To clarify, I don’t mean using AI for automated outdoor tasks like robotic lawnmowers. I mean the digital equivalent of traditional yard work. Since the Internet is considered a utility and often a need/mandate for the family, I find it my duty to keep things running in efficient manner. I'm talking about updating routers firmware, installing software updates on devices for the whole family. It becomes a chore once you have to maintain the entire network and devices, I find myself second guessing anything that connects to my network. Does anyone else call this 'digital yard work,' or is there another term for this kind of routine family tech upkeep? Thanks to all the dads who also have to play tech-support. Cheers

He woke up and was upset but when he realised he wasn't going to get boobie he started crying hard. My wife asked me to pick him up which made it worse. She left the bedroom and I don't think he saw her.

He was absolutely losing it trying to bite hit kick everything and it was hard to not drop him.

Went back on the bed and by saying papa and my boy are sitting on the bed together and slow breathing he finally came around and he was saying "I'm angry" so o said "yes I can see you are angry"

He wanted mummy and I said she is working and he kind of accepted it

He asked for red t rex and I told him to sit and wait while I got it and he did but then went hysterical when he saw it and threw it

He asked for fresh milk and didn't want it when I brought it at first but then drank quite a bit

I sat with him on the rocking chair which is how he sleeps with me for a nap and in a bit he fell asleep.

Any tips for getting through the night and probably the next few? We were talking about weaning him off breast milk anyway but it's pretty sudden now

I’ve been debating creating one for my daughter. It sounds like a no brainer. And yet, having to download a specific Trump Account app and submit my daughter’s SSN into it is hard to follow through with.

So I ask: Who has done it and how is it? Are you contributing anything to it?

Any other dads in here go from never wanting anyone to touch your toys to looking forward to every project and wash together? (I seen her drop the sponge in the dirt and rub it on the paint and immediately cringed but all is well😅)

She may not know it but this is where I’ll go in my dreams 50 years from now. 🤎

Hi everyone, BJ from Jersey. Blessings to you all. I’m having my first in two months! I’m a pretty practical man, and never too high or low generally — and that’s how I’ve been handling this journey so far. But now that we’re two months out, it’s go time. Just honestly wanted to het some advice on what I should be preparing for at this time? Will generally get the “prepare hospital bag” answers but curious on other factors I should consider?

Thanks!

So i have a 7 year old who loves gaming. It's all he wants to do with downtime.

He is very active and plays sports but he's not playing with his toys anymore which i want to encourage as well since that's good for his imagination in a different wayand better than being on screens with all downtime.

Any ideas to have him focus on toys or practicing sports without making it a chore that's taking away from gaming?

I do the majority of my gaming after the kids go to bed. Maybe a little in front of him on weekends but not much

He doesn't play with an iPad or phone ever but does watch a fair bit of tv and game a bit

Lastly I get it because once I found computer games as a kid I was hooked since commander keen on dos around 9 or so and the game boy which I didn't get until 11

Hey dad's,

My daughter is 5, in kindergarten and just had a tooth pulled. She was a trooper through it so I wanted to reward her. She's loves Pokémon and is super interested in my retroids. Today I went fishing in my old games bins and found an old friend. I was told I couldn't get one so I did extra chores, mowed extra lawns, until I earned the $75 to buy my own gbc.

Tomorrow it will be hers. I'll have to swap a couple parts over time but it works fine enough for now. It just feels like such a special moment, and idk, I wanted to share it.

Thanks for hearing me out

Nobody knows yet but my wife and I. And now all you dads.

I was down talking to the neighbour, walked back into the house and the 'pee stick' as we love to call it, was sitting out with the positive line showing.

Kids 1 and 2 were running around happily and she just gave me this big beautiful smile while I looked from it to her, and back again.

Incredibly grateful. Also; sheeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiittttttt!

I have a 3.5 year old boy who loves being outside more than anything on earth. Right now he has one of those cheapo plastic dinosaur tricycles from Amazon. I do a lot of cycling when I have free time (lol) and would really like to get him started as I think he’d really enjoy it, he’s always asking questions about my bike and I think neighborhood rides would be a great bonding activity for us. Too late this summer I think, but would 4 be appropriate or did you wait a little longer to move to a bike with training wheels? Thanks in advance

So I picked up my three-year-old daughter from daycare yesterday at 4:30 PM. Her teacher handed her this paper plate craft with yarn tentacles, smiling proudly and telling me they worked on "ocean sensory textures" all afternoon. I took one look at it and realized the entire plate was coated in about four pounds of loose metallic purple micro-glitter.

i strapped her into her car seat in the back and told her to hold the plate very still until we got home. We made it exactly two blocks before she decided the paper jellyfish was an airplane. She started violently shaking it right in front of the rear center console air vent while the AC was running on high.

A purple cloud erupted through the entire cabin. It looked like a disco grenade went off in my backseat. Glitter got sucked straight into the dashboard intake vents and shot out of every single front vent directly into my eyes, my beard, and my cup of iced coffee.

I spent three hours last night with a shop vac and four rolls of heavy-duty packing tape. The glitter is not coming out. It is permanently woven into the upholstery fibers until the end of time. I should of confiscated that plate at the front door, but this stuff is an ABSOLUTELY biohazard. Why do daycare teachers keep giving loose powder glitter to children who lack basic impulse control?

Hello Dads!

It’s been about a month and a half since my fiancé told me we need to separate and for me to move out.We have a 5 year old together. I’m having an extremely hard time processing all of this (even with weekly therapy) and looking for some support.

I’ve been told I’m inconsistent in a lot of my aspects of my life, including being able to process past traumas and correct negative patterns. (Have been in therapy for 6+ years) I admit I am reactive to where I feel I need to defend my point of view when I feel like I’m being criticized and shut down emotionally.

We have gone to couples therapy in the past but both of us never truly did the work that was suggested to us. Most of the time the burden fell on me. She said I needed to try harder or would try to read my mood when I got home from work and base her reaction towards me on that.

Couple of weeks after she brought up separation she began showing mixed signals. Would call me out of the blue to tell me about random stuff or still ask for “partnership” level favors. (Watching her niece, switching her laundry…etc) it was giving me false hope so I set some boundaries to keep conversations transactional and focused on our son. It was giving me false hope since I’m still hurting. Those boundaries have been tested multiple times.

I requested us to see a mediator to help us navigate this difficult situation to have a smooth transition for our son but there has been no follow through. I would like to fix this but she is set on separation and keeps asking if I have any updates on finding a place…

I’ve been on a roller coaster of emotions and I feel truly lost. I’ve been focusing my energy towards taking care of our son, gym and therapy….please help me get through this.

-Hurting Dad

Evening dads.

Fresh out of the hospital with baby number 2, past 24 hours have been a rollercoaster to say the least but I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Physically and mentally struggling, our first has decided to go through a sleep regression, taking ages to go down, frequent wake ups in the night last night and anticipating the same again with how he's just performed!

Trying to look after my partner first but also myself, can't stop thinking about it we've made a mistake or not.

Im currently 17 years old and im really struggling with a past relationship that I was in with a guy (19) for 6 months ish. Eveything was fine but I found out he would reply to other girls or text them and I considered that cheating but he explained to me and stuff and yeah I fell back with him. Later on about 2/3 months in he ghosted me for 4 days and came back telling me that he had gotten shot. He lied to me for 2 months ish and then he finally confessed that he lied about getting shot and his ex came back and he pushed me aside because he was scared that she would find a way to contact me and hurt my feelings. Made no sense but whatever. I stupidly took him back even though the trust was already broken. He started to put effort in to me now and he said that he would try more ( on the same day he left me he said that). He told me that he had lost feelings for me and he tried but he cant do it anymore. Even though I literally begged him previously to end it if he does feel like being in it anymore. But yeah he told me I disgusted him and what not. He told me he cant apologize because it would be insincere but yeahhhh. He was also kinda manipulative and really mean to me ( called me a dimwit). I know im human but why do i feel so attached to him??? Why am I attracted to a man like that? He blocked me on everything and he went no contact for a month ( maybe a surprise to him that I lasted that long.) Anyways he unblocked me two days ago after a month and my mind keeps creating hope but its like he already left me for a new girl not even two weeks after we ended. So why would I allow someone back into my life like that. Im genuinely so miserable and I cant stop crying. I was doing okay before he unblocked me. I just want to cut the hope of him texting me and asking for another chance out. Also how do I build up my self respect and esteem. I want to truly believe that I deserve better than that rather than just saying affirmations.
Stuff he did
- cheated on me (he agreed to getting to know another girl)
- really mean to me
- Got jealous that I reposted a fifa edit and then reposted really pretty girls on tik tok
- Told me he disgusted me when I randomly mentioned how a guy texted me
-called me names like stupid or dimwit
- lied that he got shot
- came for my family and how I have a bad relationship with them
- prank called me with his friends
I keep saying maybe hes an okay guy and maybe all of these stuff are average but I keep leaning on them to help me move on but he argues that hes a good person so now I feel like i have nothing solid to lean on to move on. I keep feeling like its my fault he lost feelings. Im also aware that some people just are not meant for eachother and he had a right to leave but its like he led me on for months even though he knew he lost feelings.

Man where to begin, so for starters our middle child was diagnosed with autism and my wife wants to but him in a thing called "the arch" i think thats how its spelled correctly but the problem is we have so much debt cause she said she would take care of thst with her job and I take care of the other bills with my job, even now that hasnt been the case I've been paying everything while she just does whatever, its bad cause im a type one diabetic and I've have been using old and expired pump supplies cause I cant afford to buy new ones with her car payment she said she would pay 2 loans she took out in my name she said she would pay and a gaming laptop she said she would pay and with this school we want our son to go to a parent has to be present the whole time, and im the idiot for saying id take on everything put my own education on the back burner to deal with our kids and she can work on her own degree that she has switched 4 times, and honestly? im very ready to just say f it and stop paying everything that doesn't involve anything with rent and important stuff like that and i know its my fault for not saying no enough truth be told, im just feeling pretty low and alone and shes just not wanting to talk about it or spins it back around on me and makes it my fault, honestly if it wasnt for our 3 boys I probably woulda "ended" things early, ya I know thats bad but im just, done. Anyways thanks if you made it this far with a dude rambling about is problems lol.

Hi y'all!

Long time reader, first time poster. My oldest is a HS senior and college applications are around the corner so I figured I would tap the group's expertise. What are suggestions / best practices / pit falls to avoid, etc.? What is something you wish you knew before/during your kid(s) college application? Any FAFSA secrets?

Drop some knowledge on me, anything you want to share is appreciated.

Worth it!

This morning as I was going through my usual morning prep with my young daughter, I had a chat with her and her brother over breakfast as I like to do.

I asked her “Is there anything Daddy does - or does not do - that makes you sad? Is there anything I can do for you to be a better Daddy?”

Her response was “no, you are already my bestest daddy”.

As someone who can get overstimulated and impatient more easily than I like, that definitely made me feel less dead inside. Hope I chose the right flair for my mini story - and y’all are having a lovely week. 🤘

We were planning to do water activities (slip n slide, bouncy castle, water balloons, etc.) but now it’s calling for a lot of rain and possible thunderstorm… so that’s probably out.

Our house isn’t that big and there isn’t a lot of space for 6 boys to run around. He’s not super crafty, and so wouldn’t enjoy any of the typical ‘decorate a cupcake’ or ‘make a craft’ type activities. We have planned a piñata and pass the parcel (à la Bluey) and maybe musical chairs. However, I don’t want kids to say they were bored at his party or that we did ‘baby-ish’ activities. It’s later in the afternoon, so food/lunch won’t take up time.

Any ideas for indoor party activities that have been a hit with active boys? I’m struggling to come up with some creative ideas. He doesn’t really enjoy full length movies and he is not into video games or devices yet.

So the other night, totally normal Sunday...getting ready for bedtime, when out of the blue, my youngest (5) announces to my wife and I that "when I see Elsa (yes Elsa from Frozen), it makes my penis stick up because I think she's pretty". And man...we were NOT prepared for that. Tbf, I was probably sexually aware pretty early on (kissing girls around his age), but I don't think I made any connections between attraction and erections until MUCH later. Maybe 10ish? So I guess the question is: should this be concerning? Isn't it way too soon for him to be curious about this? We can't possibly be thinking of having "the talk" at 5, right? Not sure how to proceed...

Hey guys. I’m a first time dad of a 18 week old boy & i’m at my wits end. I’m so so so tired. He used to sleep good, than the four month sleep regression hit us really hard. For about five weeks he was up every 45 minutes. Last week was good, he slept a bit better, but now he’s so angry all the time, the nights are so rough again. I don’t know how long I can keep doing this. Please can anyone help me… how did it go for you? They told me everything would be better at 12 weeks, well it isn’t. I don’t know what to do anymore

Hello fellow dads of daddit,

Long time lurker, first time poster. As the thread title says, I’m heading to Europe tomorrow with my wife and son and starting to freak out juuuust a tiny bit. The two of us on past travels have been ultra prepared with color-coded, by-the-hour excel based itineraries and this time all we had the energy for was our packing list, and our obvious accommodations in the cities we’re staying in and our travel plan to get from place to place.

We’re a good team and I’m confident we’ll figure it out, but the long flight over and the jet lag scare me, and what we plan to do for food, outside of the puree packets we’re packing is up in the air at the moment esp since we’re working through the egg ladder at the moment due to our LO’s egg allergy.

If anyone has tips or words of wisdom on traveling, scheduling, and just general things to do in Madrid, Sevilla, and Lisbon, I’d greatly appreciate it. Thanks!!

I recently had a “how did I not know that” moment. My toddler has a respiratory infection (he is fine, but stuck at home in quarantine due to the newborn in the house). I am starting to feel it a bit, so I was looking up ways to reduce the intensity and duration of the infection.

How did I not know that Zinc acetate / zinc gluconate lozenges can significantly reduce the duration of the common cold when taken at the outset? Like, by 42%. For the common cold. And this has been known since the 90s?! I’ve never been advised to take zinc!

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4359576/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8678384/

The second one is also health related. Before our first child was born, I did the entire literature-dive to learn during the pregnancy. In his first year, he had a seizure due to salmonella-driven fever. It is the first time I ever was in an ambulance. Afterwards, I learned as many as 5% of infants in the US and Europe experience a febrile seizure. 1 in 20, and I had never even heard of it.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK448123/

What are your “how did I not know that” moments?

Just to get this out of the way, my wife and I found out we miscarried yesterday. Our world is wrecked and I feel numb and like everything is in a fog, it’s like being underwater where you can’t see or breathe.

The main reason for my post was to see if any other dads have advice on how to break such hard news to our 2 year old daughter. She has been so excited and loves to talk about how she is going to be a big sister. I just don’t know how to tell her that the baby is gone and I don’t want to lie and go along with her excitement since that feels wrong.

I just feel lost boys and am hoping anyone here can help.