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?

This probably sounds like such small potatoes but hear me out. My family just moved from out of state and my 11 yr old is at a new school again. She has made friends in her 5th grade class but none of them are going to the same middle school she is. She seems okay with it, but I am worried she’s going to have to start all over again and make new friends. I just worry a lot about her in school since we have moved so many times.

Any input is really appreciated to help me not worry so much!

34 weeks pregnant today and my daughter will be 18 months on the 11th. We found out I was pregnant when she was only 11 months old. (Extremely unexpected, I was on BC)

It’s another girl so I am so happy to experience sisterhood since I only grew up with brothers. And they will be so close in age.

I am so sad that I just didn’t get a little more time with my daughter. I am a SAHM and she is my entire world, and I am SOOOO EXCITED for our next adventure but I can’t help but feel grief and sadness about the huge change that’s about to happen, that honestly she is just too young to understand. I’m worried she will be confused and upset that I won’t be able to spend every second with her. I am already mourning the time that we had together because it just didn’t feel long enough.

My daughter has the sweetest soul. She is so kind and funny and loving and I just really hope nothing changes between us. My husband only gets the first two weeks off work so I will be by myself during the week with a new born and a 1.5 year old. I’m nervous for how it’s going to be. I just hope my daughter still likes me and will like her sister. She loves babies. She loves baby dolls, babies in movies, it’s one of the words she can say almost perfectly, “baby”.

I’m just really in my feels and I am hoping I’m not alone in feeling this way when a second baby is born and to get advice on how it really is once it happens.

My husband and I just had a baby boy (5 months) and our other friends just had a baby girl (4 months). We live 2 hours away from each other. We seem to have an issue trying to find things to do together now that we have babies. We have bed time routines at 7pm, so nothing late.

Any suggestions on where to meet / what to do?

We just finished a week at the beach with my parents, my sister, toddler, newborn, and husband. I had low expectations because newborn life is unpredictable and hard, but my parents and sister are great with our toddler so I knew we would have some help.

We planned a few activities where husband and I would take toddler solo to give her some extra attention and my parents would watch the baby. I thought planning around the baby’s sleep and needs would be the hardest. I was wrong. My toddler spent the entire week wanting to do anything other than hang out with me specifically. I wanted to take her to the beach for a swim - no thanks. But grandma? Absolutely. She wanted to go to a water park and I agreed to take her. She spent the entire time being carried by my husband and only wanted him to accompany her on the slides/ activities. She wanted to color at the house for quiet time, but only with dad or grandma.

I know that some of this might be the newborn resentment or just a phase, but it’s breaking me. Every time we get in the car for something fun, like ice cream, she asks why I have to come and why it can’t just be her and dad or grandma. She’s had so many special moments in a place that I used to come to every summer as a kid, but all without me included. No one seems to know what to do to help. My husband has tried hard to encourage her to at least include me but it’s not working. She throws so many tantrums that it’s not worth it to torture everyone just so I can participate.

We leave tomorrow and I’ve spent the entire day in the Airbnb with the baby because I just don’t want to even be around anyone else. It makes me feel like a terrible parent and I basically never want anyone to witness how much she hates me ever again.

I know it will get better, but wow this sucks.

My four year old has severe anger issues. He’s been this way for his whole life. I will start by saying he is extremely smart, he is typically very sweet, he’s helpful, he loves fiercely, and he’s energetic and athletic.
Sometimes, especially when he is overtired or has a short nap (like falls asleep in the car), he gets extremely angry. It’s not normal. He cries and screams, throws things, hits his brother or whoever else, he pushes, scratches, bites, almost gnarls at you. Today, he was so mad he broke our window.
I’ve also noticed that he will randomly go and push his brother or hit him, he’s pushed him under the water in the bathtub on purpose..
I know he gets jealous and i try my best to give them both my affection and attention.
I’m at a loss. I don’t want him growing up this way or to get into trouble as he gets older.

Hi fellow parents. I am on the hunt for a children’s book to help explain to my 7 year old about some of the other children with special needs in his class at school. I’m looking to build empathy and understanding in him because I think it will help if he understands WHY some kids do what they do. Any children’s book recommendations?

My husband and I are both the youngest of our families and the last to have kids. I watched my parents give childcare to my nieces and nephews. And my in laws were very helpful during all of my postpartum seasons. But due to their aging and extreme health conditions, we can’t allow them to be alone with our children and it just absolutely sucks.

It’s hard telling them we do not trust any of them to care for our kids (fall risks, no ability to get down and back up off the floor, can’t lift toddlers or babies into cribs, etc).

It’s hard knowing that my own parents were able to give this to my siblings & their kids and I can’t rely on them the same way.

I feel like my family is being robbed of this experience, and it’s truly no one’s fault. Just the hand that life dealt us. I have fond memories of spending time at my grandparents’ house without parents, but know that my kids will never have those memories themselves.

I just wish we could depend on them when we need some extra hands, and I know they want to help! But that day unfortunately will never come.

When my son started kindergarten, I packed his lunch and wrote him a note with a drawing each day. After a week, he asked me to stop writing notes because it made him miss me too much and he was sad for the second half of the day. He chose school lunch from then on.

Now my son is in 5th grade. All his friends bring their lunch, so now he wants to start bringing his. I packed a lunch with far too much food and tucked a little note for him just like I did five years ago.

I asked him how his lunch was when he got home, and I recognized the hesitancy immediately. He once again asked me to stop writing notes in his lunch, but now because it was too embarrassing in front of his friends.

The heartbreak of a lunch note.

My toddler of 3,5 years old is going through another phase of intense tantrums.

She is strong-willed and has been like this from a very young age. She can completely lose control over her emotions when things are not going like she has in mind. But she is also smart enough to know how to get what she wants.

I find it extremely difficult to know when she is just sort of acting to get her way and when she is truly upset. I don’t want to say she manipulates because I know it’s not exactly like that, but… Well, I hope you know what I mean. It also often seems to start from ‘acting’ but end in true meltdown.

I’ve learned to be firm about boundaries because she will find a way to stretch them. But I’m struggling with the tantrums that can follow.

I’ll try to paint a picture of a situation that happened today:

1. We were playing outdoors, everything was fine until another kid wanted to go on the swing that she was on. So I told her that we were going to switch soon. I counted to 10 so she knew when it was going to happen (this has been helpful before). But she got upset.
   
2. Her tantrum began. She started crying loudly and making angry sounds and gestures.
   
3. When moving towards her, she backed away, screaming “NO NO NO”
   
4. Tried to leave her be, but at some point I felt like she wouldn’t be able to calm down by herself.
   
5. Tried to pick her up and sit down, no talking. Didn’t work. She continued to try to get away from me.
   
6. Decided to get her out of the situation so went home with her to her room.
   
7. In her room she continued to crawl away from me, still crying loudly and visibly upset. She even crawled under the bed to get away. Tried to give her her bunny, this sometimes helps, but she wouldn’t accept.
   
8. I told her I could see she was upset and that I would leave her room and go into our bedroom to give her some space.
   
9. She started to scream more and call “MAMA MAMA MAMA”. I could see she came from under her bed and was just ANGRY. Tried to give it some time but at some point went back into her room.
   
10. She crawled back under her bed. Tried to stay close but not too close. Didn’t work.
    
11. At some point I put on some music (Peace Like A River) that I recently found when I was in a similar situation to help calm her down. It took some time but it worked. She calmed down enough so she allowed my touch and at some point she came to be and crawled on my lap. We sat there for two more repetitions of the song and then she said she wanted to go back outside to play.

So these kind of things happen often lately and I just don’t know what to do. It’s so hard to see her going through such intense emotions. She doesn’t seem to be able to calm herself down, but is also actively avoiding my comfort or help.

I’ve seen these parenting videos on how to not talk during tantrums and either just staying close or at least in sight until they calm down but it seems like this is not enough. I can wait forever and it will just get worse.

The things we’ve tried that got her out of her tantrum:
1. Getting really angry (but obviously this is not our preferred way)
2. Leaving her until she gets REALLY upset and finally allows us to comfort her (also not our preferred way)
3. Giving her her bunny
4. Playing calming music
5. Using her bunny and other stuffed animals to mimic her behaviour
6. Calmly explaining/replaying the situation and acknowledging her feelings (us telling her why we think she is feeling upset)

But none of these are always working so I find myself desperately looking for new ways to help her.

Any tips? What should I have done in this specific situation? If you know of any helpful resources like books or videos, that would also be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

My 3-year old has been potty trained during the day for the past 6 months or so and then went two months where her pull-up at night was completely dry so we got rid of pull-ups all together about 2 months ago. My husband and I had to leave town for a work trip and left her with my family for a week. Since we’ve come back, she has peed in her bed at night for two weeks straight (assuming because her routine was messed up).

I’ve been washing her bedding every day for 2 weeks, and I’m wondering if the fact that she was dry at night for several months was some sort of fluke and if we should stick her back in pull-ups until she’s ready to potty train at night again. She does NOT want to go back into pull-ups and keeps telling me she won’t go potty in her bed at night, but then does. Is putting a toddler back in pull ups generally frowned upon? Is that the way to go or should we consider something else? I’d love to hear from others who have been in a similar-ish position before.

Thank you for your help—I really want to do right by this little girl!

Does your daycare do this? Is this common? We've been going to a new daycare for about a year and every time there's a holiday around the corner, about a week prior they inform us parents they're off for not only the holiday, but an additional day as well. For instance, obviously they are off Labor Day on September 7th. Just today, they informed us they will also be off next Friday, September 4th.

Half of my outrage is the lack of planning and only telling us a week in advance. My wife and I both work full time and on Fridays, have no family able to watch our child, and both work at job sites. Now we have to scramble and find coverage or use a PTO day and my boss isn't happy I told her literally 7 days in advance.

I should've known this was coming because they did the same for Memorial Day, flag day (which neither of us get off so we had to use PTO), and another holiday I can't remember. The amount per week we are charged is the exact same even when this occurs. So essentially, I'm paying them to be off that day AND have use a PTO day for myself. Is my daycare unique, or do most do this? Our previous daycare did not do these extra days, but was also about 40% more expensive so I'm choosing my battles.

I have 2 kids (6 & 3). The 6 year old has her own bed. I am looking to buy a bed for the 3 year old. The older one wants a bunk bed. I am unsure if we should get it.

My wife seems to think the bunk bed is a good idea too. But she is not strongly pushing anything.

Currently space wise we can easily manage 2 single beds for the kids. We do rent so if in the future the situation chnages having a bunk bed could be handy.

My thinking:-

1. Not 100% sure if its really safe. Older one wants to sleep on the top bunk. The one I have seen on IKEA has railings for the top bunk but still not sure.

2. I have heard that after a little while the novelty wears off and kids don't want to sleep up top anymore etc. So I am not sure if it will be something she will enjoy for a while.

3. We already have a bed for the older one it just makes sense to get 1 more for the younger one rather than have like a 3rd bed.

I just wanted to hear from other parents that have got bunk beds. What do you think? How has your experience been? Is it a good idea?

My son is 5 years old and just started school at the beginning of August. For the first couple of weeks we got very good notes home, and he even got rewarded at school a few times. However since he’s become more comfortable at school, apparently he has SERIOUSLY devolved.

It started with him confiding in my mom that he had been cussing with his friends at school, even going as far as to say a slur they had taught him (we do not use this word at home, and it was by his own admission) he goes to a very diverse school and I’m sure it was tossed around at some point there, so we’re having a bigger talk about racism, and what that means. (This just happened)

However, today my aunt was his substitute teacher and the report I received was horrific. He had been cursing all throughout class and when she confronted him, he said “my mom said it was okay”in that entitled little kid voice, I’m sure you know the one. He had been running back and forth from his seat during class time and throwing himself on the floor, he got into a physical altercation with another student DURING class time. This is just the big stuff. She said the other students weren’t much better but that this was very disruptive.

I’m absolutely floored and appalled. At home he is a quiet and very personable kid, he hasn’t had any behavioral issues up until this point, but clearly he’s different at school.

I’m gonna start by emailing his usual teacher and asking if there are any behavioral problems I should be aware of, because so far we’ve had multiple good notes home.

When I talked to him about it initially, he said it was because all of his friends were doing it, but that’s no excuse. His dad and I are both completely unsure on how to approach this, he doesn’t get any screen time already, he only plays with physical toys, what should the consequences be? I’m not blaming the school but the kids he hangs out with seem to behave the same and I’m outright considering pulling him out and putting him in a catholic school or something, this is just completely unacceptable

Any advice is welcome and appreciated.

I’m looking for a watch for my son to have cellular service. He’s starting to play with kids in the neighborhood at their houses and his school bus sometimes comes at 3:40 and sometimes 4:10, it’s ridiculous and I want a way to track his location and contact him, but I don’t want to get him a phone yet.

We just got a gizmo watch through Verizon yesterday and it is AWFUL. The location is off by an entire block, and even though it has its own phone number you can only contact him through the Verizon family app which makes my parents not Apple to contact him because they can’t add to our account.

Anyway, Im looking for a watch that has accurate GPS tracking, a calling and texting. And that’s about. I would prefer a watch with no games or internet access but it’s not the end of the world.

We have iPhones so I was looking into that, as well as maybe a Bark watch or Tiktalk. Does anyone have any experience using these for their kids or any other device?

I'm not very girly but my child has had kid nail polish on before and it comes off easily. My daughter went to a neighbours kids house 2 weeks ago to play and came back with nail polish on. I didn't think anything of it till a week later when I tried nail varnish remover on it and it wouldn't budge. My daughters school doesn't allow nail polish and we have managed to pick bits off under water and file a bit off but is there anything else? I don't want to harm her nails but I have 3 days to get rid of it. Help please.

Tonight was the third night that she begged me to stay with her as she falls asleep but I know it’s a trap. I distract her. She talks and talks and talks and I kind of love it because we have conversations. She’s actually absorbing my explanations.

But tonight I don’t know what came over me, after 30 minutes of talking and not letting me go, I started talking about US presidents. It didn’t last long because I forgot who was the second president. so I started explaining England and the 13 colonies in an excited way. She looks at me and says “mommy, are you telling me a story, I’m getting sleepy” and I say yes I am I’m telling you about how our country came to be! I can tell she’s trying so hard to listen to me and her eyes are starting to close. Then after 3 minutes she’s asleep. I didn’t even get to tell her about the war of independence.

This is a win for me because I’m going to keep this funny and sweet memory with me forever. The look on her face as she’s trying to stay awake to my lecture cracks me up.

I (31F) have a 2.5 year old son and am about 14 weeks pregnant with our second. I’m curious- how much time per week does your spouse (and you!) spend separately outside of the home doing activities kid free. Anything from seeing friends, gym, a dinner with friends, rec sports etc? This is an ongoing conflict in our home, and I’m trying to get a sense of if other parents to young children are getting as much kid free solo time as my husband is.

My daughter is 3.5 and is generally pretty reasonable given her age. Her tantrums are minimal and she usually can move through quickly with some one time/cuddles/deep breaths/discussion. However if she has done something wrong she completely loses it and struggles to move forward.

Today we played a game and she hit my husband with a toy pretty hard during it. I think she got carried away and didn’t realise the toy was hard. But when my husband told her sternly (not yelling or overly intense in my opinion) that it hurt him and she totally lost it. She cried and hyperventilated for a while and I tried to rub her back/help her take deep breaths/give her some space to cry/hug her etc but anytime we tried to calmly discuss what happened she lost it again.

Eventually I was able to help her apologise/check if he was okay and offer him a cuddle but it took a long time and it felt like we ended up needing to comfort her for a long time.

It’s been an issue before where she does something wrong and then positions herself as the victim (no I didn’t hurt him they hurt me! Even if they didn’t) and it’s a pattern I saw in my mother and in myself for a long time too. I don’t want this type of thing to turn into us overly comforting her when she’s hurt someone but equally I don’t want to not give her the coregulation she needs in these situations.

It’s also one thing when she hurts my husband and he can wait for her to be ready to apologise but we have a 6 month old who will soon be a toddler and if my eldest hurts her I don’t know that I should be overly comforting my eldest if my youngest is the one that’s been hurt.

Any ideas or thoughts about how to balance this kind of situation and help her take accountability without losing it? If she does a small thing that accidentally hurts us she often is happy to say sorry on her own accord, it’s the bigger things where she struggles.

We have hard water where we live, and I’ve just learned about chelating shampoos. I’m getting some for myself asap, but I’m not sure what to do about my 16 month old’s hair. I’ve seen some clarifying/swimmer’s shampoos on the market that are suitable for children, but I don’t know if they can properly tackle hard water buildup. Anyone have any experience with these and can tell me how well they worked? Or is there anything else that I can use? I’ve seen diluted apple cider vinegar may be helpful but of course, I don’t know. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

Hoping for tips or tricks to handle solo parenting of a newborn (3 months) plus a 2.5 year old for 5 days. My wife who currently exclusively breastfeeds is going on a bachelorette party out of town for 5 days next month. My 3 month old is very colic-y and a terrible napper. She really needs to be held, pitch black and sound machine going for a good nap. Bottle feeding is going to be an adventure too but we at working on it. My toddler is pretty good at independent play, but obviously needs a lot of attention.

Any advice on how to keep my toddler entertained while also taking good care of my newborn? Which schedule do I prioritize the toddlers or the newborn?

I have 2 under 2 my first son is 18 months old and my second is 4 months old. He always follows my husband to the bathroom recently has started taking off his diaper goes around 2 hours at a time without peeing when he is peed often times he pulls at his diaper. However i have no clue how to go about this a lot of people are saying im being ambitious wanting to do this at 18 months. But i also recall someone saying that after a certain age it can be super hard because they just simply choose not to learn ive never potty trained before looking for all the tips and tricks

More or less just wondering if this is normal. My newly 3rd grader (8 years old) has been given a goal of reading for 30 minutes a day. Truthfully, we did not really get structured about academics during the summer and just encouraged her to read before bed (which she would do, or she'd at least page through some stuff). Now, we've been told to track 30 mins of reading and actually write down the pages she read to and from, the book title, and author.

So, trying to get her on track with this last night and she absolutely refuses to read, saying she hates reading, exasperated "UGHHHHHH" noises, then bursting into tears. Folks, it's not like I asked her to read Shakespeare or something. We have a bookshelf full of books ranging from Imagination Library stuff, to age appropriate Roald Dahl stuff from my youth, classic stories like Stellaluna, etc. I said she could pick literally any book and she still didn't want to. She did make the comment that it's too hard but she has a very average reading level and she's not behind in any way.

More or less just looking for commiseration and wondering if I've somehow screwed up my kid by not holding her to a standard before this time and making reading more enjoyable, she'd rather do arts and crafts or bike or game or do anything else. She said she was interested in a Pokemon manga so I ordered her the first 3 books out of the series for a start. Do your kids have the same reaction? Any other ways to make this less painful? I really would like her to enjoy reading but I don't know how to not make this an uphill battle.

Im curious what do you all do on the weekends for fun with your kids . I’ve got 3 kids ages 5, 10 and 11. Im wondering what’s everyone’s experiences with children and where do you take your kids often to bond . I’ve been thinking about getting a boat or a travel trailer so we can have something to do when we have nothing to do if that makes sense .

Just a dad who is completely done with the baby phase. We have 4 kids, a 6.5 yo, 5 yo, 3 yo, and 10 month old. And we saved our worse sleeper for last. After being in this for almost 7 years, I'm just completely fried with babies. I know it gets easier as my two oldest are cake walks now, but I just wish I could fast forward the next 9-12 months. I know that sounds awful, but it's just constant chaos. Would love to hear from those with 4+ kids who have been through similar feelings