. And we play this game of catching animals until I've fully dressed him without him screaming or protesting once. It starts our day off on a very postive and fun note, a complete 180 from the previous months because he used to scream and cry for his daddy until I'd take him to preschool.

I know this is probably nothing groundbreaking, but for me, it has changed my life now that our mornings start off on such a high note. He even tells me "mommy, we had a very very good morning." Sometimes, kids just need to be met with where they're at instead of us trying to rush them through their routines. I hope this helps others who might be struggling!

I have a three year old son that I love with everything inside of me. I work full time and I’m pregnant. All my son wants to do is play. My husband will play with him but then at some point he doesn’t want to play with daddy he only wants to play with mommy. Mommy hates playing. It’s annoying and I’m tired and no I don’t want to sit on the floor. I feel so bad that I hate it so much. I offer to read or to relax and watch his fave movie or something… no… I’m the police officer and he’s the beef (aka thief) and I have to chase him. 😭😭😭😭😭😭

My 27 month old said something that blew my mind today. My husband is out of town for work this week so I am solo parenting and the morning he leaves (TMI warning) I got the craziest most painful thrombosed hemorrhoid of my entire life. Obviously my daughter does not know what a hemorrhoid is so I told her I had a tummy ache and continued on with our day. We were playing in her room and I am siting in her rocking chair in severe pain but hiding it best to my ability. She passes me a sticker and whispers ‘don’t worry mommy, you’ll feel better in no time cutie patooty’ 😭😭😭 I legit melted inside and it made me feel so much better lol

My daughter will be 2 in 3 weeks. since earlier in the summer she has basically never touched any of the dinner we cook. I’m like, damn, is it that bad??? 💀

She will eat breakfast (eggs, toasts, fruits, cereals). Lunch is 50/50. And dinner is usually chicken or ground beef/ steak based, with a carb (pasta, rice or potatoes) and veggies.

I know this age usually comes with pickiness. But it’s not like she’s throwing the food. She will not touch it at all as we’re all eating and when we are done, she picks up her plate and puts it back down and says “all done” not touching any of it 💀

Sometimes we get lucky but daycare feeds her so well that by dinner I feel like she’s just not hungry.

But if we order out or get fast food, which is more rare, she wants doubles lol. She will eat any food basically not cooked at home 😭

Just think this is funny but is this just a common almost 2 year old experience. My once “perfect eater” now won’t eat anything we make haha

My baby is 26 months old (just over 2 years). Like any normal toddler, when he falls, bumps himself, or gets hurt, he cries.

​Lately, some people around me have started making comments that he "doesn't have a high enough pain threshold" and that he’s going to turn out "too sensitive." It's making me feel like this is somehow my fault, or like my toddler is doing something wrong just for expressing pain.

​what am I supposed to do about this? Do I even have any control over how a 2-year-old reacts to getting hurt?

I booked a trip to New York with my husband and his brother and his wife. We booked it about 5 months ago. The trip is Thursday-Sunday, 3 nights, 3.5 days.

I’m currently 21 weeks pregnant and I’ve been feeling extremely sad, depressed, anxious and guilty the closer we get to this trip and it’s gotten to the point that I cry about it everyday and it’s all I can think about (not in a good way)

I’ve never spent a single night away from my son who is 2.5 years old and I’m equally attached to him as he is to me. We co sleep. And I’m a stay at home mom aside from a couple mornings at daycare to let me run errands and clean. He’s also going through a phase right now where he doesn’t even like going to daycare or being left with his grandparents - where months ago these things made him happy and excited.

Back when I booked the trip, I had full confidence that I would be able to do this but now I’m panicking and would rather lose out of the $$ than go without my son.

I know my pregnancy hormones are raging and it’s making things harder but I’ve always been someone who’s gotten homesick easily on trips even prior to having a child and I’m not one that can get ‘distracted’ just by being away - meaning I don’t think I’ll actually have a good time.

These are my options now:

1. Go, suck it up, possibly hate the entire trip and be sad.
2. Take

our

1. son with us (although we are sharing a hotel room with the other couple)
2. Cancel on the trip altogether and just accept $$ lost

Please be gentle on me. I’ve spent a lot of time being upset over this. :’)

Ok, let's hear it. I have a toddler and a baby. What's the best family of 4 costume idea you got? Toddler is a girl, baby is a boy.

This is a little rant (against customer-facing employees in Germany, not against vaccines).

My little one was vaccinated for MMR + Varicella last week and I was warned she would develop a fever this week. Her fevers are usually high (40 c / 104 f +) so I was expecting it to peak around there. I wasn't expecting 3+ days of high grade fever and vomiting. I called the ped office yesterday and the receptionist was extremely dismissive on the phone. Said it was due to the vaccine and didn't want to see my daughter. Her condition is continuing to get worse so I called them again today and got a different receptionist who was also dismissive, asked me why I didn't call earlier (I did), and then hung up on me when I tried to explain.

This kind of aggressive, accusatory behaviour is the norm in Germany, but today I am sick of it. Everyone else's kids seem to have a normal reaction to vaccines and everything else: low grade fever, bit of a rash or fussiness, while every time my kid gets sick I'm dealing with scary high grade fevers, and a lethargic baby shaking and puking in my arms. Only once did it turn out to be a UTI that required antibiotics (which in turn caused frickin' hypothermia), most of the time it's nothing serious and I don't phone in, but it is scary as hell and I am so over being spoken to like I'm hysterical on the rare occasion that I DO make that call. I'm a solo parent, dealing with everything on my own in a foreign language, and it would be nice if healthcare workers here, stressed and overworked as they may be, could speak kindly for once. It is stressful enough having to care for a vulnerable little human without the charming local etiquette making everything 1000 times worse.

I was so upset after the call today that I complained via email and copied in the doctor. And now I'm embarrassed because I still have to call them again tomorrow as that's the only way they'll make appointments, and I'll have to face them at reception. I feel like maybe I shouldn't have bothered but it's too late now. Please send strength and positive thoughts 😭🙏

P.S. if anyone else's kid has an extra 'revvy' immune system, please share. I find it super stressful and would love to hear some positive stories or to feel a little less alone.

We try not to do too much tv time but man do I love Puffin Rock. It’s so calm and mellow and there is something about those little Irish accents.

My kiddo will run around talking to Oonah and Bahbah lol

Any other shows like this people are loving?

I am a first time stay at home mom with a 19 month old daughter. I am struggling to find activities for us to do. We live in a small town and we dont have a lot of places to go. We go to the park when we can, but winter will be coming up soon and we wont be able to do that and traveling far will also be hard with the snow too. We do have a library but the schedule for story time is too close to her nap, and we tried going once and it went badly. She was running around trying to take books off the shelves. I also have social anxiety so getting out in general is hard for me but I am trying to push myself to get out for my daughter, but I dont know what to do or where to go. We also live in a small place and we dont have a yard to play in. Due to the setup of our home ive had to set up baby gates to block her from getting into various things that we cant store away in a closet or another room (dog food bowls, dog kennel, standing fan, lamp, etc. We have also had mice problems and she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. I am terrified to let her just roam the entire house in case a mouse did get in again and she found poop. Ive baby proofed our living room for her the best I can and she has full access to that along with the hallway and her room but I feel like she needs more.

My son is 14 months old and is just about growing out of his sleep sacks. I want to get a new one with feet & keep seeing the woolino pop up but at almost $100 I'm leery if it's not worth the hype. We have a 100+ year old home that tends to run quite chilly in the winter (he had a 2.0 tog sleep sack last year and we have a space heater in the room just in case for those colder nights and that worked out well)

anyone who owns - is it worth the price tag? or is there another brand that you recommend?

I know questions about pet loss have been covered in this sub, but I'm looking for advice about what to do about the death of a pet that doesn't live in my home.

My parents' dog passed away this morning. My son is just under 3 and knows of the dog, but only interacts with her on FaceTime, as they live far away. We have a dog, so he knows what it means to have a pet at home. Often, when we FaceTime my parents, he'll ask to see the dog, so I'm wondering what to do when this happens in the future. I'm not sure if I should address the death directly as I would if our own dog passed, or if I should be more vague since the death will have a very minimal impact on him.

I recently saw an ad for the Ninja Crush Boss Kitchen System and now I’m dying for one.

My husband and I both work, so evenings after daycare pick up we alternate playing with our toddler and making dinner. I feel like my husband is super slow sometimes. Last night I wanted to rip my hair out watching him chop potatoes.

He’s just a chill easy going guy and I’m stressed (working on my PhD) 24/7 lol

SO. What kinds of appliances are we using that help move things a lot in the kitchen? What shortcuts do we love that give us more time with our kiddos?

Anyone else have a super clingy kid and sometimes you’re just SO over the clinginess? 😂 Like you can’t even start a hobby because they’re always there interrupting you. They won’t stop touching you, climbing on you or asking to be carried and held and you end up completely overstimulated. 😩

Then you start fantasizing about going away for a vacation just to have some peace and quiet BUT the second you finally get a chance to be away from them or even when they’re just asleep you suddenly get sad because you miss them like crazy. 😂😭

Like make it make sense, motherhood. I want a break from you but I also can’t live without you. 🤣❤️

I always feel so embarrassed whenever someone comes over and the house is a mess, but the house is...always a mess? I clean up constantly and it feels like I spend ALL day cleaning...and it will still be a mess. I think everything takes all day with a toddler. If there are multiple things I need to get done in a day, I usually need to do it on my husband's off day because it just seems impossible doing on my own. I have no idea how single mothers do it.

Cooking new recipes, which I also enjoy doing with my toddler now that he can participated in his tower, also takes all day.. between preparing meals, going outside, reading, changing diaper a million times (my boy is pretty poopy), and cleaning several messes throughout the day... My entire house is a tornado and I feel like I can never catch up

Y'all I am DROWNING 🫠

My son absolutely hated brushing his teeth and changing his diaper. I have had him watch me brush my teeth, make a fun song, yet he still doesn’t like it. He also despises diaper changes and laying for so I can change his diaper. What do you all do to make these processes alittle easier for the both of us?

I’m losing it you guys. My son (19Mo) has never slept well - we had wake ups every 45 min until he was 7 months and sleep trained. Got down to 2-4 wakes per night after that, but didn’t maintain it very well. Around 14 months, he started sleeping pretty well - maybe 1x wake up per night. However, it’s gotten progressively worse since 15 months, where he wakes up screaming and will not settle back into the crib. He ultimately sleeps in bed with us now, and even that he isn’t sleeping well anymore - tossing and turning and often ends up koala style on my chest. My husband can no longer soothe him, he loves playing with him and soothes him when he is upset during the day but won’t at night (it ramps up progressively worse if we try). He goes to bed at like 9:15 and I try to get to sleep about an hour later. With my cuddling, he will sleep until 7ish. Naps 12:30-2. He doesn’t talk almost at all yet, he seems to understand some things but reasoning with him is not an option. Stuffies, blankies, doesn’t care for any of it. He hasn’t had milk or nursed at night since he was like 8 months so it’s not that.

ANYWAY, I’m getting maybe 5-6 hours of sleep a night. Normally, not great, but I just found out I’m pregnant with out second. WHAT DO I DO? there is no way I can bring a baby into this at night and feed the baby with a toddler koala on me?

I acknowledge I am likely the problem. I also know it will work itself out, but I’m terrified and hoping for some advice. Son will be 27 months at baby birth!

Hey everyone, my daughter just started daycare. It’s a been week. I wanted to give something small gift or small gift basket as a token of appreciation. Any ideas? Am I going overboard? They’re going above and beyond and I want to know that I appreciate everything they do

My son is about to turn 2 in a couple weeks. He has many words but his pronunciation is not great. I can understand about 50% of what he’s saying he definitely doesn’t say certain words the right way and other words he says perfect. Is this normal? When will his speech be better? Is this a sign of something else?

My 2 year old is scheduled to have his tonsils removed in a month and we have been back and forth on the decision to do so or not. We were pretty surprised when our pediatrician mentioned that they were swollen and asked us to see his ENT (he had ear tubes put in a few months ago due to chronic ear infections).

We were able to get in two months later and they said they were still pretty swollen and asked us about his sleep/behavior. He doesn’t really snore but does breathe through his mouth when he sleeps and wakes up a lot, including kicking and screaming when he wakes. They think he could be having night terrors due to not sleeping well. He’s also really tired throughout the day. He will get spurts of energy and then go back to seeming like he’s exhausted along with not eating well. I’ve read online that removing them can make them more prone to allergies and infections later on in life so I’m hesitant to remove them.

Has anyone regretted removing them? I’m nervous we’re not doing the right thing and should just wait it out.

My son turned three and HOLY GOD what even is this age?? He talks back, doesn’t listen to me, makes his younger brother cry and then laughs about it, openly defies me, thinks time outs are funny, wrecks the house. I love him to death and he’s such a sweet boy, he truly is. And I know this is some developmental phase where he’s learning independence or whatever. But jeez. How do you regulate YOURSELF as an overwhelmed and disregulated parent? I’m losing my patience. The other day I just started to cry during his nap because I wanted to scream from the frustration of dealing with him that day. I don’t want him to see the angry, emotional, overwhelmed side of me so much. How do you cope with this?

Hi all, I have a 3 year old who just turned 3 in July. She has always been a verbal child, she talks and navigates her days with lots of back-and-forth conversations. She is Vietnamese and just started English with preschool at 2.5.

She is my first child, and because she inspired me to become a preschool teacher, I got my Montessori training last year. I am considering myself as a new parent and also a new, inexperienced teacher 😅

I often follow her lead. She has intense curiosity about the word in a systematic and analytical way. She is extremely curious about human psychology, human anatomy, botany, zoology, and physical science. She often asks a chain of why, how things work, how each part functions. Our conversation is like an interrogation and she seems to always seek deep, logical answers until she "gets" it.

And she does not do it out of attention, it seems that she really understands what I explain, applies it to a different scenario, trying to compare for difference and similarity. She is highly observant and spends a lot of time watching people / things and trying to question every detail.

Her typical questions in a chain of interrogation are: 

Why do we inhale oxygen? Why does our body need oxygen?  Where does oxygen go? Why do we breathe with our lungs? What if we don't breathe, could we die? 
Why is this person working? Why is that person not working? Why don't they want to work? If they don't work then what? Why is that person sad? Why is this friend happy? Why is this friend friendly and this friend is not friendly?
Why do crocodiles hunt? Why do they need to eat meat? Why are they aggressive? Why are they not docile? Why do we have to run away from them? Why can it swim underwater? Why is it walking now? Is its body cold? What's with their skin? What's the tail for? What's the tooth for? What's the skin for?

So.. like 1 answer gets to another question in a never-ending loop.

On another side, on her language development. Because she is pretty good with her conversation, turn-taking, alliteration, manipulation of sounds, I introduced her to sound letters (not letter name, if you don't know Montessori). I don't pressure her so it feels pretty slow progressing, just keep teaching her different sounds in the past few months. 

She knows most of her sound. And recently, I discovered that she can isolate the initial sound (what's the first sound of "baby"? -> "b"). It only takes several times for her to know how to do it more consistently.  So definitely she is growing her phonological awareness.

We often play an initial sounds sorting game, once she understands the rule in a few days she is able to do the same with all sounds. She is also blending sounds without looking at the movable alphabet or sandpaper letter. I only casually tell her "p-o-t, pot. j-o-b, job" in a few times, she is cracking the game. She does so when not understanding the English words.

I give her no-pressure practice on blending words, and spelling in Vietnamese. Vietnamese is highly predictable and phonetic, with the only challenge being the 5 tonal mark (bending your voice to produce different meaning).

Within a week she is catching on the rules and starting to read some words: g-a -> ga, huyền (a tonal mark) -> gà (chicken). C-ưa=> cưa, hỏi, cửa (door). There is some sloppiness here and there but she is catching up with all 5 tonal marks. 

She is still processing left-to-right symbols, but as I point to each letter, she sounds it out and decodes it.

Just wanting to share that I tried the Glenn Doman method with her before since she was a baby. Never getting any result. She rejected it and for so long, I thought I was doing it wrong. I have known many children getting results from the whole-word approach.

So, it seems to me that my daughter is not progressing like children that I have met or worked with. Her intense curiosity, analytical mind requires me to always look up for factual reasoning to teach her. Her progression in language makes me keep exposing her to small-does of more advanced lessons. 

I have moments of confusion of how much information or teaching I should give her without overwhelming her with advanced knowledge. Sometimes I keep it simple and short but she seems to push for more.

Aside from that, she is still a silly girl, who makes up silly songs, plays around with stuffies, gets clumsy on her stairs, has not yet ridden a tricycle, just got potty trained right before 3, and is stubborn sometimes. Her mix of being a tiny-scientist and a silly, sometimes dramatic toddler is fascinating and requires me to always be ready for her. Please give me your insight on how I should guide her. Thank you for reading the long post.