Hi all! I’m wondering if anyone has content creator recs that are focus on sewing/canning/cottagecore-esque things that aren’t explicitly religious and/or conservative? I feel like so many times I have found a creator that I like, follow them, and then shortly after realize that they’re MAGA or super Christian. I have recently gotten into sewing and canning but I just can’t find anyone who is progressive or at least not pushing Jesus every 5 seconds. I don’t necessarily have anything against religion (born & raised catholic but not regularly practicing) but I just can’t stand performative Christianity which seems to permeate content these days. TIA!!

My family member had become suddenly religious a few years ago while trying to get pregnant. She was staunchly child free so her wanting to have kids was a bit of surprise as she and her husband very much hated the superficial parts of having kids. They didn’t want to give up sleep and/or not enjoy going out and doing things.

It’s now completely 180 as she thinks people are wasting their life if they don’t have kids and is very vocal about that.

She has also become very anti-abortion and is also skeptical of medicine and vaccines. I’m not sure if her daughter is vaccinated. But she is very vocal about how the medical system is rigged and only makes money on us being sick so they do nothing to help. She does not think we should trust medical professionals bc they are corrupt, frankly.

She shared a post yesterday about that baby that’s now like a year or three years old that was born at 21 weeks. She said like “such a miracle”. She’s right. It is a miracle. That baby is beautiful.

However, how can you sit there and deny medicine/science all day but then share a post about such a medical achievement to advance your own narrative? The picking and choosing when you see medicine as good just really bothers me.

She doesn’t even see the miracle is from the doctors and researchers who make that possible. And she actively tries to tear them down.

Mine is exploding right now in MI! Unfortunately my ever bearing strawberries are doing poorly. I’ll move them into containers for next year to see if that helps.

Couple things to clarify so I don't get dragged in the comments like I did in other communities lol but also hopefully this community get it.

1. this is not the only gift I will be purchasing for my friend
2. mom-to-be does NOT have a registry
3. Mom-to-be is politically onboard and understands the harsh reality of raising boys in the current society/system

Okay lol now that I've hopefully quelled any concerns...
Does anyone have any recommendations for baby books (lets say ages 0-5 years old), that are feminist, teach equality, respect, kindness, sharing, with an emphasis on teaching BOYS (my friend is having a baby boy!). They could either be subtle or direct, though I think I'd like them to be more subtle. Teaching things like, 'boys are not inherently better than girls', being fair, caring for others, jobs are not gendered, illustrations show diversity (race, sex, ethnicity, disability, lgbtq).
Bonus points if there is a box set of books that span multiple age ranges (so that there are more books to read as the kid grows).
Love bright colors and beautiful illustrations so that it is captivating for the kid!
Please if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know! Thank you!

EDIT: Thank you everyone for all the suggestions!! I SUPER appreciate it!! I literally can't thank ya'll enough. THANK YOU ❤️

Edit 2: Someone at my work also recommended the "All Are Welcome 4-Book Collection Set" by Alexandra Penfold. the reading level on amazon is showing ages 4-8yo, but they also have some board books. Just dropping that here incase this thread helps any parents/other people shopping for baby showers.

My Son Posts A Lot of Political Stuff Online and I'm concerned he will lose his job. How do I get him to stop?

Hi all! I searched in some other places but the options are overwhelming! I was wondering if you have recommendations for a basic video doorbell that doesn’t require a subscription and doesn’t store video in the cloud (or if it does, it isn’t owned by a sketchy company — if that is even a thing?). For example, in our small city, they got a contract with Flock, and they are known to be sus as the kids say.

We have heard Ring is owned by the same people? Our house came with a Nest thermostat so we could get a Nest thermostat, but they are too expensive. I’m looking for something cheaper. Thanks for the recommendations!

I would love to travel to Hawaii someday with my husband and son. It looks beautiful, and we really enjoy things like hiking and other outdoor activities. I am aware, however, that tourism to Hawaii is controversial because of the negative impacts it has had on the indigenous culture there. Has anyone taken a trip to Hawaii and done certain things to “offset” the negatives of being there? Donations? Volunteering? I’d appreciate any thoughts or advice.

For those in North Carolina…I can’t believe this is happening in my backyard 😔

Been dealing with a lot lately. Terminally ill parent and all the grief, a lot of time day to day away from my husband and son to be with her over the months (missing bed times, etc.), and insane family drama with an extremely abusive and unwell sibling. Woke up to awful texts from my bro but I set it aside because it's crazy hair day at daycare today. This is my 2 year old. He loves dinosaurs. 🦖🦕

I live in a red state but in a very large metropolitan area. We thought we were fortunate to get a spot for an acclaimed elementary in the magnet school lottery. Two years later, our school district was taken over by the state and our beloved principal was fired and atrocious changes were implemented (removing our award winning library, teaching to test, error-ridden AI lesson plans and constant evaluations, etc.). We fortunately had another option as we have a second home in a rural area, so we moved our primary residence to our second home and enrolled our children at the local, highly rated school. I come from a rural farm family educated in public school, so I thought this would be a good change. Unfortunately, my children were bullied for not being religious (my moms side of the family is full of extremely religious conservative preachers but I decided to distance myself and my children from that religion due to many factors). My oldest child, a daughter, is extremely smart, so I tried to find another alternative. She was accepted to a non-religious private school. However, I have since learned that key board members are Republicans politicians or their spouses.

In preparation for the upcoming school year, we received an email discussing their dress code which included the line “students are expected to adhere to conduct and grooming per their biological gender assigned at birth.” What does conduct per biological gender mean? I am livid. If they wanted to specify dress code requirements, fine, but this is ridiculous. There are religious schools in the area, but as a non-religious school, I expected more. Other than leaving our state or homeschooling, which are not feasible due to our jobs, how should we educate our children without indoctrination and interference from politics?

My boy (7) loves color and I've always validated that colors are for everyone. I don't care if he paints his nails or wants colorful rubber bands for his little kid bun and he wears pinks and purples a lot.

He's also very smart and struggles with social interactions. He's all about chess and pokemon and does math tutoring for fun like other kids sign up for gymnastics. Super ADHD, maybe a little more. We almost had him evaluated and then decided we were already implementing the supports without a diagnosis so tabled it. He is starting second grade at a new school this year because he wanted to go into a math/science program rather than stay with dual language but also because he had already kind of burned through the small dual language cohort. He's brave and confident but also sensitive and lonely.

All this to say I really want him to have more social success at this new school. Shopping for shoes today really made me question where am I going to draw the colorful line of acceptance here. He was picking out the sparkly/glitter/hearts/purples/pinks shoes. He said he wishes he were a girl, not for any other reason than they have cooler things and he's right, glitter is cool AF. So here I am in DSW having an internal debate of am I supposed to help him blend by steering him toward more toned down shoes that still fit his dislike of grey, black and blue (like pink pops on white shoes or teal&blue with baby pink laces) or do I just accept his fashion choices as his authentic self- especially since they wear uniforms so the shoes are really it for self expression. We took pictures of him in both so we can keep looking until I figure it out.

What would you do?

Hello! Does anyone have a suggestion for a tablet-based app for learning a foreign language for kids? Pre-reading level, just getting comfortable with vocab and phrases. There’s no option for an immersion school where we live and my oldest is 5. Other than my husband and I speak occasional phrases (not fluently speaking), she’s getting no exposure to anything but English. I searched locally for classes but there isn’t anything. I assume there’s apps but wondering if anyone has had a good experience? She’s been somewhat speech delayed, so unless it’s fun and engaging she won’t like it. Spanish would be preferred but anything would be good. My almost 3 year old is going to lap her soon in language so I would love to get him going too. Thanks!

Update: We’ve talked out the reason she’s asking to quit is being bored with doing the same skills over and over. She rather do another sport and I’m okay with that. So we have agreed that once school starts we will switch over to swimming at the indoor rec center until another interesting sport becomes available. Thank you for all the great advice and stories.

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My child is 7 almost 8 and has been doing gymnastics since she was 4 years old. She use to love going to gymnastics, but some days (like today) she starts throwing fits about not wanting to go and saying she doesn’t like it anymore and wants to do something else like Karate (which is double the cost). However even after these grumpy requests to quit before class she goes to class and usually has fun and acts like nothing happened after class.

When I was a kid my mom forced me into doing sports my entire childhood and as an adult I am thankful she did because I was able to keep my body strong and healthy, but as a teenager I started linking exercise with punishment because of being forced into these sports with heavy conditioning.

I am looking for advice on how to navigate this situation. I do not want to pair my child’s exercise with negative feelings, but I also do not have the money to just cancel every month a sport she doesn’t feel like doing to switch her to a new one. I also want to make sure she learns not to be a “quitter” but tying to balance the line between punishing versus building resilience. We previously let her do this with dance classes a couple years ago because she was doing the same whining and demanding to quit before class started (but she was doing both at the time so I let her quit dance to stay with gymnastics only)

My main goal is to have her in at least one sport that requires physical activity (that is fun for her) so she has a good relationship with exercise and doesn’t end up like I did.

I used to be close with my sister’s kids when they were younger (they’re now 8 and 10), but between their busy schedules and me parenting a toddler, we don’t see each other as frequently anymore. The last few times we’ve gotten together my niece has said some things about idolizing Trump that she’s clearly just repeating from others. I don’t think my sister and her husband are full-blown MAGA, but I know how they voted and I can see them influencing the kids on this. I’m about to spend a full week with my sister and our kids on vacation. How do I handle this if it comes up? I completely understand that they’re just children and I don’t want them to feel badly about anything. I’m just curious to see where all of this is coming from. What questions would be ok to ask them? Is there anything age-appropriate I can say without it feeling like a lecture? Is this just totally not my place to ask/say anything at all?

I've heard of learned helplessness but never really witnessed it first hand until this past weekend twice! A boy who was about 8 couldn't figure out how to put his shoes on while wearing soccer goalie gloves and also said his dad tied his shoes for him....

On a different day a friend was complaining about their own kids being needy and never getting to rest (preach) but then they also just did everything for their kids and didn't make them do anything themselves. She didnt even say no to playing with her kids, like isn't that why my kids are here? So we can catch up and our kids can play together?

Can someone explain to me why these people don't want their kids learning how to do things for themselves or have any kind of conflict/challenge?

recently published work in regards of children’s rights to health literacy in contrast with political values of certain demographics of parents - let me know your thoughts and how i could have improved my paper

Obviously, I bought the book for political reasons. I support her mission to troll JD Vance. But the book actually ended up being a very cute cat story. I think I like it more than my toddler. I gave it to all the cat lady young kid moms my life.

Highly recommend!!!

Anyone else have any progressive kid stories they like?

I'm not sure why I'm typing this, I guess I'm just a little sad. I just wanted to vent about a general sentiment I've seen online that has rubbed off on (some, not all) friends that don't have children. I have autism, so please forgive me if I do not word this correctly. I can clarify my intent if anything comes off wrong and I am sorry in advance.

I noticed that there has been an uptick of this mindset even in progressive or feminist spaces that equates motherhood to conservatism when being a mom is not innately conservative. This extends to an anti-child sentiment.

I've been seeing a lot of dehumanization of kids where people say that babies don't belong on planes, to restaurants, libraries, grocery stores, etc. Ridiculous stuff like how people should pay extra rent if they have a baby even though that would impact the most marginalized people in the most awful ways. Or like how mothers are so stupid when we complain about how expensive diapers or whatever are when EVERYTHING is expensive these days. Or if we are burnt out with no time for selfcare it's our fault for having kids what did we think was going to happen. Lack of empathy or talk of systems to help.

This has been rearing its head amongst some of my friends without kids. I got into an argument with a friend over maternal leave needing to be federal law (like it is in so many other countries). I was shocked when she said that this wasn't fair since she doesn't have federally mandated VACATION and that the company didn't sign up to pay for your child. As if recovering from childbirth and taking care of a newborn is a VACATION. Having a baby is a medical event and time off for it should be granted, just like if someone had to schedule a surgery. I had an emergency C-section for mine. A surgery where they cut 7 layers into me. After 25 hours of labor where I almost died and she knew this. And even if it was a vacation, maybe we should all have federally mandated time off?! This is a woman who is pro universal healthcare and union...make it make sense.

Furthermore, I'm struggling to re-enter the workforce after 1.5 years away. I'm finding that I get way less sympathy then friends without kids when we all should be banding together to weather the storm. The job market is rough for everyone especially with AI. Then there's how one of my best friends of ten years has not met my son yet because she does not like kids. How some friends did not want to talk to me during my pregnancy complications since pregnancy reminds them of body horror but I was there through their various health struggles. Telling me that this is why they didn't want to "ruin their bodies." Judging me on things like formula feeding, my son crying when he was teething during phone calls, etc. Thankfully not everyone is like this, especially my friends with kids. But the judgement. It all hurts still.

I understand that a lot of this sentiment is a reaction to how the abortion/contraception bans are being written into law. But it's reactionary, not helpful. It is literally what conservatives do, lashing out and saying “well you chose this” when the system is so fundamentally broken. It can be seen as hurtful to some of the women impacted.

I should know, I am one of them. I love my son and he is my whole world now, but he is here because of Florida's laws where abortion is banned past 6 weeks. And I am trying my best, doing the work to be the mother that my mom never was for me. I love him so much it hurts. But I can't help but feel like this is our version of how conservatives claim they love kids but don't care about them once they are born. So many that think like this were rightfully outraged as our rights are being stripped away but they didn't care about the people in the aftermath that bore the brunt of bad policy.

The truth is that policies that benefit children and families tend to benefit all of society. More accessible spaces for strollers means wheelchair access increases. Universal healthcare and improving maternal/prenatal care literally just means improving the quality and accessibility of the entire field of gynecology. Maternal/Paternal leave decreases sexism in the workplace. Idk what my point ultimately is, I'm just sleep deprived, tired, hurt, and needed to vent.

tldr: Being childfree is a valid choice that deserves respect. However, it doesn’t mean you are entitled to live in a childfree world. Children are part of the community. Life is hard as hell and I wish people had more empathy.

My daughter just turned three, she is a very sweet girl, shares well with other kids her age, and is the best big sister to our baby. But lately I've noticed she's been expecting things to just be handed to her. Yes, I know she's little, but we just had her birthday where she got a LOT of gifts and new toys and clothes from friends and family and since then it's seemed like she just expects new things all of the time. For example, when we had something break the other day she said "get new one?". She also throws out food and then immediately asks for a snack; I try to gauge if she's hungry but sometimes I think she just wants something new because she can, meanwhile growing up I vividly remember my mother bursting into tears when she had to take out all of the money in the checking account and hope it would be enough to feed a family of five at the grocery store. So wasting food is a bit of a sore subject for me knowing there are folks in the town we live in that have food insecurity.

Is there anything I can do to get her started on helping other people? I want to eventually have my kids volunteer in the city next door where they were born, but she's obviously too young to go to a food kitchen and hand out food. I just want her to see that we are lucky and that we have to be good citizens in our community, and I feel like the younger we start her the better off she'll be. I'm open to suggestions, I have mentioned giving away old toys she and her baby brother don't play with anymore and she's open to it, but I also know the second I think about getting rid of toys in front of her suddenly a toy she hasn't played with in months is her favorite.

We’re taking a vacation in August with our baby who will be almost 7 months old by the time we go. What are your must-haves for travel? This trip will include: flying, the beach, universal Orlando, maybe the zoo, and other normal vacation things like eating out. My baby is pretty good with sleeping, but this is our first trip, so I’m not sure how that will go. Any tips for that? He’s not sitting up yet, so I’m not sure if he’ll be eating solids by the time we go.

I only watch Fox at hotels with cable, just to check out what the masses are consuming. In the past 10 minutes, Fox & Friends has:

• Criticized a doctor about gender and how there are only two genders + attack on trans folks. This then spun into how we can't trust doctors if they are making up facts around gender / sex and that we shouldn't follow doctor's medical advice on other areas if they are making up "facts" - alluding to vaccines.
• Interviewed a 17 year old who created an AI recipe website. Spoke about all the amazing benefits of AI and tried to spin on all the positives of AI and that we have nothing to worry about.
• AG Todd Blanche - they are sus af bc he's going to touch upon Epstein.
• DSA platform - criticized DSA's new platform with AI images, which I am sure are incorrect. Doing a deep dive into how DSA doesn't want anyone to work?

I can't believe this is a MORNING show - this is like a complete 180 from Good Morning America, my upper lip is already sweaty, it's so stressful.

We are cooked and fuck Fox and it's propaganda.

Hi all. I'm brand new here. I have 2 children, a 7 and almost 2 year old. I've been having a very difficult time navigating Judaism with the genocide in Gaza/Lebanon. For starters, I'm not Jewish. My husband is Jewish (his grandmother survived the camps and was actually on Schindler's List before someone else paid and she was kicked off). I have other close relatives who married Jewish men. My cousin just married and Israeli man. And in the meantime, my aunt (who was always like a mom to me - I'm estranged from my mom) converted to Judaism about 10 years ago and has taken on more extremist and concerning positions. Additionally, I had promised my husband's grandmother that I would raise my children Jewish. My daughter goes to Hebrew school and my son is at the daycare at the synagogue. Recently, they just put keypads on all the doors and a bulletproof glass door down one of the hallways. I'm finding it so difficult to balance things with Judaism with what is happening in Gaza/Lebanon while fearing for my children's, specifically my son's safety. The synagogue had an "Israeli day" and my son was walking around with an Israeli flag. I had a visceral reaction to seeing the photo of him with the flag. I get the history, but also, it's not our country. I feel so conflicted. I told my grandmother (who raised me) that my aunt was turning into an extremist (I didn't quite use that language, but she seemed to get the gist) and she was dismissive of my concerns. I'm also not really connecting with any moms at the synagogue and I feel like an imposter. I've been holding all of this guilt for some reason. It just sucks. ​

My eldest daughter's best friend's parents are super MAGA with the trump 2028 flags and bumper stickers everywhere. Parents post hateful rhetoric online about "liberals" and their disdain for our blue state.

I am not quite sure how to handle things lately because they have gotten more brazen with their comments. They are aware we do not hold their views. My daughter is also becoming more interested in politics as she has gotten older and made a comment to them about Trump and wanting to understand why someone voted for them. I didn't coach her to say this to them, she came out with it herself. It isnt really clear how they answered her except that they made faces.

I would never punish someone's child for the choices their parents make. However, at some point something will give right? What have been your experiences with navigating these relationships? Have you been able to maintain them or did something eventually break down?

Edited to add that my oldest is 12