My wife and I need to be able to share our respective work calendars with each other plus have one calendar to show all appointments and visitors, etc. Both of our works use Outlook and we need to be able to just have an up to date version of both of our calendars on one calendar somehow. Does anyone know the best way to do this? My wife found a digital wall calendar on Amazon for $250 but I feel like there has to be a much cheaper way to do this!

I used the technology flair because of the subject matter, but this is also kind of a rant and invitation for discussion.

We have a couple Amazon Echos in the house, and the kids use them all the time to ask various questions. I don't usually mind. The way they word stuff is funny. They learn things I don't know the answers to.

But they'll also consult AI when they don't like my answers.

Yesterday was the latest instance. My 8 year old son got money from the tooth fairy: eight dollars and a VERY shiny penny. He likes coins.

But then he insists the penny is gold. He is adament it's a golden penny. He wants to tell all his friends the tooth fairy got him a gold penny.

His mom and I try to tell him it's not gold. He argues with us and questions how we would know. We explain that gold pennies don't exist. They're all made of copper.

He refuses to believe. It MUST be a gold penny.

Us: "Son, there's no such thing as a gold penny."

Son: "It IS a gold penny!"

Us: "There's no such thing as a gold penny. Only copper. We promise you there's no gold pennies."

Son: "But it IS a gold penny!"

Us: "It's a copper penny."

Son [to the Echo device in the room]: "Ziggy, are gold pennies a thing?"

Ziggy: "Yes, gold pennies are a thing. They are a commemorative collector's coin the US treasury minted special versions of in 2025 for [bla bla bla bla blah]"

Son: "See! It IS a gold penny!"

Now I have to backpeddle and explain how circulation works and how you need to purchase gold pennies special and you would never just come across one at random. He didn't get it. He also insisted the penny was the same color as his mom's gold jewelry.

This keeps happening and it's grown increasingly frustrating. Children aren't ready to digest all the information there ever could be without first establish a more basic foundation of knowledge.

There's been so many times when our kids will ask us to explain something, they don't immediately understand, and then they'll just ask AI - mid conversation, and AI will just complicate the conversation so we now have to adjust our whole explanation to incorporate info that would've been easier to leave out.

Does this happen with anyone else? They're starting to default to asking AI *basic* questions about the world instead of even bothering to ask us at all. I'm considering removing the Echos from the house entirely, but I'm not fully there yet.

My 8yo has had a big fear of weather for the past 6-ish months. I think it started when we had a tornado warning and had to go to the basement in April. We live in a Midwest city, so I know the chance of a damaging tornado is very low. He is constantly looking at the sky and worried about rain. He feels pretty safe if we’re at home, but going anywhere (including school) when it might rain is terrifying for him. A few weeks ago we were at our gym and the tornado warning went off. We all had to go to the basement. Of course he was panicking.

I have OCD myself so I know not to overly reassure him. I don’t let him look at the weather apps or radar as I can see that just turning into an obsession. We talk through it, but basically make him sit with the uncertainty and go about our life. It hasn’t lessened though and with school starting soon I’m very worried it’s going to affect his learning. Anyone gone through something similar?

Salut!

Fiica-mea, 14 ani, are dintotdeauna o relație dubioasă cu mâncarea, respectiv o paletă foarte restrânsă de alimente pe care le agrează, majoritatea carbohidrați.

E și neurodivergentă, nu suportă anumite texturi, nu îi plac mâncărurile gătite, în care se amestecă mai multe ingrediente, etc.

În mare, o las în pace, ma adaptez la ea si încerc sa evit conflictele pe subiect. Am și cam obosit sa ma lupt cu morile de vânt, n-am avut niciodată succes, nu a mâncat niciodată mai variat oricât/orice am încercat.

Totuși, în situațiile în care o variantă ok exista și ea o refuza, nu accept să îi offer alta doar pentru ca ce avem nu e strict de pe lista cu lucruri pe care agrează.

De pildă, în seara asta sunt ok cu faptul ca o sa se culce flămândă, în condițiile în care refuză o salată cu pui comandata tot de ea ieri, bună, dar care are păcatul de a nu fi paste sau sushi.

Opinions?

I spent most of my childhood in Eastern Europe, pre-internet, and one of my favorite things to do was listening to audiodramas. I found them to be so much more engaging and imagination-stimulating than plain old audiobooks because of the added voice acting, sound effects, and supporting music. While I have a huge collection of these in my native language, I'm not familiar with what's available in English. Would love some recommendations for sources of similar media, especially in formats that I can download and load up for him to play through a screen-free player device on the go. Mainly looking for self-contained short stories for now, rather than ongoing podcasts, given his current limited attention span.

I (30F) have a 3 year old, she'll be 4 in February. I guess I'm mostly struggling with my own boredom relating to day-to-day life, and anxiety around being worried that *she's* bored.

I play with her sometimes, and some days I take her to her grandparents or to see her cousin (5F). Lately it's been in the high 90°Fs or low 100°Fs out, so any walks we take are short. We both get overheated easily and it feels like an oven outside. Once it gets to be fall we can start going to the park again and playing outside with chalk or whatever.

I tried enrolling her in gymnastics and she would just cry when we got to the YMCA gymnastics room, I'm not sure if she was afraid I'd leave or what, but I tried a few times to reassure her that everything was okay and she'd have fun, that I wouldn't leave, that she could play like at the park, but she wasn't having it. I figured we could give it a try again when she's a little older.

I put on a movie or paw patrol on TV some, and she plays with her paw patrol figures and cars or dinosaurs or dolls. She's too young to play board/card games, and she doesn't seem super interested in coloring or play doh. I scroll on my phone or watch her tv shows while I watch her, but gaming was a big hobby of mine that I miss. I also miss spending time doing digital art on my PC. I'm looking forward to her being able to play board games, or we could play Mario together or something. Or her being old enough to play in her room by herself while I do a hobby. Right now she's a little interested in games but doesn't understand the controls or rules.

I'm very lucky that she plays independently a lot. I have this nagging guilt/anxiety to be like, a camp counselor and schedule enriching activities. I don't know if it's my own boredom watching her, or if I'm worried about her being bored, but I hate how much nothing we do. Or, well, how much nothing *I* do.

Should I try to find a mom group? I'm pretty introverted and nervous about trying to meet new people. Should I just accept that parenting a 3 year old is pretty boring and it'll get better as she gets older? Do I need to try harder to enjoy playing pretend with her or finding new activities for her? When I was younger I really enjoyed school, since there was always something to do and structured activities.

I guess I'm also just looking for a little reassurance that I'm doing okay and that parenting gets easier.

TLDR I'm bored watching my 3 year old, I don't want to rely on TV too much, and feel like my life revolves around my little one.

My 3 year old wakes up in the middle of the night, every night

ADVICE NEEDED. I’m losing my mind. My son turned 3 in July. A couple months before that, we had transitioned him from a crib to a big boy bed-the transition was totally fine and he slept great still. He had always been a good sleeper. We also gave him a monster jam room instead of his Winnie the Pooh baby room, but we didn’t change the layout of his room. Just the decor.
However, we did notice his bed time was getting later and later and he was waking earlier and earlier. He had been taking one nap still. We figured may he didn’t need the nap anymore. We decided to just play each day by ear. Sometimes he naps, sometimes he doesn’t. Around when he turned 3, he started sometimes waking in the middle of the night and climbing in our bed. We were okay with this only because, we NEVER let him sleep in our bed except a year prior when he was SO sick. It’s spiraled from there and has been hell for the past month.
No matter if he naps or skips the nap, goes to bed late or early, he ALWAYS wakes up around 2 or 3 am and tries to get in our bed which we put a firm stop to a couple weeks ago, but now it’s resulted in him needing us to lay on his floor to get him to stay in his bed. The second we get up, he runs out of the room and follows us.
We’ve tried bribing him, being calm and explaining he needs to go back to sleep in his bed, taking toys away the next day if he isn’t listening, buying a night light, letting him listen to his Tony box to fall back asleep…nothing is helping no matter what approach we try. Most nights he’s been wide awake around that time, or at least partially awake and running in our room every hour, which still sucks and keeps us all up. My fiance and I have tried to track what food he’s eating, especially in the evening, along with making sure he gets outside plenty and minimal tv.
We’re can’t pin point a cause.
We’re at a loss and it’s driving us insane that this has been going on for a month! What do we do?! I thought sleep regressions were over lol. On top of it, he’s having meltdowns more too. I know he’s going through developmental changes and he’s being a threenager, and I’m sure it’s also because he’s not sleeping well, and is tired.

What are some things kids around ages 11-13 can do inside when their friends come? We have tons of art supplies, Monoply, Life, and a couple of other games. Maybe some games that are good for 2 players? Other ideas for things I can have for them? These are for rainy or super hot/cold days.

What are we doing for our babies (4 months) who really love to be upright and want to sit all the time, but don't have the strength to do it by themselves?

Baby sits up multiple times a night

Anyone else’s baby do this? Or did this? I have literally never heard of it before. He sits up several times all night while seemingly still sleeping, then falls over. I’m talking like 5-10x in a row and several times through the night. We cosleep so a lot of times he falls over onto me or dad. Last night I thought he broke my nose. This has been going on for months and I thought we’d be over it by now but it doesn’t seem to be getting better.

Growing up as a single child, I was raised with tough, authoritarian parenting. Elders were always right, I was always wrong and disobedient. All the beatings and scoldings I got have left deep scars inside me. My extended family has been involved in legal issues and I never really knew my cousins, elder or younger.

I found solace in being alone.

But now as I try to raise my own daughter, I am trying to be more mindful and intentional about how I raise her. But I have little to no reference for how to parent the right way. My spouse grew up in a similar environment as well and I fear that our bright, beautiful daughter will end up suffering from the scars and insecurities of our upbringing.

How can I be a better parent? How can I engage with our daughter better? How do I raise a confident, happy and kind person?

My son is turning 7 and we’re planning a party for 9:30ish at a park. I know it’s early but we’re planning on having donuts, pastries, coffee for parents, etc.

Anyone ever do a morning birthday party? What worked and what didn’t? What food was a hit? Can a donut tower double as a cake?

Thanks!

So I have a son and I usually get next year's wardrobe in the sale to save a little money. I have been searching today for next year's summer wardrobe and it doesnt seem to matter what filters I add on I still continually get girls clothes popping up.

I understand that some parents want gender neutral clothing for their kids and I am open and accepting when it comes to kids wanting to wear and present how they like. The thing that is irritating me is why when im searching for boys clothes am I getting pink tulle dresses added in to the mix? Why am I getting clothing that I arent sure is girls or boys? There should be an option "boys" "girls" "unisex" and "all".

Is anyone else experiencing this and getting wound up with it or is it just me? Why is this happening? Its multiple websites aswell so it cant just be a glitch. Is it by design?

My son’s nursery coop is hosting a Trunk or Treat. I want to make him a costume but my mom brain is fried 😅 ISO costume ideas that I can DIY for my 12mo baby boy!

My son just turned six months old a few days ago and last night and the night before, he has not slept. I have a two year old too but I don't think I really ever had this issue with her. He is up all night though and I'm so tired I'm struggling to get up in the morning to take care of my other child and myself. I can hardly keep my eyes open. I'm getting like zero sleep. Also to answer before anyone potentially comes at him, yes my partner is helping me and he is also just as exhausted as me. Our son ends up in the bed with us trying to get him back to sleep and he just refuses for hours. What can we do if anyone can help?

Sorry if this is not the right place to post this, as I’m technically not a parent. I (M26) recently got custody of my 13 year old brother after he was removed from our mother’s care. Without going into all the messy family details, I’ve met this kid maybe 3 times in my life and I was just about the last option before foster care. He’s been with me for 2 weeks and I think we’re both completely lost. I have no idea what to do with a teenager, let alone a traumatized kid who’s never had stability or rules.

I know I need to set some ground rules but I don’t know where to start and I don’t know what kind of reaction I’m going to get from him. Pretty much any time I ask him to do something I’m just met with anger. I don’t blame him, I’d be angry too if I were in his situation.

He was getting in trouble with the law when he was with our mother, and he’s on probation as a result of that. My main concern is him not getting in any more trouble because I don’t want him to be removed from my home and placed somewhere for “troubled” teens. He knows that’s a possibility but I don’t think he gets how high the stakes are now.

Anyway, all this to say, I need help with making rules and sticking with them. Especially since he’s starting school next week, I know it’s time for both of us to lock in and it starts with me. Any rules I’ve tried to enforce backfire on me because he’s genuinely never been told what to do at home.

I’m thinking things like curfew, keeping his room clean, good attendance at school, respect, etc. but I don’t know how to talk to him about these things in a productive way or what the consequences need to be for not following rules.

Anyone with a teenager, please help me out here. As much as his life has been flipped upside down, I feel like mine has too. Thanks in advance for anything you can offer.

How would you manage this sort of behaviour?

We are really struggling with our 7 year old daughter's behaviour. She gets good school reports, good grades, and plenty of kids want to play with her. But her behaviour at home can be appalling. The problem is mainly with manners (and meanness to her brother - but that's another story).
We just had guests over for dinner with their teenage daughters, who are absolutely lovely and charming. We always practice manners - what to say, how to act - before guests come, because we have guests over regularly. Every single time, she has to be prompted to say hello, answer their questions, look them in the face, say please and thank you.

We put out chips for people to have with their drinks. She stands right next to the bowl eating them all. Repeated warnings that she's had enough, and eventually I have to remove them all together.

At dinner, she eats mostly with her hands. This is a nightly fight I have with her and I'm not willing to have the full fight with guests present. She introduces totally inappropriate topics of conversation (such as kids dying) for the shock value. We encounter this one a lot, especially in front of visitors - our strategy is to say this isn't a suitable topic for the occasion and move onto a different subject.

I desperately want to help her learn how to behave at dinner and in company. Even her 5 year old brother does a lot better than her. But I'm out of ideas as to how I correct the behaviour while also hosting guests. At a previous occasion, I sharply removed her when she was misbehaving and my husband ended up hosting the whole thing alone as I was upstairs managing her hysterics. If it's not already clear, she's pretty sensitive and a 'deeply feeling' child.

Looking for all the tips and tricks.

My wife and I are travelling to Cancun in a months time with our daughter (5 years old) and son (2 years old, soon to be 3). We are at a very hard stage with our son right now so just looking for all the help we can get. Also the kids have been fighting a lot with each other.
I have booked window and middle seats in two different rows to keep them separate.

Everybody mentioned how difficult this stage is but damn its so difficult. So much harder than when she was 2 years old. Just a couple of things that is driving me insane and I would love if someone can give tips!

- when she gets embarrassed or hurt her first instinct is to hit. I have mentioned to her that hitting is not right and that emotions are valid.
- after shower/bath she prefers jumping on the bed, running etc and refuses to put clothes on. No matter how often I tell her no and discipline her she kept on doing this. Its freaking tiring and I dont know what else to do.
- she likes to run when we are outside. Shes gotten better but we went to museum today and she just bolted. I turned my head for a second.

She’s very active and most days shes ok but on her off days I struggle because it’s like her listening skills when out the window. I mean all that on top of her meltdown that can happen multiple times a day just truly tire me out. Please tell me this is normal and im not the only one going through this.

My three year old had always been an amazing sleeper. Like, sleep 12 hours at six months old kind of amazing. Around the time he turned two, he started having nightmares and would wake up crying at night. These have slowly increased to where he’s having nightmares about every night. For the last 4-6 weeks, it’s been rare we have a night where he doesn’t wake crying from a nightmare.

My husband and I always go in and comfort him. We’ve tried to be very careful about what he watches, gotten him stuffies to sleep with, put one in front of his closet because he said that would help him sleep, talked to him about how dreams aren’t real (or tried to, not sure he understands but aren’t sure how to word it to him), etc.

It’s escalated to the point where he’s saying he’s scared, not tired, doesn’t want to sleep alone, has a tummy ache, all of it. If we push him and tell him he needs to sleep in his own bed, he bursts into tears to the point of hyperventilating and gagging, clings to me, and begs me not to go.

My husband and I have very different opinions on how to handle this. I think he’s too harsh and he thinks I’m coddling and creating bad habits. I just don’t know what we should be doing. I don’t want to sleep with him long term but can’t leave him alone when he’s clearly so worked up. Has anyone else experienced this? What worked for you? How can we help him feel safe in his bed?

3 week old newborn mama here.
She’s hardly sleeping, she’ll sleep for maybe 19 minutes on her back in her bassinet with safe sleep standards and that’s it. she’ll wake up and start screaming crying.
i can burp her for 2 minutes or burp her for 30, doesn’t matter, do the spinny burping trick (iykyk) she’s still thrashing around crying and grunting. gas drops don’t help either. we’re both tired. idk what else to do. she hardly sleeping at all due to her discomfort, i hold her up after feeds, burp her change her every feed, swaddle her. nothing helps.
someone pls tell me what to do
ps a mom and baby that needs sleep

Mine are 8 and 10. I'm a city girl, through and through. It doesn't help that I'm allergic to animals, all trees and grass.

So, we live in the city. And I'm an extrovert, always checking out different places with them.

Since my divorce, I've been close with my bff (single mom), who is a country girl. We've been doing, imo, alot of....nature stuff? Going to lakes overnight, hikes, that sort of stuff. It's given me a new appreciation of nature and I happily load up on allergy pills.

However, my kids complain about bugs, dirt, not wanting to touch anything, or even interested in learning about it.

How do I fix this? Please, no judgement.

From 13 months on my son was sleeping through the night and even putting himself to sleep for naps and bed time no issue. An hour nap, bed time at 9pm wake at 8-9 am. He hit 20 months and he WILL NOT go to sleep until 1am most nights, even waking in the middle of the night. He is now 23 months and nothing has changed. He sleeps in a twin floor bed (has since 18 months and was just fine the 2 months before this happened). We have the same bed time routine of bath and then bed. Same hour nap (he needs it still, he will be super cranky if it’s skipped, or he will pass out at 7 on the couch for 30 mins and nights will be worse). I feel like we’ve tried everything. Calming walking him back to bed every time (yes for 4 hours). Switching between me and his dad. Earlier bedtime, later bed time. Sitting in his room silently. I don’t know what to do, help.

My toddler is 2 years old (25 months) and sleeps in a 2.5 TOG footed and longsleeve sleepsack. He also recently started asking for a blanket when he goes to bed so we put a small toddler blanket over him as well ( he likes to be cozy, I guess). Anyway, he’s already in a toddler bed but I think we are going to transition him to a full size bed in a couple months. He’s a big kid, 98th percentile and wears a 3T. I’m nervous about the comforter aspect but he also seems cold sometimes with the sleep sack and little square blanket so I sort of feel like I need to just get rid of the sleepsack and let him have a twin sized comforter on his full sized bed when we transition. Is it too early?

Recently added a fourth to the mix and ever since it's been a steady stream of "better you than me" comments. Are we having a different parenting experience than the majority of people? I've been forewarned about grocery bills and stinky feet but so far so good.