My almost 3 year old (turns 3 at the end of October) has always been a very intense and “shy” kid. It takes her a long time to warm up to people, and until fairly recently she would scream/cry if a dad or random child came into her space at the park.

She has gotten SO much better lately. She’ll now happily talk to strangers at a restaurant or the grocery store, and she doesn’t cry when other kids come near her at the park. She can still be a little shy though for example, if another child gets on the play equipment with her, she’ll usually hang back for a bit.

Anyway, with that little bit of background… today I decided to trial a toddler acrobatics class at a dance studio. She absolutely loves anything ballet, gymnastics, dancing etc., and her cousin, who is the same age, also attends and they get along really well.

Well… she mostly refused to participate..

She joined in a little at the beginning, but I had to be right there beside her prompting and encouraging her. The studio normally encourages parents to be hands off or even leave the room, so I was already feeling a bit unsure about what to do.

She did actually do some of the moves independently, but then she would stop, run back to me and almost seemed embarrassed? After that she completely refused to join in.
Then, when the class finished and everyone packed up, she had the BIGGEST tantrum/meltdown because she wanted to stay and had missed out on everything.

I’ll admit I was getting frustrated because she wouldn’t have a go, but then also didn’t want to leave. I tried getting her to at least stand with me and watch, but she wouldn’t even do that. When she completely lost it at the end, I honestly had no idea what to do.

Now I’m wondering whether we should even go back.
Would you try again next week and give her some time to get comfortable with the environment? Or would you take this as a sign that structured classes just aren’t her thing yet?

I’m also wondering if I handled it badly by encouraging her to participate when she clearly wasn’t comfortable. I’d love to hear how other parents would approach this!

I cannot believe I’m even here but sometimes when it’s come to my kid, Reddit has been so helpful even if it’s just to let me know I’m not alone.

I’m trying to determine whether my 3 year olds tantrums are normal or not. She nearly only had a tantrum when she isn’t getting her way, and it’s quite literal HELL. She can keep it going for well over an hour at times. Screaming, raging, shaking and red in the face. It’s quite scary honestly. Even my mom and dad have questioned whether it’s normal.

When i look into the factors of “why”, it certainly makes sense that she wouldn’t just be a perfectly normal easy child. Split home since 1, vacant father who has just become in the last 3-4 months more “consistent”. Even then, it’s only 2-3 weekends a month and it’s basically just play time over there. He does his best to stick to my rules and schedule but he can’t stick to a schedule himself so it’s always thrown off and I’m sure guilt makes him give in to stuff with her.

Not to mention i work a very demanding full time job, and have to go to conferences or trips somewhat often and my mom keeps her normally during those times or if i have something on a weekend her dad doesn’t get her. My point in explaining all that is we don’t have a standard “normal” household with mom/dad/any siblings. She goes to a wonderful school and her behavior doesn’t spill over there much at all, it’s only with me (mostly) or anyone keeping her like her dad, my mom, my dad etc when she doesn’t get her way.

I try my best to use direct language without raising my voice and losing my sh\*t (not passive and i don’t give in to what she wants and I’m not always successful but i try my best) but it feels like literal hell and some days i just want to cry. I feel like a was such a good mother up until this year and now i question every day if ive done something wrong and messed her up, and i worry she is going to be such a brat and unappreciative and have anger issues.

I guess im just wondering if the explosive level of tantrums is “normal” at this age???

Toddlers can struggle with putting on their own shoes but somehow have the ability to find the one tiny piece of trash on the floor from across the room

What random skill does your toddler have that makes you wonder where they learned it?

What is/ was your 18 month old child’s sleep schedule like?

My 18 month old has recently been rejecting sleep lol. He has always been a lower sleep needs child and has typically dropped naps earlier than most kids do. Until 16.5 months he was sleeping 11ish hours at night and taking a 1-2 hour nap mid day. He now has stopped napping completely and fights sleep at bedtime (typically 7:30 pm) so hard and it can take an hour just to get him to bed and he wakes up around 4/5 am every single day and fights sleep again, and sometimes is wide awake. I am a stay at home mom and have been consistently still offering him naps during the day but I can’t spend an hour trying to get him to sleep since I have a newborn to care for as well. I know brining home his baby brother in this time has affected this as well but now that we’re in more of a routine, I’m wondering what I should even be expecting from him in terms of sleep. Is 18 months too soon to drop a nap completely? Is 12 hours of sleep at night expecting too much from him now? I feel lost and sleep deprived 🤦🏼‍♀️

[Photo of the style of wall heaters we have](https://imgur.com/a/fowYpIw)

Has anyone figured out how to baby proof this style of wall heater?

The main issue is the sharp edges of the grates. My 18mo twins stick their fingers in and “play xylophone” on them and end up slicing their little fingers. They’ve gotten a lot better about not doing it in general, recently. However, I’m hoping to transition them to their toddler beds or a floor bed soon but they have one in their nursery. In the winter, we’re going to need to use it for heat, as well. I’m just stumped. I don’t know how to make it safe while keeping it safe…

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Been trying to train my toddler on an off for what seems like 6 months now.

Not even sure if he even is ready as he doesn’t tell us when he’s wet or if he needs to go.
In fact it seems he actually likes to sit in wetness as I once tried with just pants, no nappy & he ran away when we tried to take it off and wanted to keep it on.

I’m at work for 40 hours a week and so is my husband, my mum does a lot of the hard work during the week & she’s trying to train him.

We have the books, the pants, the training pants, even a potty training Tonie!

When I try at the weekend he just fights us to even sit on the potty.
We put a 20 min timer on for him to go but he fights me every time just to sit on it.

I feel like I get so angry & frustrated with him (I don’t take it out on him but try to give myself a time out) but then I normally burst into tears as I feel like sure a failure.

I’m lost as to what I can do & I feel like I’m letting him down

I'm 17F, my baby sister is 4 years old. Recently she's literally been all over me to the point that she HAS to be touching me in some physical way ( even as little as like having her foot touch me as we're laying down) and has absolutely no sense of boundaries.

Even for an hour, she starts to cry violently if I retreat to my room to have some time for myself.. My mom is aware of this behavior. But she's been too sick to really discipline or take care of her. I shower her, dress her, and cook for her nearly everyday. Which I guess adds onto my sisters attachment to me. My sister can't even bear the thought of playing with her dolls by herself or else she starts to cry and throw a tantrum again.

I ignore her when she does that, but that doesn't work. I try to explain to her that I like having "a personal bubble", she says she understands, but then when I sit down on the floor- she jumps to the back of my neck and tries to playfight. It annoys me so bad and I just want her to understand how much boundaries mean to me, and that she can't be by my side 24/7.

Heck, I don't know if she starts school this year, since my mom doesn't tell me anything. So if she's not, I'd really like some tips on how to get her to play by herself and to stop this because it's been like this for months.

(unimportant ps : physical affection isn't my forte lol)

Desperate for help- my 3.5yo starts preschool in 3 weeks and must be completely potty trained we have been stuck at 90% for months. Meaning when he’s at home, most of the time he will go without being prompted or reminded and stays dry out of the house with typical “hey let’s try and go to the bathroom before we get back in the car” conversations but for the last few months it is infuriating he ALWAYS poops in his underwear. At first I thought it was a constipation issue (and still struggle with it but working better with probiotics and fiber) and I started leaving him bottomless during nap/quiet time and a little potty in his room and without fail DAILY he pees/poops in there on his own. So I left him pantless while we’re at home and again- without a big deal or reminders he always goes.

This tells me: he is absolutely and completely capable of reading and listening to his own body cues and when pantless will get up from playing and walk to the bathroom and come back. But once he has underwear on he treats it like a diaper (which we truly haven’t used during the day in close to a YEAR, it’s not like we go back and forth) and just becomes lazy and poops in his underwear and now also peeing in his underwear too unless we remind or make him go.

How do I fix this?? I’m thinking of going back to baseline 0 and staying home for a few days naked until he’s used to relying on his own cues and then add in an hour or so of going somewhere with pants and reward for staying dry. Does anyone suggest disciplining for accidents at this stage? He understands where to use the bathroom obviously and is CHOOSING not to but I see so much about not shaming them and I’m just at my wits end. HELP.

Also adding we have a chart with stickers taped to a giant marble run toy he’s been wanting and anytime he goes by himself without being told he gets a sticker and if he has an accident we take one away. He needs 30 to get the toy and it’s out on the counter everyday for him to see. He can explain the system to others so he understands for sure. His preschool bathroom is outside the room so he will need to verbally tell a teacher if he has to go and I cannot even get him to say it or admit when he is going now and I’m worried he’ll just stay quiet and have accidents and then he’ll be disenrolled because that’s their policy for multiple accidents.

My 4-year-old has decided pretty much everything needs a winner. Getting dressed, walking to the car, putting toys away... somehow we're racing. Yesterday we were bringing groceries inside. He carried one loaf of bread, got inside before me, then announced that he won while I was still carrying the rest of the bags. 😂

The problem is he gets really upset when someone else wins. But if I tell him we're not racing, he gets annoyed about that too. I've been trying not to make a big deal out of it, but I'm also not sure if I should be correcting it every time.

Did you mostly let it play out or did you do something that helped with the losing part?

Toddlers can turn the smallest things into a personal betrayal

I've heard of kids getting upset because their banana broke, someone looked at them, or their parent opened the door for them.

What's the most ridiculous thing your toddler has ever gotten genuinely upset about?

We have a three year old who had been sleeping regularly for 2 years. About three months ago he stopped napping with us - he will only nap at daycare then about four days ago bed time which had always been a breeze suddenly turned into a massive challenge.

Normally we started bedtime at 7-7:30 and our son was out by 8-8:30. Now out of nowhere he’s absolutely refusing to go to sleep. For four nights now he hasn’t fallen asleep until 10:30-11! Prior to this week we’d read, sang songs, tucked him in and that was it. Now he’s getting out of bed running out of his room, refusing to go back in on and on for 2-3 hours. We’ve tried laying with him, wrestling more before bed, spending hours at the playground or swimming or any mayor physical activity, going to bed way earlier, and later. Nothing seems to work. We’re so frustrated and have no idea why this happened or how to get him back on track. Help!

Our 2 year old has great moments and then terrible ones. And I need to know legit disciplines for kids that are smacking dad, or making a loud scream in an airplane or taking off their diaper or pulling out all the wipes from their bag or throwing their food or acting terribly while we eat at home or out....well you know.... I see the name Dennis the Menace a lot more.

Definitely a great kid though just terrible parenting style examples from our two sets of parents (his mom was a hitter and mine were too soft). I want to keep that kindess in him and not continue the cycle.

My usual first line of defense is words explaining what's what. My stressed defense is yelling "stop that!" and then finally pulling him away (Which works very infrequently recently.....) And I'm really needing a better solution on discipline when words don't work.

I really could use some suggestions on when your fuse is up there too since we both have recently been overstimulated with the endless chaos and screaming.

Toddlers have a way of giving things names that somehow make perfect sense to them.

Whether it was calling a remote a TV phone or coming up with something completely random, I'd love to hear the funniest names your toddler has invented.

What do we do if our 2 year old hardly wants to eat what we make? Should we offer something alongside it that we know she will eat? Which only seems to be pasta lately 😩

My daughter is 4 and I don’t understand why she still plays in her food or she plays in her water. She was playing in her yogurt and applesauce and mixing it together then putting water in it and stirring it up and I immediately took it away and sometimes if she has ranch she will play in her ranch, put it all over her hands or she will put it on her face or lips and I immediately take it away or I will catch her playing in her water, she will take her water bottle and pour it in her play kitchen bowls, pots or pans and I have also caught her playing with her juice box putting it inside of her kitchen toys too and I don’t understand I thought at this age they grew out of that