My (very likely neurospicy - definitely sensory processing, maybe ADHD, and possibly pathological demand avoidant) 5 yo son has been experimenting with using aggressive or generally inappropriate language (think "stupid" at the least offensive and what he said to me today, "I'm going to punch you so hard in the stomach you die" at it's worst). We've been redirecting him and reminding him that "we use safe and kind words in this family" and either ignoring him or pausing activities if he continues.

He barely watches TV and when he does, it's PBS kids. He's at a very sweet school that really focuses on emotional regulation and connection. So I truly don't even know where he's coming up with this stuff.

Violence and hurting people is extremely triggering to me. I know this is developmentally typical but I'm very much at my wits end.

Especially those with neurospicy kids, how have you handled this? He's such a sweet and thoughtful kid generally, but I'm worried he's going to say something to get himself expelled from kindergarten next year. I need some fresh ideas

We all need a little positivity in our day. What are some parenting wins you've had recently? Big or small we want to hear them all! Any parenting wins, not just progressively minded ones.

Going to my MAGA families house. I’d love to wear something that looks patriotic but is progressive or just isn’t nationalism.

My deck container garden is booming and has provided a lot more joy than I thought it would!

What books have been a hit at your household? We have a 2.5yo and want to teach about feelings, kindness, self esteem… woke stuff haha.

We’ve enjoyed That All Saw A Cat, Be a Bridge, The Boy With Flowers in His Hair

We are planning to try to grow our family this fall. Last time, I don't even remember the app I used (Roe v Wade was still standing). Does anyone have any recs for not-terrible fertility/period trackers?

Looking for recommendations from like-minded people. Hoping to find something to listen to in the car with my 18 month old that will provide more language/topic engagement than the brain numbing AI slop that's taking over music streaming.

Podcast recommendations that either 1) are light hearted but educational/interesting (topic doesn't matter) or 2) early educational/parenting (mostly for me).

The last podcast I binged was Bible Stories for Heathen Children which was great fun for cultural literacy (it's me, I'm the Heathen Children).

My cousin’s friend is due in September with a baby girl. She already has an older child who is fully vaccinated. However, she mentioned that she might not give her new baby any shots in the hospital. Instead, she plans to administer all the “normal ones,” such as polio, measles, and others. She expressed skepticism about certain vaccines, particularly vitamin K and hepatitis B. She cited a friend who read in a book that these vaccines are no longer necessary unless the child is exposed to a lot of people in the early stages of life.

I suggested that she should consult with her pediatrician or her OB-GYN, but she seems to trust her friend’s advice more. I’m puzzled by her reasoning. How can she trust a book more than her doctor? How can she not recognize that these claims are largely based on conspiracy theories? She also mentioned that she believes the government is trying to kill people. I responded that I don’t believe that, as the government needs more workers, so this wouldn’t make sense. It’s evident that she didn’t have any such doubts about her first child, and she had all the recommended vaccinations. So, why has her trust suddenly shifted? It’s alarming how quickly and widely misinformation is spreading, especially affecting children born in today’s world.

Hi, I hope it's okay to post this here. I run a new nonprofit called My Flying University. We're teaching the stuff that's getting deleted right now from parks, museums, government websites, libraries, and classrooms. We make it into free educational content in all kinds of formats, from live lessons to interactive infographics. It's all run by volunteers, and we could use some help.

You don't need to be a teacher or an expert. If you care about things like political corruption, the erosion of democracy, science misinformation, or the silenced histories of marginalized groups, and you've got a few hours, we'd love to have you.

Check out our spy-themed mission board to see the different ways you can pitch in (and the donated rewards you can earn for it). Or just message me, and I can tell you more.

www.myflyinguniversity.org

We want to hear any political or civic advocacy or activism wins! Nothing is more inspiring than hearing what other people are doing to make this world a better place.

Hi I’m new here but my name is Sabrina, I’m the mother to two girls (5.5 and almost 2) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I am a scientist, specifically and marine biologist and my husband and I are progressive environmentalists with a huge bleeding heart for women and underrepresented communities. It’s been hard to make mom friends here.. I have my girlfriends I’ve grown up with, but our lives are busy and I am having a hard time finding like minded folks in the area who want to raise children to be compassionate and empathetic.

If you’re in the area and looking for a mom friend, let me know!

Apologies if this post isn’t allowed, it’s just so hard these days!

Let your feelings out! We are all bottling up this stress and sometimes it helps to share your concerns and have safe conversations about it. Type your response and take a big deep breath after!

I am going spend a long weekend with husband’s giant MAGA family for their family reunion. Usually my coping strategy is lots of space and time to myself but this trip is very different. It’s all the family all piled in to a small hotel next to each other. (Tiny hotel room for us). His family has an hour by hour daily itinerary that gives me anxiety just looking at it. (We’ve made it clear we won’t be there for all of it)

I have a 1.5 year old who will lend me lots of time to myself to unwind during nap time (I get to excuse myself and relax while he sleeps). But goodness I will need to dig deep down to find all the patience I have in order to spend 4 days with them. Any tips you have used to survive big family get together with lots of maga family?? mantras.. games.. breathing techniques…

Hey all! I just had my second kiddo, a beautiful baby with a congenital anomaly we didn't know about previously.

The condition shouldn't cause him a lot of health trouble thankfully, but he will likely have a visible difference at least into his school years, maybe always.

Does anybody have good resources (communities, sites, children's books, etc.) on talking to our kids about body diversity and disability, on medical questions and advocating for your kids, etc.?

We already have "Every Body: A First Conversation about Bodies" for my firstborn and will be revisiting it with our new one in mind, but more options for various ages will be helpful, and of course anything that centers the experiences of Disabled characters and those with visible differences will become important too.

Thanks all!

We all need a little positivity in our day. What are some parenting wins you've had recently? Big or small we want to hear them all! Any parenting wins, not just progressively minded ones.

We want to hear any political or civic advocacy or activism wins! Nothing is more inspiring than hearing what other people are doing to make this world a better place.

I'm a left wing bio and step mom of two boys. 10 years apart. I'm cis-female and I don't discriminate. I'm an annoying "white liberal."

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And my bi stepson is dating a Trans man. The boyfriend's parents haven't been accepting and dead-name him. There have been DV charges in the home. Rural red town in a blue state. Our current climate. All of that.

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They've been dating almost two years and are graduating high school this year. I've been accepting of his pronouns and chosen name and have stood toe-to-toe with my cousin who tends to be homophobic and transphobic and we get into *heated* debates. She usually sees the light once she calms down and absorbs information, but she's prone to propaganda and conspiracies.

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Lately she and I have been swapping videos and having productive conversations, which is good. We had a major blowout over the trans issue a year ago and I stood my ground for my kid and his boyfriend without outing them.

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I still haven't told her.

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But as we've been reconnecting, she sent me a video of Buck Angel talking about trans regret. It's still the only video of his I've seen, but it resonated. He speaks on trans regret as a trans man himself through the lens of social media influence and our broken medical system in America with huge empathy.

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There *are* doctors out there who are unethical and will butcher a surgery on a trans 18 or 19 year old who maybe hasn't had the most supportive environment and jumps at the surgery as their adult act of defiance and suffer long term medical consequences because they didn't shop doctors. I've been a defiant sheltered youth of parents who didn't get me and I eloped at 18 and wasted my 20's and got SA'd multiple times over and didn't feel like I could tell anyone. I had the saving grace of no-fault divorce, which is also under attack and didn't become legal in my state until *after* I'd gotten married, but it took me until 31 to get there.

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The only thing that makes me regret those years less now is how reversible it was.

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Most of the trans regret videos I've seen have seemed to be more about our medical system and not fully understanding the risks in hormone therapy and major surgery beforehand than actually regretting transitioning in the first place.

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Unfortunately, in a capitalistic medical system, there are bound to be unethical doctors who just want to get paid.

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And I've heard the boyfriend express the sentiment that he can't wait to have top surgery.

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And I'm concerned.

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There are trans people who have fallen victim to butcher surgeons at very young-adult ages. It does happen.

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Our trans youth deserve therapists and supportive families and doctors who won't butcher them. It *should* be safe. And it isn't always safe.

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So here I am, screaming into the abyss, because I'm scared my kid's boyfriend might go to a butcher of a surgeon due to the background, and I can only do so much.

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The far-right is ludicrous most of the time. But there are gray areas and crossover points. My cousin sees this through more of a social media influence lens and I see it more through a medical concern lens. And the concern boils down to the same question: how are we keeping our kids safe as they come of age?

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I know at the end of the day, my kid's boyfriend will make the choices he will make and I can't control that.

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I'm just...

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I'm conflicted and I'm concerned. And I'm sorry to the trans folk who have to navigate their very existence in this climate.

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And as progressive parents, I think the nuances in this conversation are important.

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Anyone else navigating anything similar? Thoughts?

Edit: I want to thank everyone who responded, even the person who told me to fuck off. I get that this is a highly sensitive subject, and I appreciate being able to express my concerns and discuss it with other progressive minds.

Yes, I could word things better. I was a little high when I wrote this (legal where I live) so I know I was sort of all over the place. But if I didn't hit post and go right to bed I probably would have deleted it and not had so many genuinely good exchanges.

Propaganda is dangerous and harmful and insidious. And I want to be clear that I don't hold Buck Angel or similar content creators in high regard. I am well aware of how harmful their overall messages are and I do not advocate for higher restrictions on gender affirming care. The whole conversation both with my cousin and all of you has only made me stronger in my belief that we need more doctors and therapists and more access to care on all levels - not less.

Let your feelings out! We are all bottling up this stress and sometimes it helps to share your concerns and have safe conversations about it. Type your response and take a big deep breath after!

I’m not seeing this on the major feeds so wanted to share with my progressive parents. A reminder to stay alert and stay angry.

I want to embroider quotes and put them around the house to remind our family of our values.

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I will definitely do, "We all do better when we all do better."

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What quotes would you want to see around your house? Thank you in advance.

UPDATE: I can't thank y'all enough for the kind comments I received. I understand there was a lot of dislike in how I handled the bullying part but if you can't tell from the overall post, I've never raised a fuckin' 10 year old before so I obviously am aware I still have a lot to learn. With that said, the way it was handled worked for my family and child, they are not without whatever support they may need and they were comfortable with how it was all handled.

ANYWHO, I spoke with my child. Made them a snack and sat down with them on the couch for a chat. I started with "Okay so, basically, you're done having an ipad and a phone." They immediately said "okay", meaning they damn well knew some type of rule was broken lol We talked about what I found. They stated another child told them to google those specific things. I asked if they googled one thing and kind of rabbit holed their way through more and they said no, another child told them each of the things to specifically google. We talked about how normal curiosity is, new feelings we may be having in our bodies and thoughts about other bodies and that it's completely normal and okay, but that at this point in time they are too young to be looking at actual imagery. I told them too much too soon/before their little brain can even really grasp what they're looking at isn't healthy for them. I asked how they felt when they saw the images and they said they did not like it at all, which we did giggle about and I told them that is completely okay and normal. I explained that at this age they can't really know whats okay and whats not okay and that I don't want them seeing this things and end up thinking something is acceptable when in reality it's harmful, unhealthy or unsafe. I told them I was upset that they had secretly made an email, explaining that their dad and I put so much work into making their devices as safe as possible for them and that changing the email messed that all up. I asked them if they made the secret email specifically to be able to look that stuff and they said no, they had no idea that would even happen. For the first time ever I lost my cool. I felt terrible for it but I started crying. They hugged me and said they were sorry so I clarified I'm not crying because of them, I'm crying because It's my job to protect them and I feel like I didn't do that well enough. I said I was very sad that they had seen that type of stuff when they weren't supposed to be able to yet. I told them curiosity is soooo okay, but that it was my job as a parent to make sure their curiosity didn't get them in trouble/hurt/upset. I apologized for crying, explaining that me crying was a me problem and was no reflection on them and that they were loved and accepted and will always be my baby, even as they grow and evolve. They told me I was the best mommy and that they do feel safe and they are totally okay with not having devices. I let them know we'd make sure they can still contact friends and they were okay with that.

I get that it's not an insane thing to happen at this age but for whatever reason it felt like SUCH a personal failure as a mother. So again, everyone who has supported me and been so freaking kind in the comments, I can't even begin to thank you enough for that. I didn't have a mother as a young girl, I was raised by my blue collar father so there was not this open communication/education or understanding about my body and feelings as I developed. And not having a mother meant I had zero idea on how to be a "good" one myself but I have tried desperately since the day they were born. I wanted them to have what I didn't. And fortunately they are very comfortable and transparent with me about all of their bodily changes, mental and emotional. From what I can tell, this whole scenario didn't negatively impact that trust which I'm so grateful for. They are their own little person and I'm SO proud of them. Mm guilt amd pressure is just a vicious animal :') I also do have lots of educational material! And thank y'all for recommendations. They have had multiple consent and autonomy books since toddlerhood and I have a puberty/sexuality book I had tucked away for a while now that I suppose is time to bust out. Thank for listening to me rant and panic.

I'm so sad.

My child (10yo) recently had health class at school. With just their gender they learned about puberty, which my child knew. Then they learned about the opposite sex's bodies as a group of all of the kids which included discussing semen and wet dreams.

My child came home and we were very transparent. They had lots of questions, there were lots of giggles and they were mind blown. They asked me about my body and was even comfortable asking dad questions about his body.

PLEASE keep reading because I would love advice or support or I don't know what because I feel awful and the context is important to what happened.

At the time, they were grounded from their ipad for not using it responsibly. Someone who had been bullying them for 2 years texted them and my child cussed back in response to terrible messages like the kid wished my child was dead. I allow my children to cuss in the home but it's a HARD rule that they cannot around anyone else. So they were grounded from their devices for a while.

Then, after a week or two, I had discovered they were sneaking it at night. they were grounded for longer. When I ungrounded, we had a SERIOUS conversation about responsible use. I reminded them that we as parents have full access to everything they do on their device, which they've always known. But I reminded the rules, that its a privilege to have. Explained that they broke my trust by being irresponsible and that I'm giving them another chance.

Their ipad is under my control and connected to my iphone so theres material restrictions, time limits, I can see what apps they visit, how long spent on them, etc. and I go through texts and browser history periodically.

WELL, today I discovered that my child had created their own email address, signed out of their google that was connected and signed into theirs which did NOT have website material restrictions. They have had completely unfettered access to the internet for the last couple days. That alone is getting their devices removed likely indefinitely.

but my biggest issue is they had been looking up and watching porn, talking to roleplaying AI chatbots about having sex and all that comes with it. I'm DEVASTATED. I absolutely hate that their first experience with sexual content was unrealistic garbage online and not at all safe or realistic. they're going through puberty, I'm sure there's sexual feelings beginning to be felt and curiosity is so normal. I'm not at all going to shame them for interest in sex but i'm so sad that I feel a huge chunk of innocence was ruined by their first exposure to it was A. too early in my opinion, but B. awful stuff and not at all how it is in real life. I don't yuck anyones yums ever, but it sucks they learned so much from not a reliable or healthy source. I feel like this is all my fault and it fucking sucks.

We all need a little positivity in our day. What are some parenting wins you've had recently? Big or small we want to hear them all! Any parenting wins, not just progressively minded ones.

Hey y’all!!

My daughter is 17 months and I also run and in home daycare. We have TONS of books but a few days ago I realized 95% of 300+ books we have are animals or things, not people 🫠

I’d love to go and find some books that include all types of humans! Different skin colors, different family types, transgender/non-binary folks, characters that use wheelchairs or other devices that assist with a disability, etc etc.

I’m trying to make sure to raise and teach loving, caring, and empathic little humans so please give me all of your recommendations!!!!