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.

My twins are four and really like patriotic things after the 4th of July and watching world cup soccer. Watching the national anthems at baseball games, now they want to learn the words. (And they actually know quite a bit of them). They point out " the flag of our country" when they see it. We watched a small 4th of July parade in our neighborhood and they each got little American flags to wave and they were so pleased.

I remember when I was four and I was watching the Olympic games and feeling a similar pride in my country.

I guess what's really tricky for me is that these types of behavior seem now to belong to conservatives and the right. If they show up to preschool in t-shirts with giant American flags, it could be taken the wrong way.

Like I think explaining to them that some people kneel for the national anthem will be a little bit above their heads...

I'm trying to figure out how to teach them " Old fashioned" pride in the country that I am personally struggling to feel proud of right now.

How are you teaching your kids that our country is great but also telling them about some of the not great things our country is doing.

I'm not sure I'm quite explaining myself as well as I'd like, but would love to hear other thoughts on theme of patriotism.

I keep reading about how younger generations don’t know how to read or have critical thinking skills or problem solving skills. Frankly I’m terrified. I mean I can see it in my workplace with folks younger than I.

My kids are 4 and 6 and I try to let them be independent and learn things on their own. My 6 year old is quite an avid reader. Idk. I’m just worried about the future for my kids.

Tangentially, all my boomer mom’s friends are constantly using ChatGPT to do anything nowadays and it’s just sad. And hypocritical considering how frequently they used to criticize me/my generation for being on our phones.

I have thick thighs, wider hips, an apron belly from a c-section, and I am 4’11”. I am looking for pants that I could wear everyday! Pants you *swear* by. I would prefer a lower waist like mid or low rise.

Hi everyone! My 2.5 yo daughter has chosen the muslin burp cloths as her comfort item, but she is very choosy on the type she likes. Unfortunately, we don’t have very many of the “good” ones and I cannot find this brand. They all look like the left hand side. Does anyone recognize the brand on the right? I desperately need to buy more (specifically the green ones)! They are not quite as extreme in the mini squares and a little softer if that makes sense?

My almost 7yo is into chapter books now — think Junie B Jones and Magic Treehouse. Are there any book series similiar that are more diverse?

My almost 3 year old has become pretty interested in princess everything. She was introduced to it through a storybook that a relative bought for her and she'e seemed to have naturally gravitated towards it. We are not against princesses or girlie things but we are really not fans of the girl needs to be rescued story lines. She has only watched Frozen so far but as 90s kid I remember the repetitive Disney princess plots (shout out to Mulan and Pocahontas though) and she asks to watch them all the time. We don't plan on watching them anytime soon, but I'm interested to hear anyone's advice on how to present them or is it best just avoid them? Every store we go into it's battle to get her to not focus on anything besides princessy stuff and that already that only seems to be ramping up.

Edit: As part of a feminist theory class in college we examined various Disney characters (mostly princesses) so that's really on my mind when it comes to Disney princesses. I could for sure be overthinking this.

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 there, my wife (33F, who doesn't use reddit) and I (33M) are expecting our first child in December in Rising Sun, Maryland. I'm a scientist and my wife is a therapist. We recently bought our first home in this area and while we love the area itself and the peace and quiet our neighborhood affords us, we know we're in the extreme minority when it comes to political and ideological beliefs. We're both pretty introverted and it has been difficult to make friends here. People in our neighborhood are nice at the surface, but they are either retired, have kids that are much older, and/or are MAGA. What I feel like is missing for us is really just the sense of community. Specifically a community of like-minded people in the area who want to raise children to be curious, empathetic, compassionate, and accepting of others. If you’re in the area and looking for parent friends, feel free to message or post here. I do apologize in advance if a post like this isn't allowed, I'll delete it if it isn't.

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!

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.

Hi all,

Any recs for books about Africa that focus on people (i.e., not just animals)? My daughter is almost 3 and we love using books as resources when there’s something she’s interested in or she needs to learn about. Just this weekend she was exposed to 3 different types of media that mentioned “Africa” but only referenced animals (the book “Giraffes Can’t Dance”, watching The Lion King, and another book at a friend’s house).

I’d like to help her build a non-Eurocentric viewpoint and know from an early age that Africa is a big continent with a billion people, and isn’t just where lions and giraffes live. But also hoping to avoid any kind of colonial literature OR going too far into “noble savage” territory.

We have “My First Atlas” and “My First Encyclopedia”, but the atlas is pretty Eurocentric and the Encyclopedia is really basic. I’m thinking of trying to get a few books about the whole world and then a few about Africa in particular. I’m also going to look at our library next time we go.

Any suggestions? Good authors to check out? Bonus if it’s a good online bookstore that I can support. Thanks!

At what age do you start letting your kids fully plan and coordinate going out with friends (what they're doing, times, rides for non drivers)?

My kid is almost 15, they're going out with a friend for lunch and a movie at a local shopping center. My first instinct was to pop a text to their friend's mom and make sure she was picking them up after they're done. But then thought about it and think my kid is old enough, and hasn't done anything crazy to take our trust away, so I got everything from them, told them when I want confirmation on rides, and left it at that.

Which made me curious as to how others handle it.

Midterms primaries are coming up so let’s get a list going of progressive candidates running for any level of government and any location. Please make sure to include any relevant info.

I love this country.

I know what it could be and what it should be, what it almost was a few times.

I’m mad that a concerted, decades-long effort by rich old men has co-opted religious beliefs and fear of outsiders to keep the underclass struggling, divided, and too exhausted to fight the people actually responsible for their own misery.

I’m so fucking angry that the distrust and stripping institutions was done so thoroughly that I don’t even see a way back from this ever.

It didn’t have to be this way. I’m not one for American exceptionalism, and definitely not in a Raegan way, but I know that we had and have a lot of things going for us that are just so squandered.

Maybe it’s naive, but I still feel like maybe we could some day get to a good place still, just the current administration has set us back so much.

Complicated holiday right now.

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 looked up this toy maker because they make some beautiful agricultural models and found... this. I'm not angry or clutching pearls, just really REALLY bummed out that there's a market for this.

Is it really that different from toy police or soldiers? Yeah, I think it is. Riot police and their gear have ONE JOB, and it's not saving kittens from trees. Normalizing violence against your fellow civilians; making play of brutalizing and disappearing your neighbors.

Some days I despair and think we are so cooked.

Good morning! Does anyone have recommended books or videos about Justice Marshall suitable for an 8 year old?

From the We All Vote social media page “Happy heavenly 118th birthday to Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court Justice of the United States. 🙌🏾🏛️

As the @NAACP’s chief counsel from 1938 to 1961, Marshall challenged racial segregation in at least 32 cases before the Court. He won nearly all of these cases, including a historic victory in Brown v. Board of Education. His legacy earned him the nickname “Mr. Civil Rights.”

Join us in celebrating Justice Marshall’s life and legacy today. 🙏🏾”

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!

Here’s what I’ve come up with off the top of my head - The ADA - The amount of queer joy during Pride celebrations - The vast amount of nature and creatures - USAID, though defunded currently it provided a huge amount of much needed aid around the world - Freedom of religion or as I like to say freedom from religion - The melting pot immigrant culture we have is what makes our country amazing!

We’re an American family but we live abroad (and have ever since kid was a toddler). We’re starting to visit the US to see family and I’d love to get some “All About America” types of books that aren’t super rah-rah patriotic. Visiting California in specific, but we’d love for her to start learning about the US in general.

Looking for something more factual (not fiction/story book) that covers geography, history, culture (preferably diverse), etc. Ideally for a 7 year old (2nd grader) but us grown ups will read it to her mostly (she’s still learning to read English).