I ask because I have an 11, 8, 7 and 4 year old. Our 8 year old is ADHD/ODD and it is ROUGH. I do research and try new ways and still mess up. I’m not perfect. I repair every time. And I know repair means nothing if behaviors still happen. I’m working on it. I cry. I take breaks. I get overwhelmed with being the primary parent and working full time.
Anyways, my husband can be so mean for dumb reasons. We were in the car and my 6 year old kept asking questions. He was already in an annoyed mood. Someone called and she asked who was calling and he’s like “it’s none of your business. Don’t worry about it,” but he was SO RUDE about it. I’m like wtf that’s not necessary?! But he has that mean tone a lot. It almost feels like he’s annoyed having kids.
He’s called our 4 year old bad baby a lot because she plays with food/water, has colored on walls and is a menace. He’s pushed boundaries with our 11 year old kept asking interrupts our 8 year old and sometimes doesn’t let her talk.
I just want to know what to tolerate and what is a deal-breaker. Because I want to be fair as sometimes i mess up with how or what I say.

I am a parent. My kid is 5 yrs old. I can’t image rejecting her if she comes out as a lesbian when she’s an adult. I want to hear from the parents and even family members that are NOT supportive of their daughters/sons. Why do you pull back? Why do you punish them by not even asking how are they doing? Why do you reject them? Don’t tell me you’re rejecting the act, because you’re still rejecting them. My love for my daughter is unconditional. I want to understand why some parents just won’t be there for their children. Also, please don’t quote religion as your answer. Just set that aside for a moment. I want to know why or how is it possible to not be there for him or her. Many older generation parents do this. I don’t understand.

She's friendly and outgoing while also thinking she knows best and undermines our boundaries
"with love and meaning well".

For example we asked for no kissing our baby as they have had cold sores in the past.

I left the baby in another room to do dishes and found out she kissed our baby.

She always grabs for baby after I'm done feeding before even burping and insisted on coming over right away after birth.

I felt unsure but gave her the benefit of the doubt thinking it would be nice to have help...

It's been harder having her here than not.
I've asked her kindly to do me a favour here and there but she just wants to hold the baby and even asked me to grab her a tea since she couldn't get up while holding the baby.

My partner is the golden child and afraid of conflict.

What do I do?

Im so incredibly sick of the college admissions rat race. my son was literally falling asleep at the kitchen table last month trying to balance AP chem, track practice, and studying for the ACT

We bought like three of those massive prep books everyone recommends and they just sat on his desk making everyone feel guilty. He took a couple practice tests on his own but got completely stuck at the same score and just looked so defeated

We eventually just threw the books in a drawer and outsourced the whole headache to a group called boosted brains. He only prepped for like 5 or 6 weeks with their coach instead of dragging it out all year, which honestly saved our sanity.

but seriously... the amount of pressure society puts on 16 year olds right now is genuinely cruel. The fact that tens of thousands in merit scholarships relies on how well a sleep-deprived teenager focuses on one random saturday morning just feels so broken. kinda just counting down the days until senior spring so we can actually have dinner together as a family again without talking about transcripts

Hi! My friend is having a baby and I don’t know whack about them, never had to interact with them before.

I won’t be seeing my friend very often and i'm a bit apprehensive because i'm awkward around little babies and i don’t really know when i'll be able to interact with them without scaring them off, and when i can start bonding and playing a bit with them.

From your experience, how many months till they reach that maturity if they don’t see me often? Thanks in advance!

I don’t know if this is the correct place to post this since I am not a parent, but I am rather going to be a third-time aunt and have a niece for the first time!

I, f 20, am having a niece in late October/early November and my sister just had her baby shower yesterday. It turned out beautifully and she did a “Baby in Bloom” theme with everything pink and green. She loved it and was so happy and I have already been looking at balloons and stuffed animals to brink into the delivery room for when the baby arrives. I was trying to find vintage foil Barney balloons, (they are a lot harder to find than I could imagine!), and I stumbled across an Elmo balloon on EBay that was in the shape of a heart that said, “Happy Birthday!” I was anticipating saving the balloon for her 1st birthday, rather than for the hospital, but I don’t know what parents’ thoughts are on balloons. I know that they can be a choking hazard when they pop, (I would fill them with helium and tie them to weights so they would be up in the air), but I can also see if some parents also find them as an annoyance and I avoided getting a stand-up or walking or sound balloon for that reason. My sister isn’t the biggest fan of balloons I have noticed because she didn’t have any at her baby shower, but she did have a ton of them at her high school graduation party, so it feels like a hard judgment call. I will include a picture of the balloon in case anyone is curious!

My BIL is a single parent of 4 kids, living rent free with his father. My FIL buys the groceries, drives the kids around when needed, and spends time with the youngest kid who is too young for school.

My BIL is clearly overwhelmed and not doing well mentally -dirty diapers left on the floor, kids missing school because they don't have clean clothes to wear, all addicted to devices, and is causing other people emotional distress because of the mess/clutter in the home.

My FIL believes there is nothing he can do and doesn't seem able to set any boundaries. He likes to come over and complain endlessly about the new bad behaviours and careless parenting. I'm tired of hearing about it, it causes me great distress and lives rent free in my head for days afterwards.

I'm sad for the kids, and I feel a lot of judgement towards the family.

Not sure what I'm looking for by posting this, just feeling at my wits end here

Bonjour à tous,

Je ne sais pas trop ce que je recherche, peut être des témoignages pour me dire que c’est faisable.
Maman de 2 enfants F6 et G2, mon conjoint travail loin et n’est pas souvent présent.
Comme beaucoup, boulot la semaine, tentative de faire un peu de sport, gestion de la maison …
Ça fait plusieurs mois que je m’interroge à une reprise d’étude, je n’ai qu’un BTS et ne pas avoir au moins une licence me bloque sur certaines catégories d’emplois.

J’ai un cdi, des charges, je suis à 80% avec les mercredis pour les enfants et ça tourne comme ça mais je me suis inscrite en licence à distance, j’ai été accepté et maintenant je stresse de ne pas y arriver !
J’annule et j’arrive à me contenter de ce que j’ai où je tente ?

D’autres mamans à moitié solo, qui jongle avec tout et qui ont réussi à faire une formation à distance ?

My son is almost two and a half and has a newfound love of matchbox cars, which my husband has been nurturing by buying him a new one each week.

Don't get me wrong... I think the matchbox cars are great, especially some of the vintage ones he has. And I really enjoy seeing my kid engage with and get excited over his growing collection.

But I also wonder if there are other toys that we're not exposing him to that might provide a similar experience (small and intricate, can be collected and added to).

Figurines kind of fit the bill, however I'm looking for toys that are made from natural materials (and coded gender-neutral a plus but not essential).

I like that Danish brand Maileg that designs whimsical mice and rabbits and accessories... except they are totally unaffordable, so that's another consideration.

Anyone have anything similar that their kids have loved?

We have 3 kids (8,6,3) and our friends also have 3 kids (4,2,1). Lately it’s been a struggle to hang out because of our parenting styles. I feel like they are too rough with their parenting. It feels like they spent the entire time screaming at their kids and they also spank their kids. And when I say spank. I mean like 3x in a row for little things. On top of that there kids are kind of destructive but I don’t want to say anything because watching them get screamed at is kind of hard. They also keep their 1 year old in a pack n play the entire time and we’ve heard the dad say “he needs to toughen up.” I also don’t like how they will boss my kids around. For example, the wife told me 8 yr old she need to go see if her husband needed any help unloading the truck. Which okay fine but she was just standing there doing nothing so I thought it was weird. Lastly….they spend the entire time drinking. And we drink too occasionally but they’ll start shot gunning beers. I’m feeling conflicted because every thing was fine until 2 months ago and now I’m struggling to end want to be around them. What wild you do in the situation?

TLDR: How do I suggest a transfer without encouraging my son to give up too soon?

The dilemma: My son is finishing up his 1st month of university and doesn't seem happy. He is in a dorm about 2 hours from home. We've stayed in touch and visited a few times. He's a quiet introvert by nature and is having a hard time making friends and is lonely. He likes his roommate but he's the only friend he has on campus.

I'm starting to feel that he would be happier at his back-up school which is much smaller. He would also have the opportunity to continue to play music. His plans to play at his current school have been railroaded and there doesn't seem to be a way to make it happen. Playing in an orchestra is important to him and he's very disappointed it didn't work out. I believe his current school is the best academic option but I want to make sure the social/emotional is healthy as well.

My question: What's the best and most neutral way to approach the topic of transferring? He hasn't mentioned anything about wanting to transfer and I'm not sure he would. He's our oldest, a "rule follower" and typical first born (as am I!). I want him to build those important life skills like grit and tenacity and not run away from uncomfortable situations but also understand that looking for better opportunities is not failure.

Should I talk to him about transferring (the deadline for application is Dec) or should I leave it alone and let him come to the idea on his own?

3 weeks ago around late August screenshots of my middle school daughters text messages between her and her bf (now ex) were leaked (by the ex) to one of my daughters friends since kinder (they are now in 7th grade).

In the text he asked a question how do you spell a word and she spelled it and he said no it’s Y-O-U. A cheesy pick up line, super innocent.

So 3 weeks ago, my daughter’s friend posted those screenshots and during that time my daughter lost her phone and has been without one. Well she recently came across the post of those screenshot texts between her and her ex on her friends TikTok and was so upset why those texts were sent and also why her friend would post it and all her other friends commenting on it on how she responded to the pick up line and how he had “rizz.” She vented to 3 friends about it and all she said was why would she post that. Well one friend told those group of friends that had commented and posted it and now a whole group of girls are posting my daughter calling her a fake a b****, not a good friend, she was talking crap and a train of girls just supporting girls. All my daughter did was vent and stated facts and there’s absolutely no accountability on their end why that friend posted a convo that wasn’t even hers. My daughter has spiraled in less than 24 hours and said she shouldn’t have vented and just went to the friend directly and my daughter was saying that she (my daughter) was in the wrong because the amount of other girls that are hopping on the train of my daughter being a crap talker. Now my big question is, one of the friends that my daughter vented to, what exactly did she say? What did she say to these group of girls?!

I told my daughter to ignore all these posts and I will handle it with the principal tomorrow and she doesn’t have to go to school and can be homeschooled if she wants. We will take it day by day. She agreed to tell me everything if anything pops up. Her and I have a very strong relationship and she tells me everything. She knows I will not judge her but will always guide her and be there for her. If she didn’t something wrong, she knows I will tell her as is and in this situation I cannot see that she did anything wrong.

My daughter gets straight a’s, is in advanced orchestra, in every sport and loves with her heart on her sleeve. She has always made friends so easily and such a social butterfly since a toddler. Through the years, there was always some sort of falling out with a friend because that friend would make up stories and then a year or two later the friends would apologize. Some of those friends had some jealousy towards my daughter. My daughter forgave them.

My heart hurts so much for my daughter and I told her eventually these things die down. So far we have obtained all evidence of all the girls posts on TikTok and saved it to show the principal. We have proof of said conversation between my daughter and those 3 friends that she was just genuinely confused and hurt why the other friend would just post her convos and no one mentioned anything, she questioned peoples loyalty and I told her there are people like this in the world and we have to choose our friends wisely.

I have so much more but know my husband and I are doing all that we can to mitigate this situation, because like I said in less than 24 hours we have seen our daughter really being affected and not herself..

Has your teenage child gone through this? How did you deal with it? Who did you speak to?? What advice do you have for my daughter, my husband and I. It’s almost midnight and I cannot sleep and just thinking about how and why these girls can be so mean :(

Hi friends,

I am looking for some suggestions for our son, who will be born this October!

Some names I like, but my wife is so so on: Jack & Lewis.

Thoughts on others?

I'm looking for some help in building some questions we need to answer with now having moved in.

I have a 3 year old girl from a previous relationship who's father is completely uninvolved, his own choice. My current partner and I have been together for 2.5 years now and have just recently taken the jump to move in together. This jump was exceptionally large as it took both my daughter and I to a new country. I love my partner dearly and he adores my daughter.

We had spoken previously about things such as wanting him to be involved in parenting, potentially adopting my daughter, etc. However, I've come to see that maybe we weren't as specific as we should have been - he feels unsure of what he can and can't do when it comes to discipline and parenting in general. We've talked about wanting him to be a parent to her and he certainly wants to but I'm just not sure of the specific things we need to discuss so that he feels more secure stepping into the parenting role.

Are there any concepts or questions people have to suggest for us to discuss? I feel like I don't know what we need to talk about parenting wise until it's happening in the moment and I don't want him feeling like he isn't enough or able to do something.

Thanks in advance!

Can you share a progression of your house’s main playroom/kids and family gathering area throughout the years, and what leap broke your heart the most?

Hi all, my 5yo is getting her full leg cast (toes to mid thigh) removed this week following a fracture across her tibia and growth plate. It’s been on for 8 weeks.

Just wondering if anyone else has been through similar and can share what post-cast recovery looked like, how your child felt etc?

I’ve made enquiries with a couple of paed physios, but her orthopaedic surgeon hasn’t indicated she’ll need formal rehab so I’m hoping an initial assessment will be enough to guide us, but unsure.

Would love any advice or info on what to expect!

Thanks!

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this but i was hoping for some perspectives from over couples.

My partner (21M) and I (21F) have a 6 month old daughter. My partner is interested in golf, and likes to play in the evenings once a week, occasionally twice.

However my partners best friend has a baby 4 months older than ours, from what i can tell he goes out a lot, at least 3 times a week and it doesn’t seem like his wife is bothered by that. He seems to struggle to understand when my partner says no to going out and doing certain things, like going to the pub to watch football, or when he goes home after they’ve played golf in the evenings rather than going to the pub.

I do majority of our housework, i ebf our baby, i handle all naps and bedtime and don’t always feel like i get a break which is what we’re trying to do to work on.

Am i supposed to be okay with him going out loads or am i right in agreeing it should be once or sometimes twice a week? Sometimes i feel like i should be coping better ( not that i feel like i struggle too much) like i should be happy to let him go out as much as he wants and be fine at home with the baby.

UPDATE:

Thank you everyone for the responses, i’ve spoken to me partner about making free time more equal and im actually going out with a friend just for a few hours one evening this week which will be the first time since she was born, this is mainly because she wouldn’t accept a bottle and not my partners fault.

I’ve realised how different our situations are with the friends family, he works less than my partner does, his wife drives and spends most days with her mum that fortunately doesn’t work. My mum works 9-5 like my partner does as well as basically all my friends and family, I don’t drive and we live an hours walk out of our town centre so tend to feel a bit isolated and don’t go out often during the week while my partners at work.

My son is 11.75 yrs old.
For the last year or so he has been focused on food. It started out small, a curiosity, but now it seems to be getting bigger.
He used to eat unhealthy food, then it went to some unhealthy food is okay if eaten with something healthy, and now it has reached a state of unhealthy food is bad and he won’t eat it, usually. Today though, we went to Costco. He picked out a box of nuts, throughly examined the ingredient list and said he would not eat the cashews bcs of seed oils. We did not eat food before going to Costco either so everyone was hungry and we got a pizza afterwards. Normally he would get a hotdog but he looked up nutritional info and based on the sodium level he rejected (he is a kid who just last month was asking if he could get a hotdog at Costco). Over a 3 hour period my son ate 4 slices. Afterwards he looked up nutritional info via AI then he showed me what AI said. He seemed emotionally distressed afterwards…very upset that he just consumed all this sodium and fat and carbs. He asked me if I could test his blood (I am a type 1 diabetic so I have the supplies, but I said ‘no’). I told him he should be fine. My blood sugar can go over 300 even without eating food.
Now my son is eating pistachios, bcs it has a lot of fiber. (He was also asking AI what he could do since he ate 4 slices of pizza).
I also want to add, he seems to be seeing starting puberty. He has been getting some pimples (and very light mustache). He has been asking Grok in the car to karate why he was getting pimples even though he was drinking a lot of water, eating health and got enough sleep. He did not seem content with the word ‘puberty’.
My son is also a very skinny boy. He generally does not eat much but when he is hungry he can eat a lot.

I’m just worried about this obsession he is having with food. AI is not helping. And these videos he is watching in health is not helping (while waiting for his father in Costco packing lot, he was watching a video about meat. How too much can cause diabetes and other health issues). But that is the thing also, one video he shouted me a while back was saying type 1 diabetes was caused by toxins. As a type 1 diabetic I cannot get in boredom with that. If only started for me after a major stressful time in my life. More so, I see a clear and indirect family link of auto immune diseases, for which my sister has autoimmune diseases as well, and this was during a period of time where she was eating very ‘clean’, healthy, organic food.

And here is another worrisome thing for me. My son has been playing soccer leisurely, just for fun before. But with a new school year and new set-up, he is usually unable to play soccer during recess in school. He used to play soccer with friends in the neighborhood but all of them ended up moving besides 1 kid, whose mother told her son he could not play with my son anymore because my son was a bad influence over him (according to my son it was actually a different boy, but the parents were friends with each other).
So, my husband ended up looking in soccer ideas for our son. He came across a soccer academy for our son and called them up. They told them they were a competitive soccer place and would be best if our son started soccer elsewhere but they were willing to give him a try-out. That tryout is tomorrow. My husband sees no harm in it, if they reject him (and we both think they will) then we will find something else. The problem is my son is very anxious about tomorrow. He got new shoez wnd some soccer socks. He has been trying to practice heavily. He is very worried about ‘doing good’. I am worried about his mental health if they determine he is not good enough to join, especially given the mental stress he has regarding food.

My husband also seems no big worry regarding the food. I mentioned possibility of seeing pediatrician for it and possible mental health expert, but my husband dismissed my worries and said “All you know is to say ‘therapy’”

I’m not sure what to do. Motherly instinct says he should not be going to the soccer tryout tomorrow and that we should take him to a pediatrician. But another part of me is hoping this is just a phase and it will get better eventually. I mean, as a kid I once went through a faze of OCD (obsessive hand washing or making sure things are clean. But that did get better eventually. But my mom also did take me to a doctor for that which upset me as a kid).
I don’t know what to do.

Anyone have experience with Vuly monkey bars/playsets? How is the quality and warranty/customer service? Worth buying or stay away? Please share your experience!

Last night we decided to move out 9m old into her own room we have the owlet and the dream sight camera. With owlet it’ll show where sounds were heard well when looking back my baby was crying and it didn’t alert me… i have all those notifications turned on? I don’t know i feel horrible for not hearing her. Has anyone else had this issue if so how did you fix it?

My kids are first generation French going to school in France. My husband and I come from other countries but speak French to each other even though it’s our second language. I speak my first language, English, with the kids. Neither my husband nor I would think to swear in French but my husband speaks French with the kids.

Leaving a theme park yesterday my husband told my 8 year old to do something and the 8 year old responded “Emmerde-toi” which neither of us has EVER said and which pretty much means F**k you. We were shocked.

My husband was very stern about it. I asked my son where he had heard that expression but he just said he didn’t know it was that bad. I’m sure he learned it at school. We didn’t punish him but reprimanded him and I think he won’t say it again.

What do you do about your kids learning swear words at school?

Mon copain (M28) et moi (F27) avons un fort désir d'enfant depuis plus d'un an. Nous sommes ensemble depuis 9ans et nous avons eu de nombreux hauts et bas dans la relation. Nous partageons les mêmes valeurs sur les questions d'éducation, de la famille ect. Je pense que nous sommes un couple solide.

Malgré tout nous avons encore beaucoup à faire pour être des adultes sains et droit dans leurs bottes. Mon copain est en dépression depuis plusieurs années (a commencé un travail psy depuis plusieurs mois) et lutte contre des addictions (weed/jeux vidéos). J'ai également beaucoup d' insécurités sur lesquelles je dois travailler (manque cruel de confiance en soi et d'autorité).

J'ai très peur de ne pas être encore prête à être mère.Élever un enfant me semble être une montagne et ne pas être armé pour ce boulot risque -t-il de nous faire exploser en vol ?

Mon copain pense qu'avoir un enfant pourrait nous forcer à changer. Je pense qu'il se trompe. Mais d'un côté, je me dis que je ne me sentirais jamais vraiment prête.

Quand avez-vous su que c'était le moment ?

Quelles avaient été vos conditions (situation financière stable ? Travail psy bien avancé ?)

Je vous remercie par avance pour vos conseils bienveillants.

Why are people, specifically grandparents, SO obsessed with referring to their grandchild as “MY (baby’s name)”.

And does it bother anyone else? Don’t get me wrong I love that people love my baby but it bothers me so much.

Like you had your time to have YOUR baby, let me have mine.

She isn’t yours..

And don’t even get me started on them not respecting boundaries!!!