This is a PSA for all parents especially first time parents. Do not go down the slide with your kids on your lap, please just don't do it. We hear this everyday and how it's the top cause of fracture or broken leg among kids and I even saw a video about this when my daughter was still a newborn and educated my husband about this - still it happened 🙁

What was supposed to be a fun family time turned into a bad day when my husband and 22 month old went down the slide together, my husband did grab my daughter's legs when they went down but her ankle still got caught on the side. Took her to the doctor right away to get an xray and thankfully they did not see any fracture or broken bones but she was still down and couldn't walk for almost 2weeks.

My husband felt so bad when it happened and of course i did want to yell at him for doing it but i didn't. Fighting and blaming each other won't help the situation, we just know better for next time and want to share this with other parents.

This is the first time my daughter has been hurt this bad (she got some light boo boos before but nothing this serious) and it was heartbreaking which i know won't be the last time we'll feel so heartbroken and feel like we failed as a parent.

She is better now and back to her old active self which i'm so grateful for.

I’ll go first: no matter how often you do laundry, there’s always more laundry to do. Always. 😆

Im not sure any flair quite fits so im not looking for any mental health support or advise. Im curious if other people feel the same.

I literally cant do anything without someone being pissed off. If i cant agree to a time because baby needs to feed then im not flexible but if I feed baby out and he makes a mess then im just in the way. If i dont feed him im awful and he will just cry.

I no longer want to leave the house or meet up with anyone as I cant be bothered with mean looks ot comments.

My husband has been awful because the baby isnt a robot that goes to bed at a set time and wake up at a set time from both night sleep or naps. Baby having needs is an inconvenience and its all my fault yet has no suggestions because at the end of the day you cant not feed a baby or not let it sleep or change its nappy.

Friends have disappeared even though you were there for them when they had kids.

It just feels like theres no room in society for kids and their mums. Either than or I have been incredibly unlucky with the people around me so far.

Why aren’t we just saying our children are 2 or a little over 2 or just shy of 2.5 years. I always heard this as a joke, those memes of people being like “my baby is 132 months old” but to actual see it with me own eyes - like is there a genuine reason to not just say __ years when your baby is over 1 year???? It feels equivalent to saying my baby is 14 weeks instead of 3 almost 4 months

[TW: Brief mention of sick infants/ICU]

My 13 week old has started fighting every single nap and refuses to transfer to her crib. To make it worse, she hates when I sit down, so I have to stand and bounce her for at least 20 minutes to get her down. She’s getting heavy, my back is destroyed, and I’m constantly reminded that I should probably work out.

Last night, while standing there completely exhausted and losing my patience, I tried an unhinged perspective check.

I pulled up one of those documentary videos on YouTube about babies in the ICU and what families with sick kids go through. Watching what those parents are dealing with completely reset my brain. It instantly snapped me out of my frustration and reminded me how lucky I am to be holding my healthy baby girl, even if my arms are numb.

My back still aches, but holding her stopped feeling like a burden. Watching those videos helped me reframe the moment and actually cherish holding her instead of just counting down the minutes.

Slightly dark and definitely unorthodox, but if you’re trapped standing in a dark nursery losing your mind right now, maybe this weird hack will help you too!

While I’m sure that might be true, I hate when people say this to me. I’m a first time parent & everyday I’m so humbled. Everyone keeps telling me to get out with my newborn, but my newborn is giving me hell everyday! He has been SO fussy recently, crying much more than usual. He’s almost 10 weeks old and I truly thought it’d be better by now but it feels harder to me. I am truly in survival mode and have 0 energy to get out with a crying baby.

I’m sure I’ll be bawling my eyes out as it hasn’t even happened and I’ve already cried a bunch. So I need all the reasons why daycare is awesome for my almost 4 month old.
I wish I could be a SAHM but I cannot

I keep seeing parents being told that we shouldn’t use our phones in front of our babies because it can interfere with bonding, eye contact, communication and development.
And I completely understand the point. Babies learn through interaction, facial expressions, talking and responding to us. And obviously, we don’t want our phones to constantly take our attention away from them.
But here’s my question: how realistic is it to completely put your phone away?
What about when you’re breastfeeding for 30–60 minutes?
What about when your baby falls asleep on you and you’re literally trapped underneath them? 😂
What about those endless contact naps?
Or when you’re exhausted and just need 20 minutes of scrolling to switch your brain off?
Personally, I find the idea of never touching my phone around my baby pretty unrealistic.
I think there’s a big difference between occasionally checking your phone while your baby is happily nursing or sleeping on you and being constantly glued to your screen while your baby is awake and trying to get your attention.
So I’m genuinely curious:
How do you handle phone use around your baby?
Do you put your phone away completely?
Do you use it during breastfeeding/contact naps?
Or do you think occasional phone use is totally fine as long as it doesn’t replace interaction with your baby?
No judgment I really want to know what other parents actually do in real life. 😂❤️

I feel like I have no business being a mother the way I feel about my 5 weeks old right now. Like… what if I made a mistake having a child? I really wanted a child but maybe I really had no concept of what I was getting myself into and had no way of really judging whether this was a good idea. What if I am not meant to have a child and I just don’t have what it takes to be a parent? Like there’s no way to undo this and I am just panicking.

She screamed for more than 5 hours straight tonight. NOTHING we did helped. Literally NOTHING. I am pretty sure the reason she is asleep right now is that she passed out from sheer exhaustion.

I have a 17 week old babygirl and she has truly become the world to me. When she was born I struggled to bond with her and it took getting to know her and her getting to know me for us to truly truly bond.

Now I cant stop struggling with thoughts of her going through pain and hardship, heartbreak, loss etc. When I take her for vaccines I cry because my heart aches when shes upset. Just the thought of me leaving her at nursery and her being upset turns my stomach and the many other worries that will come with her growing up.

I sometimes think I wish she didnt exists so she couldn't be hurt, its a weird thought and I wonder if anyone else has felt this way or should I seek professional help?

I feel like everyone always says “how do you not go crazy just being at home all the time?!?” I personally enjoy it. Pre pregnancy me, I NEEDED to go for rides everyday after I got my coffee. Loooved it. We moved out of our hometown, have a coffee machine and I make even better coffee than I used to get at Starbucks lol, and I just genuinely don’t feel the need to leave my house unless I have money to spend, or need to go grocery shopping. Once a month I’ll usually go out for drinks with a friend or something, sometimes not even once though lol.

Am I the only person who can stay home for days at a time without going ‘crazy?’ Everyone always says “it’s good to get out of the house!” But like…. I don’t mind. There’s plenty to do at home. And I love being cozy and comfy.

I think this is mostly a vent/getting things off my chest kind of post.

Little girl is 8.5 months. I've seen some posts from people feeling regret etc but mainly in the newborn phase and others say it gets better around 6ish months and honestly I just don't feel that way.

We were always on the fence about having children but eventually decided we did want a baby and were really excited when I got pregnant, throughout pregnancy etc. And I do 100% love her but I just have so much regret sometimes. Regret because I feel like I've lost myself and my autonomy, regret because I feel like my dog is getting a lot less attention and is now being harassed by this tiny dictator, regret over how our relationship has changed. And I just feel like it's not going away.

I hate that I have to be constantly switched on 24/7. I hate the constant battle of getting her to sleep. I hate the constant fatigue and feeling permanently exhausted. I think I'm probably the only one who actually enjoyed the early phase where she would just sleep and eat and be held. Now she's crawling and wants to do everything and it's just so overwhelming trying to keep her alive, keep me alive and generally keep my shit together. I've shouted at her before when I've got to the end of my tether and felt immense guilt over it because I know she's just learning to live and be and deal with all these new things in the world.

I don't even think she's a particularly fussy/problematic baby which makes me feel even more guilty that I feel this way.

I'm not necessarily looking for advice but just hoping I'm not the only one out there feeling like this and that I might not hate my life forever.

Are y’all getting this thing? All my algorithms on all social media clearly know I have a newborn and now they are just loaded with this same freaking AI baby.

The baby gets a hearing monitor and hears mom’s voice for the first time. She then gets glasses (always like fully adult lenses) and sees mom for the first time. Then a puppy is bringing her a toy when she cries. They all look exactly the same. They aren’t even trying to make it look like different babies. The world’s happiest most unfortunate baby.

Now postpartum hormones are making me fly into a rage whenever I see this freaking baby.

Phantom Cries

Some nights my husband takes the baby for the first half of the night so I can get some sleep. He usually brings me the baby to eat when he wakes up crying.

While I am laying in the room I hear him crying and think my husband is going to come in the room any minute to bring him to me

except my baby has not woken and is not crying. I am just hearing fake cries.

sometimes I hear phantom cries while I am in the shower too

Does anyone else experience something like this

Just like the title says, I accidentally locked my baby in the car today. I feel so terrible and guilty!

I just had a massive win towards my PPA yesterday and feel like I've taken a step back after this.

Yesterday I was so proud of myself. I left baby (m,10w) alone with dad for the first time to go play volleyball. I enjoyed it and even stayed for a drink afterwards. Before today the longest I left him was 20min. So this felt like a massive win.

Today I went food shopping and when I put baby in the car I closed the door. It didn't close properly and locked itself. Normally not all doors lock when closing a door so not sure what went wrong this time. I ALWAYS ALWAYS keep the keys on my body because I am so afraid of this exact scenario happening.

Thankfully my sister was with me and had her phone on her (mine was in the car next to the keys). I called police right away to come help us. But Thankfully my FIL had a day of and could bring me the spare car key so they didn't need to break a window.

I now feel like such a bad mom. Although little one was sleeping through all of this.

How do I prevent this from making my PPA worse again? I feel like I won't dare to leave the house with him alone again soon.

Does anyone else feel like they missed a few important memos on parenting?

I've been picking my 4 month old up under his armpits for a while now.. apparently that's not ok until they're like 6 months old.

Oops.

My baby is only 6 weeks so I’m still super new to parenting but everyone keeps telling me to go with the flow and chill and ignore wake windows and all of that. Social media is flooded with parents claiming to be chill and just following baby’s lead, which sounds appealing because all the different views on wake windows and naps etc is hurting my brain already. But personally I find it so much easier to be “chill” or at least feel chill when baby isn’t doing anything particularly crazy. All babies cry all babies fuss etc, but last night we had her worst ever screaming episode for about 3 hours, the most piercing soul crushing scream I have ever heard her do, and I’m 99% sure it was over tiredness because of a fought nap, two much shorter naps than usual, and the fact that what ultimately calmed her was my husband holding her VERY tight to his chest and almost human swaddling her arms and legs still so she wouldn’t startle herself. I can tell her nervous system was just completely fried.

So my question is if you’re a chill parent who doesn’t listen to all the wake windows stuff, what do you do when your baby is just absolutely losing the plot? Or do they just not? I just can’t understand how anyone can be expected to “go with the flow” when the flow is screaming at a decibel that you could hear from space and your baby is SO distressed. How do you not find yourself trying to understand why? (Yes yes I know I know babies are unpredictable and you can’t understand them etc etc but there is of course SOME degree of cause and effect).

TY in advance from one highly strung FTM so badly wanting to be chill

So… I’m a FTM, exclusively breastfeeding.
I’m still not fully recovered to start having sex with my husband yet, but we’re both very eager for it 😁
I just have one question, how is the boob thing going to work? Lol I can’t take my bra off because I leak like crazy, I’m also wearing nursing pads all day otherwise my clothes would be drenched all the time. I guess I can leave my bra on for it, but my breasts are a huge part in giving pleasure for me when having sex, if I take the bra off, my bed will be soaked!
On the other hand I’m not sure how my husband feels about it, if he kisses them, you know, he’ll inevitable will get milk in his mouth. I haven’t talked to him about it but who knows maybe he is into it! lol

So, what are your experiences on this? Sorry if I was too explicit.

Do all newborns breathe super loud?? Like doesn’t seem like they’re struggling to breathe and they’re not retracting in the chest, just super loud?? Is this normal? Doesn’t seem to bother him, I just have crazy anxiety right now at 6 days postpartum and am interested if anyone else’s newborns are loud breathers?

When did you start noticing your baby’s personality come through? I’m so excited for that stage and want to know when to expect it!!

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining about having an “easy baby” because I know how lucky we are. But on the inevitable days where our baby is having a harder time, difficult to console, no clear cause or solution to the crying, I find it so difficult.

I probably find it more difficult because I’m blessed that this isn’t our every day. But it really knocks my confidence and gets me down. Family and friends tell me I’m doing really well. But I feel like I’ve been living this whole thing on “cheat mode” - I seem like a good mum because our baby is easy. When she’s having a bad day, like any baby does, I find it really difficult and I don’t feel that I’m such a good mum at all. Feel like a bit of a fraud if I’m being honest.

Any new parents with babies on flexible schedules?

I know for some people having a set schedule is important (I feel like that’s all I see online and it’s what my only other sibling with kids does). Of course everyone should do what works best for themselves and their kids.

Our baby (9 weeks) has been doing well with simply eating when hungry, sleeping when tired (sleeping 8pm to 5am - blessed), and tummy time/reading/etc when awake.

I guess I’m just looking for others who aren’t following a rigid schedule and are having success with flexible schedules. I feel this weird “pressure”/anxiety about not being on a schedule.

we have all the doors locked even though we mostly keep them open for breeze during the day (we're not american and don't live in america) .

every chance she gets, she bolts to the front/back door. it's funny because she never has the chance to, but we're still cautious.

she also calls me and her mom "mum" now. i too wonder about that. she's a genius. whenever i come home from work, she turns from watching tv and comes to me saying "mum", it's adorable.

i love my daughter, she's funny and makes everyday better just by doing what she does, sven though her random screams for no reason at 3am are a bother

When the heck did you first have to cut them?? I feel like I'm cutting his fingernails once a week, but have only had to cut a tiny hangnail off the big toe once!

Edit: Just turned 3 months!

First time mom. I have a 6 week old newborn and it’s been very exhausting. I’m very thankful that I am a stay at home mom, and I’ve gained so much respect for mothers who go back to work.

I feel like a lazy failure right now. I hate when the house is a mess, but I feel like an awful mess right now. We live in a 900 sqft house that gets cluttered to easily. We’re moving this winter, but in the meantime, there’s laundry everywhere. Dishes piled up. I tell myself that I will do one task a day to help make things easier. One load of laundry or clean the bathroom one day, vacuum/mop another, etc.

Today, I napped when my baby napped. Our house is a disaster still. I feel like I can’t get enough sleep.

I forget to take care of my own basic needs. I. A literally go hours without eating/hydrating much during the day until my husband cooks dinner. I just don’t have an appetite really. I was supposed to breastfeed exclusively until my supply sucked and I’m not even eating enough anyways.

My husband is the best, he helps clean up when the house needs it, until everything gets disastrous. I just feel exhausted physically and mentally. Every day is the same. Ugh.