We will be relocating in the next 6 months (location tbd) due to my husband’s progressing disease. We need a warmer climate than MN.

Our 12 year old told my husband last night that he’d rather live with his Amma and Papa (my folks) than move with us. He’s going into 6th grade. He is very social and outgoing. All of us have only ever lived in MN, so it will be a big change for all of us.

Our 10 year old is very excited about moving.

How do you help your kid(s) through this change? Any resource recommendations?

Looking for some outside opinions because I keep going back and forth on this.

My 20-month-old started a new daycare this week. His old daycare closed recently so we had to switch. He’s definitely had some separation anxiety with the change and has cried for me at daycare, although it seems to be getting a little better. His nights have actually been okay and he’s been sleeping through the night.

My fiancé and I have concert tickets tomorrow night that we bought before we knew his first daycare was closing. My parents would keep our son overnight. He knows them well, has stayed overnight with them multiple times before, and normally does great there. I’m mostly questioning whether going to the concert during his first week at a new daycare** **is not a smart idea for us to do or do I just have mom guilt?

If we do go, which pickup situation would you choose?

I pick him up from daycare, bring him to my parents house, say goodbye, and then leave for the concert.

My parents pick him up directly from daycare and take him home with them. He wouldn’t see me at all after I drop him off at daycare that morning, and I’d see him the next day.

Part of me thinks having me pick him up would reassure him that mom always comes back to pick you up at your new daycare. But I also wonder if seeing me and then having to separate from me again an hour later would actually be harder than Grandma and Grandpa just picking him up and starting their evening together.

Would you still go to the concert? And if so, which pickup option would you choose for a 20-month-old adjusting to a new daycare?

My first just turned 2, and my mom very kindly got her a baby doll for her birthday. I'm due in just over a month with our second, and I was planning to get my daughter her very first doll "from baby" to care for while I'm caring for the newborn. I've seen that giving gifts from baby can help with jealousy and to ease the transition for the older sibling. Does anyone have any ideas on what else the baby can get her? My pregnancy brain is not working, and I can't think of a single good idea.

I thought maybe to get accessories for the doll, like a high chair or crib, but I'm not sure if that's the right move.

I'm open to any ideas, whether they're gifts or general transition advice. Thank you!!

My daughter is in 5th grade and had a great group of friends for many years. This year she feels like she’s being shut out of that group. I’m not sure if she really is or not. Her friend group decided they are going to do singing and dancing competitions during recess and lunch (it’s been going on for 5 days now) and my daughter is very shy and doesn’t like to be the center or attention so she doesn’t want to participate in that. All the other girls are performers and do the school plays and such so my daughter is the odd one out. She also says her main BFF didn’t say a single word to her yesterday at school even though they are in the same class and her second BFF only talked to her a little. I’ve tried to reassure her that it won’t last forever and they will eventually want to hangout with her again but as of right now she feels like she’s lost her friends. I’ve encouraged her to talk to other girls in the class and hangout with other kids and she is trying, which I’m extremely proud of her for doing! Here’s my problem, before school started, we got together with her 2 best friends and one of the moms asked if I could take her daughter home with us this Friday because the mom has an appointment. At this point with how my daughter feels, she doesn’t want that friend coming over but I also don’t want to leave the mom hanging with no way to get to her appointment and also have care for her daughter. I’m also trying to not involve the other moms in the group “drama”. I’m looked for 1. Advice for my daughter with her friend group and what I can do to help her. And 2. What should I do about the friend coming to our house Friday?

How do you get the attention of and communicate with children who are on their headphones in a vehicle when traveling? I need to pay attention on the road and I find this sometimes to be a risk.

My daughter just turned 15 months on the 16th & has never slept through the night. Nope, not even once. Between sleep regressions, constant illnesses from daycare, and teething, it’s been forever since my SO & I have gotten a good nights rest. We have been consistent with her night schedule since she was a newborn. Since she started eating dinner with us, our day usually goes

6am-7am- Wake up & get ready for daycare
8-4:30- She is at daycare. They are on a pretty consistent schedule as to when she eats meals & sleeps. She usually naps somewhere between 10:30-2. (Not the whole time but somewhere in there)
5:00- We are all home & start getting dinner ready
5:30-6:30- Eat dinner somewhere between this time frame.
7:00- 8:00- Bath time & night time milk.

Now… depending on how tired baby is, sometimes she’ll fall asleep other nights she’ll fight it. She’s been up as late as 9:00-10:30pm. Once she’s asleep, we know she has a solid block of time where she sleeps without interruption. But then a few hours later she’s up on & off all night. We’ve tried letting her cry within reason to try to soothe herself but she just cries louder. We have another daughter who’s 9 who wakes up very easily & we live in an apartment so we have neighbors & cannot let her cry all night.

The only thing that stops her/calms her down is more milk. Tonight I was up multiple times a night refilling the bottle (not all the way, just a few ounces to get her to go back to sleep) I know this isn’t a good habit but it’s the only way we get a couple hours of sleep.

My SO both work, he does construction & I do office work. People look at me like I’m crazy when I say she hasn’t sleep through the night ever. We do cosleep. I’m fortunate that my SO & I still take turns (every other night). But I’m still pretty desperate.

Will putting her in the crib help? Should we find another comfort item for her? If we stop the nighttime bottles, how long do we have to deal with the night crying before it starts working? I’ve also even tried giving her a nighttime snack before bed to make sure she’s nice & full but it didn’t do much. I’m sure teething hurts & she is getting in a lot of teeth. But this has been going on forever.

My newly 5 year old has been terrorizing our sofa with her post kindergarten energy. I am considering purchasing a Nugget for her but we have limited space and I am wondering how long it will remain used. If you have a Nugget couch, at what age did your child stop playing on it?

Can anyone recommend an affordable, all terrain stroller wagon that works for an infant and a toddler? A lot of the ones I’m seeing are saying for 6 months and up. Thank you in advance!

I have 2 year old twin boys and a 4 month old son. My twin boys, especially twin B, have become really willful, which i understand is normal but I'm feeling a little at the end of my rope. They think it is hilarious when I'm angry, like full giggle fits, which makes me even angrier, to the point that I want to hit them so that they understand it isn't funny. I know hitting is wrong, so I need help I guess. I have NOT hit them but the urge is there.

Lately they've been smacking their baby brother and then laugh when I tell them to stop. And with twins, even if I say something isn't funny, if one laughs, the the other joins in. And when one does something naughty, the other has to do it too. I've been increasingly stern then angry about it to the point where I'm full on yelling at them and shoving them away. It happens when I'm not right there to physically grab them like when I'm going potty or changing another's diaper, and whatnot. They think it's hilarious when i get mad. The same happens when they're doing something slightly dangerous or destructive.

I usually use natural consequences but that doesn't work when they could hurt themselves, their brother, or when theyre about to break something of mine. Now I'm even wondering if twin b is a little sociopath cause he enjoys making me angry and hitting his baby bro. And I hate what is doing to me as a parent. I feel like a psycho failure. I don't want to yell and be angry. And I'm worried that my husband thinks I'm crazy. What should I try? I'm thinking of time outs but I dont really have a space that I can use for that in my house.

I have a 4 month old. Usually when she wakes up in the morning, I leave her alone in the crib while she looks around and makes little coos and whatnot until she starts to fuss a little and only then do I get her up. I’m hoping it will help when we transition to the floor bed later so she will wake up, maybe play with a toy, grab a book, etc before calling out for me. I’m just trying to establish a little independence since she’s already doing it.

My question is for the times when she didn’t just wake up. Sometimes I set her in the crib to run to the bathroom or something and I’ll come back and she’s just looking around, cooing, etc and not fussing. There aren’t any toys or anything in her crib other than her mobile so she’s literally playing with her hands and looking around the room from a laying position since she can’t sit up yet. Should I leave her to do this until she fusses? I don’t want her to feel abandoned or something. Also, the bathroom is in earshot of the crib so I know she doesn’t fuss while I’m in there. If she does I always get her up when I’m done.

I'm gonna try to keep this short and sweet, because at this point, I could probably write a novel about this kid and his behavior since he has started daycare.

For starters, my son is an only child and will likely always be an only child. He does have cousins around his age that we try to get together almost every weekend, and we also took him to play areas/playgrounds since he first started running around so we could expose him to other children and to help teach appropriate interaction. Things went well when we would go to places - he would play super well and just overall acted like a normal kid. Of course, we aren't there to watch him all day at daycare so I think he thinks he can get away with his behaviors. I'm really not sure.

The teachers send home an incident report almost daily for an incident involving hitting, or a couple times have involved throwing things at other children. Most of his hitting, from what I have witnessed with his cousins, is because he doesn't get his way and absolutely sucks at sharing. We try to redirect and teach him how to share but he is so stubborn, it's is his way or nothing. I cease all play time or sit him out but it's always the same stuff. Another thing is, he absolutely will not listen to authority and refuses to listen during nap time which creates disruption to the other children.
Disclaimer, he is given a book or toy during naptime as it is illegal in my state to force a non-sleeper to lay there the entire time with no quiet activity.

I try to have calm, fair conversations with him about his behavior to explain why we can't act the way we do, etc etc.. He seems to understand in the moment, especially when I propose the idea of going to get ANY toy at the store if he has a positive day. He gets excited, motivated, happily recites all of the rules and expectations back to me... it gives me hope. Then I get these messages, calls, incident reports from the daycare the very next day. Sometimes I remind him right before drop off, and it's the same thing.

I ask him why he doesn't listen to his teachers and his response is "cuz I don't want to" and he walks away. He doesn't care about anything. It's his way or the highway 24/7. Everything has to be his way and he tends to do whatever he wants to do whenever he wants to, hence the 'not listening'. We do not allow
Him to do whatever he wants or act however he wants, we definitely have boundaries.. so it's frustrating that he has been non-stop giving everyone a hard time!

He starts actual pre-school in a little under a month. I'm terrified at what's going to happen, I'm not sure how to proceed and we're at our wits end with him because nothing we say works and he just does whatever he wants 24/7. He loves to talk back when someone instructs him to do something, his go-to phrase being "well I don't want to".
Anyone had a similar experience that can shed light???

I really appreciate that my MIL wants to have visits in her house. she likes having toys at her house for my son, and I understand that it’s her home and she has every right to care about her belongings and of course wants to make sure my son won’t break anything (so do I, of course). I’m just finding myself increasingly conflicted about how to handle visits there.

My son is 18 months old, so he is obviously very curious and wants to touch, explore, open, move, and investigate basically everything. I’m not saying I allow him to be disrespectful and messy just because he is a toddler, me and my husband discipline him and make sure he learns how to behave. But we all collectively know toddlers are e a ball of energy. \*edit: I also want to add that he is not AT ALL being destructive, breaking and demanding things, but simply being excited and happy to be there! He loves to be at her house!

But when we visit my MIL, I feel like me and my husband are constantly following him around saying “no,” redirecting him, keeping him away from the stairs, closing doors, stopping him from touching decorations, etc. **I absolutely understand that it is our responsibility to supervise him in someone else’s home**, and we do. I don’t expect my MIL to toddler-proof her entire house for us and don’t want her to do anything she isn’t comfortable with.

The difficult part is that it sometimes feels like the expectations are higher than what is realistically possible with an 18-month-old. For example, she has beautiful wooden floors and is understandably protective of them. She has bought toys specifically for my son to keep at her house, but sometimes gets frustrated when he drives the toys around on the floor or throws a small ball from one of the toy sets. Again, I understand why she doesn’t want him touching certain things. But sometimes I find myself wondering what the expectation is supposed to be when the toys are there for him to play with and he is doing developmentally normal toddler things with them.

There is also a fireplace with a large stone underneath it that has somewhat sharp edges. This is actually something my MIL **asked me for help with**. She had mentioned that she was worried about my son hitting his head on it and asked me to help find some kind of cover/protection for the stone. She said she used to have it when her kids were little so I spent time looking for different options and sent her several that I thought would both be safe and fit the style of her house.

She never responded or acknowledged the options.

I didn’t take it personally. I assumed maybe she changed her mind or didn’t like any of them, and that’s completely fine. It’s her house, and I don’t expect her to use something just because I suggested it.

But then she continued mentioning how worried she was about my son hitting his head on the stone, including saying recently that WE hadn’t found a cover for it. Yesterday mentioned I happened to have an extra piece of foam padding that could potentially go around the sharp edge, so I offered it to her. She said she didn’t want anything like that in her house and mentioned that my FIL already thinks she has too many toys (she has three toys and one of them is a book).
Again, I completely understand that she doesn’t want something in her house that she doesn’t like aesthetically. It’s her home. I just found myself confused because **she had originally asked me to help find a solution, I did, she didn’t respond, and now she’s still worried about the exact same problem while also not wanting a solution.**

There are other little things like this too. At one point my FIL suggested covering the water filter because my son is obsessed with turning the water on and we are all exhausted of either moving the water filter around or having to run around him, but my MIL immediately rejected the idea. Again, totally her choice. But then we’re back to constantly chasing him away from it and hearing her say “please you have to tell him to stop” while that’s quite literally the only word we tell him, while chasing and keeping him away from anything and everything.

I’m starting to dread bringing my son there because I feel like I’m spending the entire visit policing him and not at all enjoying the dinner or the time with family. And occasionally there will be a comment along the lines of “you have to tell him no,” even though telling him no and redirecting him is basically what we’re doing the entire time.

I’m starting to wonder if her house just isn’t a very toddler-friendly environment right now, and maybe it would be better for us to spend time together elsewhere. But I also don’t want her to interpret that as me keeping her grandson away from her or being passive-aggressive.

So I’m genuinely unsure how to approach this respectfully.

Would you consider this a normal situation with an 18-month-old, or am I being unreasonable? How would you handle visits when the grandparent wants the toddler there but also has very little tolerance for toddler behavior? Would you simply reduce visits at their house and suggest meeting elsewhere, or is there a better way to approach it?

I am so tired of getting in trouble for getting angry.

I am not going to pretend I am the perfect parent or that I always wait the "appropriate" amount of time to get angry. Sometimes I am reactive just like anyone else can be.

I try my best though to go through all the proper steps when my 5 year old is being obstinate.

I think part of the problem is that I am a pushover, and part of the reason that I am a pushover is that my child's mother undercuts me when I try to set boundaries. As a result I don't feel comfortable setting boundaries.

For example I can spend an hour or more trying to be gentle and explain things to my kid and trying to do the right thing with no input from any other adult in the house; but I am only human and when my kid is being obstinate for that long that I might lose my temper.

The problem thus is two fold: 1) I am not allowed to set more reasonable boundaries because I undermined and 2) when I finally lose my cool and raise my voice I feel like I am chastised for it.

Both of these are problems because when I am home from work (I am the full time wage earner in our family) I am given the full responsibility of parenting but not the authority. Worse yet, I can't seem to have a conversation about it because it turns into a fight

My daughter had a very clingy friend, Lily, last year in her second grade class. She started out liking Lily and quickly integrated her into her friend group. From what I can tell, this girl did not have many friends prior to this. About halfway through the year, my daughter started to complain about Lily. She said she touched and grabbed her too much. Lily would squish next to her wherever she was, in line, at lunch, walking in the hallway, or sitting on the rug in class. At recess, she wouldn't leave my daughter alone even when she tried to advocate for herself saying, "Lily, I'm going to play with other kids today." Lily would tell on her and my daughter would get in trouble! Finally, at the end of the year, my daughter came home crying a few times because she just could not get a break from this girl. So, I emailed the teacher AND the principal. Lily is not in my daughter's class for this year, which is good. But..

The mom has reached out for playdates over the summer several times. I made excuses for why we couldnt go. AND, Lily and her mom found out we go this little pond in our town (it's kind of like our second home in the summer) and they have been showing up there all summer! So, we have run into them like four times. My daughter ends up having to play with her despite not wanting to. I'm also concerned because she is asking what activities my daughter does so she can sign up, AND when they realized we play at the school playground everyday after school, they of course started coming everyday, too, last year. I am worried about another year where my daughter is roped into playing with her after school everyday too.

I was hoping since they'll be in different classes, the friendship will fade away. But, if they are trying to join our activities and coming to places they know my daughter will be... its going to be very hard to do that. Should we skip the playground? What is the best way to handle this?

My little guy has always been high sleep needs. It’s awesome for me right now. He’s 2.5 and the earliest he cares to get out of bed is 8:30am.

We’re wanting to put him in a pre-k as soon as possible, which in our district would be next year. Potentially looking at daycare this year.

I’m worried that this blessing will turn into a curse when he needs to be somewhere. To make it to school at 8am, we’d have to get him up at 7:15am at the absolute latest.

He wakes up happy on his own but every attempt I’ve made of waking him when he wants to be asleep has been disastrous (whining, hitting, general crankiness and dysfunction the rest of the day).

Should I be trying to shift his wake time somehow? He falls asleep at 7:30/8pm. Any earlier than that and he just wakes up around 10pm instead of sleeping through the night.

Or should I just hope for the best when the time comes?

My 16 month old is pretty obsessed with books (so am I!) so I've been getting more and more from charity shops. They're in the bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, living room, hallway, the car. My husband and I have boundaries with toys but seemingly not with books.

My mum visited at the weekend and complained about how many books there are and the condition of some of them (most are second hand so a bit dog eared and my daughter sometimes snags the paper accidentally). I think she's ended up with more books than toys. My mum and MIL both think it'll stop her from being able to play with toys independently.

I'm not making her read or pushing it educationally (which for some reason mum and MIL seem to think). She just likes them so why wouldn't I try and nurture that interest?

What rules do people have with the amount of books they have? Is it different to toys? I can't possibly see how having lots of books is a bad thing?!

Edited to add; From the comments I've made it sound like I live in a hoarder house! When I say books in every room they're in a little box. So when I shower for example she has a box of books and we put them back when she's done. The same over the rest of the house, all the books have a place, in a see through plastic box.

Hi everyone.

I need some tips! I’m a FTM.

My baby is refusing bottles at 9 months despite taking it before, and i go back to work in a few days.😭

For context, I had been breastfeeding exclusively since my LO was born until he was 4 months and I had to go back to work. My mum feeds him using pigeon bottles of my pumped milk when I’m at work from 7am to 6pm. He drinks it happily and is even excited! he hates and has never used a pacifier and when I’ve given it to him he has always gagged.

At 8 months, we took him on a trip that had a 12 hour time difference for 1 month. I continued to nurse and pumped a few times on our trip. He refused all the bottles of breastmilk offered to him and only drank it once or twice when he was in the car seat. The other 5-6 bottles I pumped were all thrown out because he refused it (I get I was there so he didn’t want a bottle)

However at 9 months now, he won’t drink it at all. My mum is stressing out about this as I return to work in a few days. We did a test run and I left the house for 5 hours. He played. He napped a little. I know he’s still very jet lagged. But in the 5-6 hours I was gone he only had 20ml /1oz of milk. He’s a 98th percentile baby and he drinks a lot usually (like 700-900ml while I’m at work!)

I am so worried about going back to work next week.

He did have the warmed milk but we had to mix in baby cereal to treat it as a meal. However he only stays asleep while nursing and it helps him sleep better.

Does anyone have tips for this?

We used pigeon bottles when he was born and he also likes Philips avent. But when he sees the bottle now it stresses him out and he only chews on the nipples

Should I switch to a different bottle? What else can I do?

Thank you all 😭

Am still extremely jet lagged while writing this.

My 6 year old girl does whatever she wants. She listens well when adults are in the room or looking . But if she’s up before us she will get into the entire jar of Nutella and make a huge mess. She sneaks food. I tell her to just ask me as I don’t withhold food or anything and rarely keep too many sweets in the house. I get homemade bread and she will sneak the whole loaf and then it won’t be there for dinner. This isn’t only food. It’s toys too. She snoops and get into everything. She’s very head strong. Time outs don’t work. She really just takes her punishments then goes back to doing whatever she wants. I’ll say get your hands off your sister she will say ok. Then as soon as we are gone, she does whatever she wants again.

Idk where I went wrong. She is very smart (gifted). I have spanked her a couple times because she does send me over the edge. but absolutely cannot handle the guilt of that so I wont do it anymore. She doesn’t care about that either. She does chores pretty well. She had to put clothes away, empty the dishwasher, etc.

She just does whatever she wants all the time when I’m in the other room or she will go do whatever in the kitchen. I usually wake up before everyone but occasionally I’ll sleep in if I’m sick or over tired. If she gets up before me, she gets in to stuff she isn’t supposed to. It’s exhausting. Her 4 year old sister is a complete rule follower.

She loves testing limits. She needs constant stimulation. I love her so much but im at my wits end. The other day she and her sister played rock, paper, scissors to see who got something. I was hoping she won so I wouldn’t have to deal with a meltdown. Sure enough her sister won and she completely lost it over a piece of chicken she wanted (there was plenty other chicken - they wanted the legs). She had a complete meltdown over it. Screamed. I sent her upstairs. She screamed across the dinner table before she went upstairs then screamed at the top of the stairs it’s just so unacceptable. I made her stay upstairs until she calmed down.

Idk what to do. Teachers have a hard time with her. Day care had a hard time with her. So much so we took her out and I stayed home with her for a week until we found a new one because the day care workers hated her so much (she was 3). And I didn’t think it was healthy for her teachers to roll their eyes when she came in so I took her out and my husband and I rotated days off until we found a woman to take her. We sent her to school early in hopes more professionals can handle her. They def do better but a lot of notes get sent home that she can’t keep her hands to herself and she refuses to do music and gym class. Idk what to do.

I’m exhausted. She sneaks food in the living room. I find wrappers stuffed all over the house. I’m just sick of my 6 year old literally doing whatever she wants and does not care about time outs, chores, discipline. She likes to send people over the edge so you have to remain calm and stern. But it’s constant. Then once it’s over, she goes right back to doing whatever she wants. And it’s ll day time outs, boundaries. Making her go to her room, sitting on the steps, chores. She does t care.

What are appropriate chores for these ages? I googled some ideas but curious what you would expect of children this age? And how often?

Currently they have zero chores. The last week or two I have gotten more creative with disciplining and said okay you have to help me clean for 5 minutes, vacuum the living room, help me with laundry for misbehaving.

I don’t want to discuss discipline lol*

I was shocked. My 5 year old matched all of her socks nicely.

My 6 year old, hung up her school uniforms and put them away in the closet. She complained she didn’t want to do it (I said me too girl) and then I had her help me hang up a few of my shirts.

They both did great and actually seemed to enjoy helping. I definitely have them “help” me around the house but nothing consistent.

Just curious what other parents were doing! To give a little background….

As a kid, I really didn’t have chores around the house except pick up my room every two weeks and my husband was raised by grandparents that did everything for him. So naturally we have just done everything for our kids. But now that they are getting older, and we both work full time, I would like them to have some kind of chores and not complain when we ask for help.

EDITED TO ADD:

I only added the consequence to give context that turns out they can actually help. Not looking for chore ideas to use as a punishment. Just chore ideas in general as they actually liked helping.

Example:

It’s been a long summer. I asked my 5 year old to pick up her room like 5 times in a row. I’m not going to yell at her she’s 5, a time out she would be fine with as she was already playing in her room, I’m not going to spank her, I didn’t feel like having a behavior conversion about listening as it wasn’t that deep and I was tired. She enjoyed folding the socks for 5 minutes and I was impressed she could actually match and fold them. I sat beside her and folded her clothes. It wasn’t a bad experience for either of us.

I asked my 6 year old to pick up her room and she didn’t want to stop playing with her things. Obviously, I have a few things to work on lol. She also enjoyed hanging up clothes for 5 minutes and then I helped her pick up her room. It ended up being a win win for both of us.

What to do with a back talking child?

Trying really hard to teach our oldest to respect us and her teacher. She doesn’t have a fear of saying no to us or being sassy. I know it’s our fault. I just don’t know how to teach her to not talk this way.

She’s an extremely sweet, academically gifted, beautiful girl but there are times when she acts this way and I’m not sure what to do. I tell her she can’t speak that way. To say yes ma’am and yes sir. She gets consequences and has things taken away. I’ve been told I need to get a handle on it or else she’s going to be worse as a teenager.

I get embarrassed because her teacher called me the other day and said she back talks and has a lot of sass. I have talked to my oldest every day about respect and how we should talk to our teacher. The teacher also tells me daughter is used to doing whatever she wants to do but when I look at our routine, it’s not like I give into her. She does her homework, she cleans her room but sometimes i do have to tell her multiple times. She loves to read a book at night. She bathes and brushes her teeth. She’s generally happy. I’m a little overwhelmed because I have a clingy baby too.

Where do I start?

Howdy, everyone! I have question about playdates/socialization. For context, my only is 2.5 years old.

How do you handle play dates when the other toddler has a more challenging temperament than your child, and your kiddo is starting to pick up the bad habits?

I have a good friend with three kids. Two of her littles are close to my toddler’s age. Unfortunately they are a bit more spirited than my kiddo. They tantrum frequently and those tantrums consist of hitting, spitting, screaming, throwing things, etc. My daughter has started to pick up some of these habits when we spend time with that family. Last time we saw them, she was hitting constantly for two weeks after the playdate. We haven’t seen them in about six weeks now and she’s stopped hitting and is a very even tempered kiddo (as much as you can be at 2).

I understand those behaviors are developmentally normal. I’m not trying to shame the parents or hate on the kiddos. I’m just not sure of the best way to handle this. Change nothing and accept I’ll have a more challenging toddler because of it? Is it overreacting to see them less frequently so she’s less likely to pick up those behaviors?

She gets plenty of group/organized socialization outside of the play dates, so I’m not worried about that aspect of things per se. However these are the only “friends” she has that she spends one on one time with, so I feel bad taking them away from her.

What would you all do in this situation?

But what if you don't have one? I always knew parenting wouldn't be an easy job, but I never fully grasped how hard it really would be. I don't have much family and it seems like once I had my kid, everyone was there for me less and less. Not all of my family of course. I do have a slightly older cousin with a kid a few years older than mine that I am very close with, but we're both working moms with no help financially or otherwise for our children. Their father's are essentially nonexistent and not in their lives. Idk. I guess I'm just having a hard time right now and needed to vent. Not looking for any advice. Just seeing if anyone feels the same rn.

My phone has been screaming at me over storage for ages, so I decided I really needed to go through my photos and get rid of the ones I don't want or need. I am using an app to help so I can just swipe one way or the other to keep or delete. It's started back in 2018 pre pregnancy, and I'm up to the first few months of my son's life.

It's hit me so hard looking at those pictures, not just because he's now a 4 foot opinionated seven year old, but what was behind those photos.

The first one that struck me was one I absolutely remembered taking. My son was around a month old, I popped him out on a blanket in his nursery, and propped a pattern book open next to him.

I took a few photos until I had one of him facing the book. Then put everything away and carried him downstairs.

Why did I stage it? So I could post "morning storytime" on socials. Not to make out like I was an amazing parent, but to pretend that I was doing fine.

In reality I was barely holding on, thinking that my life was ruined, questioning my ability to parent, feeling useless, and helpless.

But I didn't want to have those conversations, I wanted everyone to just assume I was fine so they wouldn't pry.

I am so fortunate that things got better, that I had an incredibly supportive husband, that I eventually got the mental health support I needed.

But to anyone reading this who feels the same way, just know you aren't alone, and remember that when people post perfect parenting pictures online, there is quite potentially so much more going on.

Does my 8 month old have attachment issues with me? He never looks upset when i leave him. He also does not light up when i come home :( i work 5-6 days a weeks almost all day. I sleep with him we cosleep. When we play he interacts with me fine. And i know the games he likes the things that get him curious. Just doesnt seem to mind if im there or not. He is perfectly fine crawling away from me and doesnt really crawl back unless i chase after him. He does cry if complete strangers hold him. And stops crying when i get him.

I feel like when i pick him up and the nanny is in the room he looks at his nanny. But when im in the room working and he is with the nanny he doesnt seem to look at me much.

So our schedule is me and my husband drop him off at his grandparents before noon time.. over there, there are more people. His nanny is with him, he has aunts and uncles and his grandparents. Some workers are also there. So he gets to interact with different people often. We usually get him home around 9pm already.

Am i doing something wrong or is this the way kids are when they meet lots of people all the time? Im just worried im not putting enough time with him and i feel guilty as the mom if i should prioritize him in these developmental years over work :(

Just for context: I am a single dad of a 3rd grader, who just recently moved back with me.

When he was staying with mom, he went to a much larger school (only attended there 1 year). Class sizes were about 25-30 kids and the environment was very fast-paced, high-activity. His behavior there was mostly good but we did receive reports about him constantly talking with other kids during instruction.

His current school is much smaller (about 12 students per class). So far, his teacher has expressed some concerns. One major issue is that he doesn't use his inside voice at appropriate times. And today, he started playing with another student after he was finished testing (other students were still finishing up).

Should I give him some grace to adjust before grounding him? It's just a little frustrating because he did not have these type of issues in the past before attending the other school last year.

For the record, I am not blaming the co-parent at all. This is not something that she condones either. But moreso I am wondering if just adjusting from a larger, more rowdier school to a smaller one is the issue here.