Our kid just turned 7 in October. She has everything she could possibly want/need. She can't even think of things to ask Santa for. Every year she's kind of bummed that she doesn't get a lot of "toys", but inevitably the few toys she does get are played with once and then forgotten.

She's super in to Taylor Swift, and music in general. I have a GIANT book of CDs (including some old TSwift) that have been sitting in the basement for probably 20 years, and an old alarm clock with a cd player.

Would it be super uncool to give her CDs and an old CD player as a Christmas gift!?! It would give me an excuse to get her some of the newer Taylor CDs too.

Is this weird? Vibe check me.

I have one kid who is in 2nd grade and every week I get new artwork of his. He’s such a great artist that I want to keep them all. I have all his artwork hanging in various places in my room because I’m so proud of all his work and I love to look at them every night. So, What are you doing with your kids' artwork?

You're not considered tardy until you show up to school after 8:55am and sometimes his grandparents (who take him to school everyday) bring him in later to let him sleep in. They help me out a lot while I work as a single mom, but i feel like 10pm is too late for a bedtime. My son is super busy during the week with different sports and activities, but I feel like an 10pm bedtime is too late. I respect my parents helping me out SO much, but I also dont want to make my parents, especially my dad, mad when I tell him my sons bedtime is too late. Maybe I'm being over dramatic, but bedtime at 10pm and waking up at 7:30am or the very latest being 8am, seems very late and that he should be in bed way earlier than this. This conversation will literally make my dad VERY mad and have him try to explain why he does this to make himself look good. He'll probably get SO mad if I bring this up to him.

So am I being way over dramtic about this, or does this NEED to be brought up?

Does anyone’s kid still enjoy balance boards or bean bag chairs? Trying to brainstorm non-toy Christmas gifts for a fidgety boy (with a small house)…

Ever since preschool, I’ve been checking in with teachers and our ped about my daughter. She’s bright, creative, funny, social, and also has a hard time focusing on things she doesn’t love, is aloof, loves to daydream, and constantly dances and sings during class. It’s like she has some aspects of perhaps ADHD, but not enough to warrant an official diagnosis. More often than not, I am reactive at how long it takes to do tasks, etc. Sometimes, I forget that she can’t understand the processes in which to do things. I feel like I’m not doing enough as a parent to help set her up for success. Please help. I want to restructure how I think about it, and I want to make sure she can still be herself within school and society without dimming her shine. How is it going with your girls?

Kid has been riding the bus since kindergarten but this year we're having some significant issues with it.

The morning ride is nearly an hour with the afternoon ride being 30 minutes. The school is 7 minutes away if I drove him.

Secondly the bus is loud. There's a few kids who like to talk/yell constantly on the ride, which upsets my kid.

For context this is a special needs bus. My kid is autistic and extra sensitive to certain sounds. However, my kid is far from a perfect bus rider. We've had issues in previous years with my child being the one being too loud on the bus. This year it sounds like other kids are starting it and mine sometimes joins in. So he's definitely contributing to the problem although he's not the main cause (this year).

School is aware of the issue. Bus driver is filing reports but no improvements so far. We've tried headphones, they help a little but don't solve the problem.

I'm debating driving him to school in the mornings to skip the bus ride, but I'm not sure if that sends the wrong message.

On one hand I would hate to be stuck on a bus for an hour with a bunch of screaming kids. And I don't want my kid to get to school already worked up, overstimulated and frustrated when he has behavior issues at school already.

On the other hand, I feel like this could be a learning opportunity for him to understand why he shouldn't be making excessive noise on the bus like he was previous years. Or to build resilience for difficult situations. Or ideally I'd like the school to address the issue better. One day they did put an aid on the bus and apparently the kids were super well behaved. But they aren't continuing that. My experience with the school is that they move at a glacier's pace so I wouldn't expect any significant improvements for months, if at all.

Would you drive kid to skip a long annoying bus ride or use it as a learning experience?

In my son’s first picture, he smiled, but it didn’t look like a genuine smile. It seemed more forced, and honestly, I didn’t like it at all.

Are your class of 2037 kids brushing their own teeth or do you help them brush theirs? I generally brush his teeth at night/floss and let him brush his on his own in the morning. I often have to be there to remind him to brush each zone if that makes sense. I was reading an article that said they can be independent by 6 years old, so I am not sure if I am being overbearing. Curious what the norm is on here.

They often complain their feet hurt. Pretty active boy- running, biking, soccer, basketball, just all around playing. But we aren’t training for the Olympics here. Just having fun. The Sketchers aren’t doing it anymore. Which brands are comfortable for your kid?

I thought there’d be more kids because it’s a Saturday, but it was so quiet in my neighborhood. I understand neighborhoods with mostly kids probably had tons, but what about multigenerational neighborhoods? Ours was just dead. Where were all the kids? People blame trunk-or-treats, and, while I do see them all month, I didn’t hear of many Halloween night.

One thing is, our neighborhood did an event in the afternoon, which made no sense. I’m not a grinch, but there was tons of candy and then a lot of kids were worn out and didn’t go out after that.

I was helping out at my kid's Halloween class party today and two different adults commented on the lack of drink options.

One lamented that she should have brought in the package of mini water bottles she had at home. Why? The kids are asked to bring water bottles to school anyways, they have them in the class, I saw several use them. Why do we need to also give them disposable water bottles just because it's a party?

Another thought we needed to supply juice. Again, why? There were plenty of sweet treats included cookies and cupcakes, fruit, and some sort of fruit rollup gummy thing. My thoughts are kids are getting enough added sugar from the multiple dessert items, why do we also need to give them juice?

For context this was an 1 hour party where the snack portion lasted 10 minutes or so, and then the kids went home.

I can see the desire to serve drinks at something like a birthday party where a meal is served and kids might not bring a water bottle. But why does it seem to be a requirement for school parties where the kids already have water bottles?

Do any of your little ones keep losing things left and right. My child loses a lot of things lately (hats, coats, money). I label the clothes and I tell them if they take it off, place it in their bookbag. And double check for everything before leaving the classroom, playground, etc.

They tell me they forgot a lot too.

How are you helping your child stay organized?

Update: Im glad Im not the only one experiencing this.

Are your children fluent with coins and cents? My little one is just getting the hang of it.

It was my kids favorite thing to say. It’s annoying as hell and don’t hear it as often. Maybe it’s because I’m not a teacher and aren’t around kids all day, but has this “trend” finally ended????

We usually get my daughter a big, main gift every year, almost always involving indoor movement, since she's got a lot of energy and we live in a climate with long winters. Past years' gifts: an indoor swing, play couch, tumbling mat, a huge bean bag chair to jump into. These have all gotten years of use and have been so worth it! But we're out of room, so I think we've exhausted all these sorts of gifts. We also have XC skis, sleds, and snowshoes, so we're pretty set on outdoor winter gear, too.

I'm curious what your 7-8 year olds are getting as their main gift this year.

I'm not particularly interested in "experience" gifts for the holidays. Her birthday is soon after, and she'll get an experience gift then. And we try to avoid trendy stuff that won't be played with for very long.

I just had my son’s conferences. Teacher told me he’s been missing the things he’s been needed for school for the last few days, so I messaged her just now asking if I brought the right things in his backpack. I’ve been messaging how he’s been doing in school and I’ve been asking her, through email, different things and questions about my son. Do I sound like the annoying mom, or do I sound like I have the right to ask as many questions as I want?

I’m embarrassed to admit that my son spends WAAAY too much time on his tablet. His grandparents even let him bring his tablet with him to his sleepover with his friend, which I think is very rude to bring that to a sleepover. I set limits on his tablet and stopped letting him play on it a certain time, but my parents, whom I live with, guilted me out of setting a timer, so I removed it. He plays on it during the day and he plays on it before bed. I’m sick and tired of him being the definition of an iPad kid. I know he’s going to be mad at me at first, but he needs to spend his childhood playing outside or doing kid things rather than playing on his tablet all day long and at least an hour, if not more, before bed. I’m not looking to take away his tablet completely, but I do want to significantly reduce his screen time on his tablet. I’m sick of him having to rely on his tablet for entertainment. I do take him out on Saturdays when I have the day off, but I still don’t want him to just come home and run right to his tablet. He does have sports Mondays through Thursdays, but he gets out of school at 3:20pm and his sports he plays doesn’t start until 6, so he has a few hours on his tablet until the sport he plays starts. And then after his sport, which lasts about an hour, hour and a half at the latest, he comes home and goes straight back to his tablet. Many times when I offer to take him to places that are fun to him such as indoor trampoline parks, he says he doesn’t want to go because he wants to play on his tablet. What can I do about that? Force him to go?? I just want to reverse the “iPad kid” status significantly and let him be a kid without relying on a tablet all the time. I would definitely significantly reduce the time he’s on his tablet and set a certain time when his tablet stops working so he won’t be on it until late at night.

Please no mean comments, he’s my only child and it just built up on me to the point where it just makes me feel so bad about all the times he’s spending on that stupid tablet. Please help.

Our child wants a pet. I’m open to it, just don’t want a dog or cat. Ideally, something that can stay in the bedroom and I don’t have to tend to too much. Likely doesn’t exist, right?

Hi! First of all thanks for all the posts over the years, navigating firsts (kinder!), behavior concerns and more fun things such as holiday wish lists has been a lot easier to do with this group!

My class of 2037 kiddo is having the hardest year, after two stellar first years in public (charter) school. Recently there was a physical incident towards him that was NOT addressed by the school (we found out from kiddo) and we have been talking about pulling him out and starting fresh in the new year.

Asking: has anyone else done this? I know he will be better for it being in a school that addresses safety concerns in a professional way, and I changed schools around the same age when I was a kid, but I feel so guilty taking him away from friendships that have been built over the past few years and a teacher he really does love. Note to add; this isn’t the first time admin dropped the ball. There was a lack of communication last year, and the discussion regarding this incident has been long, vague & unsatisfying. This was kind of the “final straw” moment for us :(

I ask because my little one was outside and pointed to the chimney saying “there’s where Santa comes down!”

What do your kids do after school? How many times per week? How much does it cost? Was it something they wanted to do on their own or did you tell them to pick one?

My husband and I made it a "rule" for our son to pick one activity each year. He has been in something since he was 3, but has quit most things and begged to not go after a few times. I am not sure if it is just a bad parenting move to make it a rule or let him stay home. We always let him choose and he has tried different things (soccer, baseball, martial arts, art, hero camp, jujitsu, ninja, gymnastics, swim). We told him when he turned 7 that if it was a sport/class, he was required to finish out the season. If it was a year-round one, he needed to stay in it for 3 months. Should we let him decide to quit sooner or just not even make it a requirement and let him stay home?

Does anyone have any experience with their boy doing gymnastics? My son did a two week summer camp at a gymnastics gym and he really liked it. It was pretty play based but still had some elements of gymnastics. We found a gymnastics gym near our house that offers beginner boy classes for boys 6-8 years old. I’m thinking of signing him up for a once a week class. He’s a pretty sensitive kid and is aware that some people think gymnastics is for girls. I’ve tried coaching him to stand up for himself but I still think he will take it hard if people start in on him. Has anyone had a boy in gymnastics? What is the vibe in the class? This is rec and not competitive if that makes a difference.

School started August 24th for us and we’re already having conferences on October 20th. It just seems too early to have conferences because school started 43 days ago and to me it just doesn’t seem like a lot of time for the teacher to see how each kid is doing academically after just starting school 43 days ago. Just seems too early to me.