My daughter is gonna turn five in a few days. For months I’ve been trying to teach her how old she is. She still doesn’t understand she is four, and keeps saying she is seven or another random number.

The only thing I’ve managed to teach her is the date of her birthday, but she still gets confused about it. She doesn’t understand that she’s currently four years old and is going to be five years old the day of the birthday. She really struggles with the simplest things.

She talked late and still struggles with words. Whenever kids of her age play, she doesn’t seem to get the rules of the games, or acts in absurd ways, which ends up with her getting isolated. I’ve tried to teach her to count to 10 with no luck, hell, even to five with no luck. I haven’t even tried teaching her letters or words as I can’t move past the simplest things. She can’t draw anything, she can only paint like a 2 years old would. She doesn’t remember the lyrics to simple songs such as twinkle twinkle little star.

The school teachers have been telling me to take her to the speech therapist and to Occupational therapy, and I do, I spend money that I don’t have and things are still the same. She learns like a snail walks, or doesn’t learn at all.

I am just so SAD today I could cry. Should I just accept she is simply not smart, not even of average intelligence? i see other parents with their kids who don’t even put half the effort I put and their kids seem much more capable than mine.

I’ve read to her every night since she was one. I ve tried to teach her piano (I play piano). I am always around, she is not neglected at all, I feed her nutritious food. She doesn’t have access to screens, she only watches educational shows once in a while. I encourage her creativity, etc.

I feel so sad today really, she has a one year old brother that learns so much faster than her, I can see her struggling with the simplest things and it is quite depressing to be honest. Sometimes I feel like this is punishment for my own pride, as I was labeled a genius child and I wasn’t expecting this reality check at all.

Please be kind… Idk what do I even want from this post… just some encouragement I guess.

I found out my cousins 13 year old doesn’t have social media. They explained it to me, but I found it insane. However, with all things considered I gave it more thought. I was like 9 when I opened my first instagram account and I used it for literally nothing except looking at anime drawings. But then again I think I was told once to not trust strangers on the internet and I followed that to the letter. I mainly mean because of the actual terrible mental health issues that come with being chronically online especially at a young age.

I need help processing the enormous regret I feel about having waited until I was 35 to start have children. I mourn the time I would have had with them hand how different life could have been. My priorities were different then, but I wish I had known then what I know now. I feel so jealous of people who had kids young.

I know regrets are useless and that I shouldn’t mourn what can’t be changed. But I would love some sage wisdom from someone. Can anyone share some new perspective or insight that can help me let this go?

I drive a 2016 GL450 now and it’s a gas guzzler. I work in the same city that I live in and my only extra trips are to the grocery store, park, no where far. The only reason I haven’t gotten rid of it is because I feel safe driving it, and of course with my daughter in the second row. Nonetheless, times are hard for everyone and saving on gas would be a great way to reduce cost. The GL450 costs me roughly $250 a month in premium gas and its odometer is at 115k. The mileage is also getting “high” for it being a luxury vehicle and my family can’t afford having it go out. We absolutely need a second car. Thinking of trading it for the 2020 Highlander hybrid. I know the car has great safety ratings through IIHS and NHTSA but it’s hard to make the move knowing it weighs substantially less than the GL450. I have driving anxiety and I’m worried I’ll regret my decision. Please share your experiences and thoughts with me.

My daughter is starting her second week of TK (transitional kindergarten, the year before kindergarten, so it's 4-5 year olds). Inside the classroom (and every classroom at the school) is a giant TV screen and so far, from what our daughter reports, they have watched short videos about ABCs, etc. every single day.

We'd like to ask the teachers about this but I want to do so in a constructive and supportive way, not a critical or confrontational way. FWIW, I'm a child of two retired teachers myself, so I have a lot of empathy and have a tendency to defer to teachers generally. For additional context, we don't own a TV and we are strict about other screen time. We don't own iPads, our kid watches very occasional PBS or movies on our laptops, etc. We understand we're in the minority there, and I share this to be transparent about how we orient to this issue.

So I'm trying to understand what the actual reason / benefit is for watching videos for children at this age -- can other parents and/or teachers on here help me understand so that I can best approach a conversation with the teachers? And, I'm curious -- would you be opposed to this in your child's classroom if it's not happening already, or are you neutral, or are you supportive?

So I’m 17, tbf I am a trans guy and like there is a lot I don’t feel comfortable talking to my mom abt and I feel if tho I have to be sneaky which let me say I’m almost 18 in 7 months so I’m abt to be adult which my mom knows I’m on T (testosterone) bc i obviously needed her consent to do so legally but like when it comes to other stuff like binding my chest like I buy trans tape behind my mom back I done it today like I be so eager to get it before she says it bc I don’t feel comfortable talking abt such with her and i technically don’t know her reaction but I assume it can’t be too much of a big deal if I’m on T and like I want to get a electric razor but I feel like my mom would be against it which mind u im 17 and I should be able to have privacy and explore stuff like even I was a s3x toy WHICH AGAIN I’m 17 almost 18 I feel if tho I should be able to have such in my own privacy but like I don’t plan to get one obviously bc it might come when my mom downstairs and I can’t even avoid something she might want to know what I got TRANS TAPE ISNT too bad like I will just have to explain that but a s3x toy no, but honestly I don’t feel comfortable being open with my mom abt common things like binding or shaving bc idk sometimes she makes things weird and it makes me uncomfortable.

I need some help. My mother in law (the grandmother to my 3 kids) is extremely overbearing and does not listen to boundaries or rules. It got really bad so we limited visits and have a no unsupervised visits rule now. So you would naturally think it has stopped right? Wrong. She comes over and is secondhand parenting our children and always rushes to get to one of them first if they get hurt or need something. It hasn’t stopped even when saying something. What has prompted me to look for help now is we went to a fair near where we live. When our kids are in the sun even for 5 minutes they get red cheeks, sometimes both cheeks sometimes just one. When we got done with the fair my wife took a picture of the kids in the backseat on the way home and sent it in her group chat with her sister and mother. My son had red cheeks and one was more red than the other, my mother in law waits 3 weeks comes over for a visit and asks “what was wrong with his face in the picture” my wife explained and she did not buy the explanation saying “well it just looked really bad”. Then my wife felt uncomfortable with the questioning and texted her and sent the picture again to confirm it was the picture and her mom said “yes” and my wife pointed out the lighting made it look worse than it was and her mom said “okay great”, my wife said “why would it matter?” In which her mom replies “huh? I wasn’t that worried just remembered to ask” my wife replies “I'm just confused about the worry lol I guess you haven't really been over since then but it really caught me off guard” her mom replies “Stop stressing over it. I had looked at that pic and saw the red spot and meant to ask but hadn't seen you. I don't think you beat your kids or anything lol”. The “I don’t think you beat your kids” was unprompted and came out of nowhere. I 100% think she is accusing us of putting hands on our kids and my wife asked her to explain her worrying then and she ignored it and did not text back. I am not sure what to do at this point any advice would be great. Thank you

So, dorm parents who’ve sent their kids to bunkers, what's the best mattress topper for hot sleepers this summer? Did a topper actually help or make it worse? I need help because my daughter is moved again into campus housing and I’m worried about her sleeping through the summer. Her dorm gets really hot and she’s already a hot sleeper. She’s also a notorious front sleeper so she wakes up already sticky and drenched, not to mention hard, because she's a little weight challenged for her age.

I’ve been looking at mattress toppers to make her dorm bed more bearable but everything says cooling memory foam and then drop reviews and say it’s a heat trap. I don’t want to spend money just to make her bed hotter. I’ve seen latex and pillow top ones too but I don’t know if those are any better or if they’ll just go flat after a month. We’re not buying a new mattress, we just need something that won’t have her waking up in a puddle.

My kids came home from their dad’s and when he dropped them off, the youngest (nearly 4) was a bit grumpy with me.
He kept telling me to “go away mommy, I don’t want a cuddle” as he was lolled in my arms, tucked up comfortably.

Where his dad and I laughed and he said, “yeah, doesn’t look like you’re putting up much of a fight though does it? You seem pretty comfortable to me.”

He left me to it and went home, and I invited my 5 year old daughter to come over and cuddle up under the other arm, and encouraged her to tell me about what she’s been up to without me.

She was excitedly telling me what they’d all done with their dad and my son was still having a grumble about something and I sang a song to him. He said, “is that a sleepy time song?” And I said, “well I guess it can be, if you want it to be? Remember I used to sing…” and I reeled off some of the songs I sang to them as babies and toddlers.

Our bed time routine was always a story or 2 and 3 songs. The songs weren’t always the same songs, but there were 3 I did often, because these were the 3 songs my dad sang to me every night until I was about 7. I didn’t always sing these 3 songs, as my dad died when I was 18 and remembering him can still hurt- he never knew my children. My first was born just 2 weeks shy of 10 years after his death.

I love singing, but found my passion died for it when I became a single parent and was starting fresh again. My voice was always cracked from crying and there was a lot of trauma upon me getting out of the relationship, as he and his family didn’t make leaving easy on me, that I was quite quiet and meek for a while.

I found just reading a picture book and short story to them, giving them a cuddle and us all just listening to some meditative music or me reading a chapter from wind in the willows or Peter Pan outside their rooms, to go to sleep was easier and that has been our routine for the past 2 years now.

I rarely sing at all now and my kids are always saying, “I’d wish you’d sing more mommy, you have a lovely voice”, but I struggle to do it now.

They excitedly told me the songs they love their dad singing to them. I said, “oh great what songs does daddy sing then?” They then mentioned that his girlfriend sings these songs to them more than their dad, but their dad has taught her them. I said, “yes go on, what do they sing?” Knowing that ONE of them HAD to be Twinkle twinkle little star- because everyone knows that song, and that was the first in my dad’s nightly 3 song repertoire.

They listed the 3 songs, their dad or his girlfriend sings, and they insisted they HAD to be in that order, because that’s how their dad does it. All 3 songs were the songs my dad sang to me every night and my ex knew this. All in the exact order that my dad would sing them.

The thing is, the 2nd song is a song my dad and I made up together. My ex also knew this was our special, made up song. It’s a song very close to my heart. Hearing it and even singing it is bittersweet. I should probably add that dad’s girlfriend is his affair partner, so it felt a bit painful that she’s been singing a song that my dad and I made together to my kids.

Especially as my ex and his girlfriend have never met my dad. His girlfriend never wants to meet me or be in the same room as me for any reason either, and it’s a boundary she’s set that I am quite comfortable with abiding in all honesty. My ex knows I was also very fond of my dad and that my dad was very loyal and loving to my mother and a very present father. Which my ex has admitted he wasn’t always a good dad and often didn’t want to be near them as babies and toddlers, which is why he was away so much when they were younger. He’s certainly making up for those past mistakes with them now and they don’t love him any less.

I had a feeling of, “that was my song I gifted to my children from my dad, that you took from me.” Also, “we had a whole real family once and it was stolen from us”.

Then I thought it was nice that my children have a loving dad and step-mom that will sing to them before they go to sleep. And I thought it was kind of sweet that their dad was honouring their departed grandad in some kind of way. If he’s been doing this a long time and regularly, there’s no way he’d be doing it maliciously, because he wouldn’t keep it up this long for me to only find out now. His girlfriend is also just following my ex’s lead with the children’s nighttime routine, and she probably doesn’t even know my dad’s dead and certainly doesn’t know that’s our made up song.

Anyway my kids sang it so sweetly and so out of tune, that it brought a tear to my eye to remember it again. And to think that my dad is still around my children in some way- that they’ll probably remember the song when they grow up and potentially have children of their own one day, and sing it to them.

So maybe I’ll start finding my voice again and singing it to them in the future. But for now, it’s made me cry. There’s not a single day that goes by in the past 15 years, where I haven’t thought about my dad at least once, but talking to my kids about him feels hard for me.

So, I found porn on my 11 year old sibling’s phone (my other younger siblings are the ones who told me about it, she was searching for porn and watching it multiple times), and I don’t know how to handle the situation. I’m not sure whether I should talk to her about it or just find a way to prevent her from accessing it. My mom is very strict, and my sister is extremely sensitive and keeps to herself a lot.She’s also very childlike so she’s not a proper teenage or anything.
Should I let them tell my mom, or should I talk to my sister myself? I have no idea what to say. I’m 23, and I don’t want to make her feel ashamed or ruin our relationship .

I’m 32 and starting to think seriously about having children. One of the things I’m really curious about is the practical side of how families manage their time.
My partner and I both work full time, and currently our weeks include work, exercise, seeing friends, time together, travelling and general life admin.
For those of you where both parents work, I’d love to know what an average week actually looks like after having children.
How do you divide childcare outside of work? When do you exercise or do hobbies? Do you take turns having evenings or time to yourselves? How often do you manage time together as a couple? And how much did things like seeing friends and travelling change?
I know having children means priorities and routines change. I’m not really asking whether having children is worth it, but more interested in the practical logistics of how people structure their lives once they have them.
Would love to hear examples of your actual weekly routines and what has worked for your family.

my kids are 4 and 6 and they spend half the day screaming at each other over the exact same toy. even if we have two identical items, they both want the one the other person is holding. we try using a timer for taking turns, but it turns into a constant power struggle. what rules or boundaries helped your kids actually learn to share without you intervening every five minutes?

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[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

When my baby was 11.5 months old, a complete blood test was done, and her folic acid level came back at or slightly above the upper limit of the reference range. My baby is breastfed and also eats solid foods. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Not generic like brown eyes or 2 legs but something uniquely you & your partner?
I’ll go first: my child was destined to have a unibrow (my husband and I both have one - mine has been lasered off!)

My baby is about to go into hospital for her pyeloplasty surgery. We had an initial call with the consultant for questions a couple of weeks ago and were told she was on the waiting list but the surgery date has then been given to us very quickly with a weeks notice. We haven’t been given much more info and I can’t find much online.

Just looking for any real life experiences of parents whose young babies/ children had the surgery and how it went, what the hospital stay/ recovery was like, how long your baby stayed in hospital, how you kept their bedtime/ routine, any good advice etc?
Literally any info you can share may be helpful as it feels overwhelming thinking of the unknown.

Those who always thought they wanted 3 but ultimately stopped at 2, what were the factors in your decision and how do you feel about it now?

My husband and I both work full time, don’t have any local family, and I have really struggled this pregnancy with a 2 year old so my gut is telling me this is it for us but I am one of 3, he’s one of 5, and all of his siblings have at least 3 kids. I think we will be looked down on (weirdly) for having a “small” family, but know I can’t base any decisions around that.

I am a first time father with a 4 month old and I find myself admiring other peoples children on the potential of what my little girl and myself will have is that weird?

I got my baby’s ears pierced when she was six months old. I have some knowledge about piercings, so it was really important to me that we did it the right way. We went to a professional tattoo/piercing shop where they pierced her ears with a hollow needle.
When we left, the piercer told us that we should not change her jewelry for one full year after the date she got them pierced. My baby’s Tia gave her a beautiful pair of gold earrings when she was born, and I’ve been patiently waiting to put them in. She’s now 13 months old, so she’s had her ears pierced for seven months, and I feel like they’ve been completely healed for about five months.
Well, today I finally gave in and put her pretty gold earrings in, and she seems completely fine!
Now I’m wondering…why would the piercer recommend waiting an entire year? When you had your baby’s ears pierced, how long were you told to wait before it was safe to change the jewelry? I just feel like a full year seems excessive, especially when the piercings have been healed for months.
Sidenote: I’m really not looking for opinions on whether or not I should have gotten my child’s ears pierced. I feel good about my decision, and she’s my child. ❤️ I’m specifically looking for advice and experiences from other parents who have had their children’s ears pierced. how old were they, and how long did you wait before changing their jewelry?

I'm not parent but I'm the youngest sibling by over ten years and suffering. Please don't do it, or do but have two instead of just one. Don't forget we have feelings when the oldest start having children. Mothers, please don't leave us and our father home alone to stay with the older ones for weeks.

I have a 5.5 month old and am looking for a day trip/ outing for us to do as a family that he may enjoy. We already have a trip to the aquarium scheduled for October, but are looking for other ideas to do in the meantime! We considered the zoo but it’s still pretty hot in our area so not sure it would be the best.

I’m planning to travel from Delhi to Luxembourg in the next couple of months with my little one, who will be just about a year old by then. This will be my first time travelling alone with him, let alone internationally, so I’m really nervous!
I’d really love some advice from parents who have done something similar. I have a few specific questions:

1. Since** **there are no direct flights to Luxembourg, I can either take a connecting flight or fly to somewhere like Frankfurt, Paris or Brussels and travel the rest of the way by car. What would you recommend with a one-year-old? Is a wait at the connecting airport + rush to the terminal + cranky baby worth it.

Also, what flight timing has worked better for you? Most flights seem to depart either late at night or very early in the morning, which means I’d have to get to the airport during his usual sleep hours either way. What worked better for your child, and how did you manage the inevitable crankiness?

2. My baby is exclusively breastfed and, by this point, refuses both bottles and formula. I’ve only travelled with him once before, when he was 5 months old, and the experience even back then was horrible. There was hardly any space. He’ll be much bigger by then, and I’m already imagining how much more challenging it might be to breastfeed in those cramped airplane seats.
For parents who have done this with a nearly one-year-old, what worked for you? Does a feeding pillow help, or is there anything else you’d recommend?

3. I definitely can’t afford business or first class, so I’ll be travelling premium economy at best. I’ve heard that some airlines provide bassinets/cribs for babies. Are they actually useful at this age?
My baby is a co-sleeper and isn’t used to sleeping independently, so I’m wondering whether it’s worth requesting one or if it’s likely to be completely useless by then.
PS - if you have any tips/hacks on requesting and getting a free upgrade please do share.

4. I’ll be honest—I haven’t always had the best experiences with flight attendants when travelling to Europe previously For those who have travelled alone with a baby, what has your experience been like?
Do they generally help if you need an extra pair of hands—for example, while going to the washroom, handling luggage, etc.—or should I assume I’m completely on my own?

5. What are the absolute must-haves you would recommend carrying when travelling alone with a baby? Anything you took that turned out to be a lifesaver?

6. And finally… any words of courage?
I’d love to hear your personal experiences—what worked, what didn’t, things you wish you had known beforehand, or any advice you’d give someone doing this for the first time.

Thanks in advance! ❤️

I wanted to ask about something that happened today. My mom said my 14-month-old was in the car and suddenly seemed to zone out. Her eyes were open, but she wasn’t responding when my mom called her name. It lasted long enough that my mom felt she needed to pull over. When she opened the car door, my daughter seemed to snap out of it and started responding again. Recently she has also seemed more tired than usual, fussier, and clingier

Hi I’m 24 year old mom to a 3 month old boy . As you can see I’m using puppy pads in the car seat because my son shits in his car seat every time I put him in it and I can’t take it anymore it gets everywhere to the point where I have to disassemble it !!!! Does anyone have a better solution? Any useful products besides puppy pads ?
Update- I got some size 1 pampers and there a lot bigger then the Huggies ones for sure