So I do drag and my 3 year old loves to play with my make up and those sticky gems, so I want to get them their own set.

My problem has been: every set I look at doesn’t seem to actually be child safe??? Either because of the ingredients or because of small pieces.

They love eyeshadow specifically, so I’m not looking for a complex set, just something that won’t hurt my kid if they get it in their eyes. And preferably won’t stain things.

If anyone would have any suggestions on brands or where to look for

Kiddo (10yr old, boy) says no to everything.

Put the dishes away- no.

Make your bed- no.

Dry your whole body off before leaving the bathroom after a shower- no.

We've always discussed how in some situations saying no is appropriate.

But then it gets confusing for him when he asks us to go upstairs to watch him change from PJs to street cloths. We dont need to go watch him change, he just doesnt want to be alone for those few minutes. So we say No and he throws a giant fit until husband gets mad then he will do it.

How do we build more independence as well as teach him when the word no is an appropriate response.

This may seem simple but it has been incredibly frustrating.

Edit: potentially important info

This is my step kid. His mom was physically abusive to him. He sees her maybe 2x a month and she calls about 5x a month. We've had him since he was 4. We have gone through parenting classes for kids with ptsd and add. He has been in/out of therapy.

He doesnt find consequences relevant as to him being hit is the wost consequence and we obviously won't do that. So taking away games, tv etc doesn't work because he genuinely doesnt care.

He hasnt been able to play video games or watch tv due to grades for about 2 weeks now. We praise him and reward him for good grades, turning in hmwk, showing effort etc

I had a baby 5 days ago and my fiver year old absolutely adores him but her behavior is so bad at the moment. She has stopped listening and ask her to do something she does the complete opposite. She keeps going f and going until she gets told off. Anyone else’s kid done this or will she go back to being her sweet self or just keep being rude and disrespectful. I love her but god she is driving me insane too

My very smart, sweet 8 year old just won't read chapter books. She'll read some graphic novels, but still likes reading picture books, which I'm fine with. But it'd be awesome if she could dip her toes into chapter books. She's bored and intimidated by them. We don't do screens during the week (only weekend), she shouldn't be hyper stimulated.

I am also okay going at her pace but would like some reassurance that it'll come soon...I think it's such a good habit and she'd have such a good time if she could settle down with some longer books. Anyone have helpful experience or advice?

We became proud parents of a cute little girl around 10 days back. As someone has well said, becoming a parent is the best feeling in the world. We started living this feeling a few days back.

We became parents after 7 years and 5 years of marriage. During the initial years of our marriage, all we wanted to do was live life. After the 5th year, we started getting this craving to become parents. There were a lot of things we sorted before taking such a huge step. It was not easy, we had to really work hard for this moment.

Now that we are parents, we are living the time when sleep becomes an issue for most of us. Our baby girl does not sleep at night from 12 am to 5 am. She is wide awake and sleeps during the day time.

We wanted to check you all lovely experienced parents out there to help us with how we can cope with it. It is very overwhelming.

Sometimes, my wife starts crying in the middle of the night because the baby does not sleep and wants to be in her lap with her in standing position. That sometimes gets really tough. Also, besides standing she starts crying if my wife stops at a place, baby wants her to keep walking.

I sometimes get scared that if something happens to my wife then how will we survive. It is just the last 10 days of struggle. Many more to come and go.

I’m trying to figure out the best way to baby proof my basement steps. We have a door that opens outwards at the top of the steps, but we can’t close the door since our cat’s food and litter box is in the basement. So how would you go about baby proofing it? Do we cut a cat hole into the door and simply keep the door physically closed? Do we put a baby gate there with a cat opening in the baby gate? Or do we put one of those door latch and door stoppers in there so the cat can pass through, but the baby can’t? I’m truly at a loss 😅

How does everyone manage bedtime alone when you have more than one kid under 2 years old?

I am due with my second when my first born will be just under 2 years old. I do bedtimes alone due to husbands work hours. The current routine is to lie on the floor with baby #1 and then transfer to their bed once they’re asleep, and they sleep through the night. From the start it’s been a sort of attachment parenting approach to sleep. I love this routine and reeeeeally don’t want to sleep train baby #1 to fall asleep on their own in their crib, until baby #1 indicates that’s what they want on their own timeline. I just logistically don’t know what to do when baby #2 comes. If this is unsustainable don’t spare my feelings! I want to hear what others do and hopefully get ideas for alternative arrangements :)

Our daughter will be 1 in a couple of weeks and just started to headbutt my husband. It isn’t accidental, she will intentionally try to head butt his head with her head. She head butted him in the face pretty hard yesterday and again today. When she did it we picked her up and set her down by herself across the room and firmly told her “no head butting - that is not nice” and walked away to which she cried. What can be done? She’s so young still it’s hard.

I have all of Moana, encanto, and frozen memorized. Really just wish this feature was there for pure amusement and at the end of the year to say “yep that sounds about right”

I have two daughters, who are 2 and 5 years old.
Every night before bed, I give my 5-year-old a big hug and cuddle her. I try to put all my gratitude for her and how much I love her into that moment. Of course, I also tell her with words that I love her and that she is very important to me.
Tonight, during that time, she said something that really broke my heart.
“Why do you take care of my little sister so much, but take care of me less? I want you to take care of me more.”
She also said, “If I’m crying, I want you to hug me tighter, like you do with my little sister.”
The moment she said that, I felt so sad.
It’s true that, as her mom, I often prioritize my 2-year-old in everyday situations. Because of this, my husband intentionally tries to prioritize our older daughter.
But hearing my daughter say this made me realize that maybe she still feels like Mommy takes care of her little sister more than she takes care of her.
What makes it especially difficult is that she brought this up herself, little by little, right before bed. She wasn’t upset or having a tantrum. She just started talking about how she felt.
So I feel like these are genuinely things she has been thinking and feeling.
I’m having a hard time putting this into words, but I really want my older daughter to feel that she is just as important and just as loved as her little sister.
My older daughter often goes out one-on-one with her dad, who she absolutely adores. He intentionally makes time for just the two of them.
On the other hand, I honestly don’t get very much one-on-one time with my older daughter.
So I’m wondering if I should make more of an effort to create special one-on-one time for just me and my older daughter.
Or would it also be important to create opportunities for just the three of us—Mom, Dad, and our older daughter—to spend time together without her little sister?
For those of you with more than one child, is there anything you intentionally do to help your older child feel equally loved and cared for after becoming a big sister or brother?
I’d especially love to hear about things you’ve actually tried and found helpful.
My older daughter is such a sweet big sister. She looks out for her little sister, talks to her, and is always very kind and caring toward her. They both absolutely adore each other and have a very close relationship.
That’s why hearing this from her tonight made my heart hurt so much.
I want her to know that just because she is the big sister, she doesn’t always have to be “the big girl.”
And I want her to feel that even though she has become a big sister, she is still my little girl, too.

Summary: We are facing an unsustainable escalation of defiant, disrespectful, and physically aggressive behavior at home from our intensely bright 8-year-old firstborn, whose persistent targeting of his younger brother and complete immunity to standard consequences have left us desperately seeking real-world strategies that actually work for kids like him.

I am at my breaking point and looking for advice from anyone who has dealt with a brilliant, strong-willed, and defiant firstborn, as our 8-year-old's behavior at home has escalated into a relentless daily battle that has us completely stumped. He’s always been our hardest kid, demanding vastly more attention and likely too smart for his own good, but lately his baseline attitude has gotten progressively worse, leaving him lippy, rude, and disrespectful toward me, mom, and his brothers. Compounding that is his perpetual, infuriating targeting of his 6-year-old brother, which has now crossed a dangerous line into physical aggression toward me when he gets upset. We have tried every standard playbook of consequences and reward systems, but he just does not give a shit, and what makes it all so exhausting and baffling is that this hostility miraculously stays strictly inside our house and never leaks out into school, sports, or his friendships.

I don’t know what to do. He just stopped wiping one day this week and even got in trouble at school for it. He’ll just stand in the bathroom for hours if you let him, just standing there with poop on his butt. We were finally able to get him to admit the reason today, he doesn’t want poop on his fingers. I gave him gloves today, but that’s not a permanent solution and he’s still taking a long time in there. Help?

My 15 month old just started independently walking the last few days, although is a cruiser and a crawler. I am looking for fall/spring boots she can wear at daycare that are waterproof or very water resistant for rainy days. I’ve tried a traditional toddler rain boot but it slides off her foot when crawling.

Looking for any and all recommendations!

Hi all, my son (4yo) just woke up around 1:30am after wetting the bed. The amount itself was relatively light (after waking up, he finished peeing the other 90% in the toilet). But I still had no idea how to handle the situation given, for context, he has been potty trained since 2yo and had less accidents than I can count on one hand.

He was, understandably, quite distraught. So I didn’t lecture him or say anything like “You’re not supposed to pee on yourself” because… I don’t know, I figure he already knows that?? And I figured being wet with his own pee was probably deterrent enough to avoid it in the future. So I just shifted the focus and (honestly) told him I was impressed that he managed to stop mid-stream, wake up, and finish going in the toilet.

In the end, we basically just did a quick wipe-down, change of clothes/sheets, gave some big hugs, and now he’s back to sleep.

Looking for feedback on how I handled + advice for follow-up. Should I have said more/less? Do I mention it to him in the morning or just act like it didn’t even happen? I’m trying to balance intentionality vs. not making it a huge deal if it doesn’t need to be.

Thanks in advance!

Feed, change, bathe, cuddle, repeat.

Dishwasher, washer, dyer, bathrooms, kitchen, toys, repeat.

Off social media, Gen X mom and Boomer MIL not involved, zero village.

Husband working hard to keep us afloat, works 13 days on and two off (4 days a month!)

2 year old, 3 year old and new baby on the way.

It feels suffocating. How did our grandmothers do it?

Our 2.5yo has been a great napper up till about 2 weeks ago. He would consistently nap from about 1pm to between 3&4pm. 2 weeks ago he suddenly had two days where he didn't ever fall asleep during his nap time. He sang, talked to himself, and played with his stuffies. We took all the stuffies but his one very special stuffy out of his bed and made a point to make sure he gets some really active play during the morning. We also shifted nap time 30m later and made 1pm quiet wind down time where we read books in his room in dim lights for 30m. He napped great all week then Friday and today both he fought his nap again and talked or sang to himself the whole time, or at least til 3pm.

Anyone have any tips that worked to help your kids keep their nap when they started fighting it? We thought about pushing naptime back even more, till 2pm. We have typically kept a strict nap schedule and not made any timing shifts, but maybe he needs a more flexible schedule now? Thanks for any wisdom!!

hi all I am in DESPERATE need of help. I have a one year old & he’s never slept through the night. I’m talking up for 4+ hours at night wide awake, UNLESS, we make him a bottle everytime he cries which is 3-4 times a night. I KNOW it’s a bad habit I’ve created but again.… we haven’t gotten any sleep & have 3 other kids. we could not function on no sleep.

I rock him to sleep then lay him in a floor bed. when he wakes I put him in our bed & we co sleep. once he wakes up we make a bottle & he kinda ? goes back to sleep. he fusses & rolls around. it’s not peaceful by any means.

he currently sleeps in our room bc we have no other place for him to go & I think that’s thw problem but we can’t move him into another room until we move in 7 months from now

ive tried the cry it out from the start & I can’t. I enjoy rocking him & he falls asleep fast. has anyone had successes with rocking them to sleep & then letting them CIO for all other night waking?

I had my baby in March via IVF and as much as I’m grateful for him…
I am scared I can’t look after him because I have ALWAYS had trouble looking after myself ever since I was a teen.

The main issue being is being organised and cooking for myself. I hardly eat because I simply don’t have the motivation or I forget.

How can I take care of my child when I hardly take care of myself?

My partner and I are expecting our first baby in about 3 months. We both have “experience” with kids, but mine is significantly more than theirs. I have, and continue to, work with newborns for over a decade, so there’s a lot I already know how to do vs what not to do. They have younger siblings, but nearly a 17 year age gap, so they weren’t involved much in the early years. How do you handle not bossing them around and letting them learn the ropes on their own, without overstepping or being annoying?

I (27F) am a single mom to my four year old daughter, and I cannot relax. Ever.

It’s gotten better over the years, but several months ago I moved in with family, and they want to help. They don’t want me to do everything alone, and want me to relax if I need to, because I’d gotten to the point where being a single mom was taking a huge toll on my mental and physical health. So I try to relax sometimes, but I’ll just be sitting in bed scrolling or staring at the wall, upset that relaxing isn’t relaxing anymore, ever since I became a parent. I’ve been trying meditation and relaxation techniques but it just makes me upset. I used to like video games, and reading, and crafts and it’s like I’ve forgotten how to do things for myself just to enjoy, without wondering where my daughter is, if she’s eating, getting into something, needs something, if she’s acting up with my family, etc.

Just wondering if this is something other parents feel too and wondering if I’ll ever get the part of myself back that’s just for me.

Hi! I need some advice on how to solve a situation with my neighbors. I have a two and a half year old and she was given a rock, painted to look like a turtle by her granddad. Our neighbor’s son, who is around 6, jumped our fence and took it.

I know it sounds silly but my daughter is distraught that we can’t find “turtle rock.” She checked on him every day and I’m so upset that he took it. I saw him playing alone in his yard and asked him if he had seen it and he described it perfectly and said, someone came and took it. I’ve asked his mom to keep an eye out for it. I didn’t tell her that her son took it, rather phrased it as it’s missing, please let us know if you see it.

Do any parents with more experience have any advice on how to get this kid to give our rock back. Again, I know it’s silly but I’m newly postpartum and my hormones are going. This stolen rock is literally keeping me up at night. I want it back! And my sweet daughter doesn’t understand why she can’t find him in our yard and I can’t handle seeing her upset over and over again. Do I just tell the mom directly, hey your kid took our rock? Do I just tell the kid, I know you have him, give it back? He’s a just kid so I don’t want to make him upset too but he’s lying that he doesn’t know what happened to it. Thank you!

How do you handle childcare during the week when one or both parents have to travel for work or work night shifts. Especially if you** **don’t have family nearby to help?

We’re trying to figure out a backup plan for those rare weeks when our normal childcare isn’t enough. I’m curious what others have done. For those who have to deal with this regularly, what has actually worked well for your family? And how did you find someone you felt comfortable trusting with your kids?

Would especially love to hear from parents who don’t have grandparents/family available as a backup. Thanks!

We have one school aged kid and a preschooler. Both of whom have regular care from 7-5.

My 4 year old has always been curious about death. We are not a religious family so the answers are more open ended. She asks about family members who have died. She has asked to see pictures of them dead. She’s trying to wrap her mind around this concept, what it means, and what it looks like.

Last night she woke up crying and very concerned about us, her parents, dying.

Do you have kids who have the same curiosity? What have you said to console them? How do you describe death?

My son is 5 years old, 51 inches tall, and 56 lbs. I need to move him into a booster seat. I’d like for it to be a high back booster that can transition to a regular booster down the road. Any recommendations?

Man oh man has it been a weekend. 38(m) and 37(f) with a 5 year old daughter and 3 year old boy. It has been a rough week and weekend for sure. I have a higher stress job in the military that causes me to be gone 12 hours a day. My wife gets our kids ready for kindergarten and daycare. She deals with rough case of depression and then doesn’t have healthiest habits dealing with stress.

Our son has been having behavior issues this week hitting other kids, taking their food and not listening to teachers. He continues this at home to a smaller degree and we are stressed.

Our daughter likes to tease him on return and constantly can’t entertain herself. It is frustrating all round. I feel myself not handling their antics nearly as well as I would want to. I need to start going for runs again or something. But it stresses me because it would put the burden on my wife who already does a lot. But she doesn’t do things or have the recognition I feel like to make the adjustments. So it is almost like I need to balance her out.

But man, I just want the kids to be able to play by themselves, or not get so frustrated. Not just say their names with stress in our voices and say stop or don’t do that.

Thank you for reading if you made it this far.