Parenting

https://archive.is/DlV71

Thought this up yesterday.

The only thing flipped more often is USB-A.

(Translation: A nappy is a diaper)

As the school year wraps up, many children are keen for summer break. Summer means sunshine, and hopefully popsicles and lots of playtime. But for many families, summer also brings a combination of excitement and uncertainty.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, this transition may feel particularly challenging. In recent years, children across age groups have faced significant disruptions to their social and emotional development. Both parents and education experts say lockdowns and ongoing pandemic disruptions left lingering impacts, with some children still struggling with anxiety, emotional regulation, social skills and difficulties focusing in school.

As summer kicks off, an effective tool for parents and caregivers is kindness. In early childhood development, kindness serves as a foundation for empathy and strong relationships, both of which are essential for social-emotional learning (SEL).

I’m a single mother of a 12 year old boy and recently he told me he was gonna have some friends over, but he asked me if I could stay in my room while they hangout. After some arguing I did end up staying in my room for the most part outside of bringing them snacks/drinks. I was kind of hurt because I want to be that cool/friendly mom to my son’s friends and I want to get to know who my son is hanging out with. I’m definitely on the younger end for a mother of a 12 year old since I had him extremely early, so I feel like I’d be less embarrassing than other moms. Any time I’ve offered to chaperone for school events, he’s begged me not to. What should I do? Is this just a phase?

Kid has a penis and is 1wk old. I feel like the day to day right now is just making sure he's not sitting in his own piss/shit and feeding him until he passes out every 2-3 hrs. He's 1wk old so I don't know when I'm supposed to start stimulating him, but there's very little awake time that isn't either "I'm sitting in my own peepoo"..."my ping pong sized stomach is empty"...or just crying for whatever reason other than the first two. It seems every time he feeds, he conks out until the next feeding/diaper change so I take great pride in creating a tit milk drunk baby that passes tfo (pumping only *will explain below). We put him on his stomach to piss him off and develop some neck/back muscles every now and then when he's not full of my wife's liquid gold. I sing to him (I'm a vocalist/amateur musician sort of) when I'm doing the war crime of changing or swaddling (I roll tight burritos) but that's about it. Mild case of jaundice but rebounded hard after we started pumping/bottle feeding. Most likely related to not getting enough food. See *

I come from a moderately high performing family (doctors/stem professionals and such) so theres a lot of pressure to make sure this kid isnt a dipshit. I'm playing all kinds of music while he sleeps (doesn't seem to be affected by noise while sleeping) but I can't teach the kid math until he at least understands object permanence right? I also feel like all that classical music Montessori stuff isbcomplete horseshit and I'm much more concerned with just making sure the kid is a good person but I also want onto pull the right levers and flip the right switches where I can.

The bottom line is: Am I doing it wrong or is this it for a while until he can stay awake while changed and fed? Is it normal? I feel like I'm just drugging a child to sleep. Looking for any input. Thanks.

Also, if there's any words of wisdom for my anxious wife (see *) that would be helpful. She's struggling with the whole breast feeding issue even though she's creating a massive surplus at day 7 and we've only supplemented with formula for 3 feeds total. I'm super proud of her for pushing through cracked sensitive nips and I'm stoked that this kid is getting anything natural but she feels like a failure for not direct feeding which i guess i understand is "ideal" but shes killing it pumping. My reassurances don't seem to comfort her unfortunately

*Kid falls asleep 1min after he latches without fail and my wife is super anxious about not breast feeding but she pumps out a surplus of milk. He wasnt getting enough sustenance after birth but he's ravenous on the bottle. 2-4 oz every feed maybe 2.50z average.

Edit: my biggest gripe is that I'm killing 24/7 and this kid has literally no sense of humor. I was hoping for paternal instinct but all I got was killer dad jokes.

I though that Cocomelon videos are just dumb videos to keep children distracted, but I didn't know that they are purposefully designed to keep children hooked. What's your stance on their videos?

I can't decide the best way to secure our front loading washing machine.

We have twins. They're fascinated by the washing machine. Lights, beeps, action... everything. One twin getting inside and their erstwhile companion starting the cycle is absolutely possible.

Obviously we keep the laundry door closed but in a way you just build up the appeal. One of them has figured out how to open doors by standing on his trike.

I could put some kind of stick-on toddler lock on the door but I worry it would be tough to establish the habit of closing the door and putting that lock on. Besides which surely it's nice to leave the door open to dry out between loads anyway?

The washing machine does have a toddler lock but that's only to prevent someone changing the settings during a cycle, it doesn't prevent starting a cycle.

My best idea thus far is a timer on the power outlet. So you turn on the power and set the timer to turn it off after however long the load takes.

The problem with this is that I haven't been able to find a count-down style timer that allows you to set periods longer than 2 hours. Most power outlet timer thingies do schedules, not count-down.

I know this maybe sounds like an easily solvable problem - just turn the power off when it's done - but that's just not how things roll in our house.

I’m looking for any hints on how to go on enjoyable and relaxing vacations with two small children. The kids are 4 and 10months and the four year old is very energetic. Somehow so far everything we tried wasn’t in a way that both parents enjoyed it too much. So we’re happy to learn from your experience. Bonus if it’s not too expensive.

Good time to start a meth habit

My partner just hit her third trimester and we are getting everything ready for when our first baby arrives. When our baby arrives we want to use one of those baby tracking apps that allow you to log when the baby was fed, when they pooped etc. I want to make sure whatever my partner and I use doesn't sell our data.

We will need something that we both can use on our own phones and want it simple and easy to use. What did everyone use? Did you like it? Did it feel useful and safe?

My daughter (6) is aggressive abusive to her shoes. Trainers seem to last about 6 weeks before the toe is destroyed and the sole delaminating. Sketchers, or boots seem to last a bit longer, maybe 2-3 months before being annihilated.

Has anyone found a brand or range that actually holds up to the abuses a small child can throw at them? I've reach the point where I'm eyeing up composite toed builders trainers. That seems overkill however, and she doesn't like the designs available in her size (UK size 2/3).

Has anyone else ran into this problem and found a viable solution? It's getting both expensive and embarrassing. Oh, and before it's suggested, my wife has vetoed the boots from a suit of armour.

My daughter is a little over two, and through well meaning family and friends we have more toys than we know what to do with.

My wife keeps buying what are essentially (fancy looking) big boxes and just dumping everything in them. Love my wife, but that's not working, it's just hiding some of the mess in a box.

We end up with these hardly ever opened boxes full of unorganized piles of toys that we end up having to dig through to find anything specific, and the toys that my daughter is actively using just end up scattered around the floor so they don't disappear into the box dimension.

Every once in a while my daughter opens and digs through the boxes and dumps half the contents on the floor anyway (not like she can see specific things to grab what she wants) and then we just kind of arbitrarily choose some of it to put back in the box and a new combination of mess to leave out.

Unfortunately we have another baby on the way, so I'm probably not getting my wife to let us toss any of it right now.

I'm leaning towards cubby shelves with individual bins for different "types" of toys like her daycare does, but I wanted to hear what strategies other parents tried, and what has and hasn't worked.

I woke up to my alarm, checked the weather, and atop the page in bold red: Breaking- trump targets (school in my area). I've already seen my town listed in another article last week because my state has sanctuary cities, I didn't even know we were one. My son's school is mostly Spanish speaking folks.

That headline had me in a panic. Especially because the article just said "targeted". Targeted how? Cutting funding for one town? Sending ICE? Wtf does that mean.

I check my States subreddit (the only place I still lurk) and nothing. I was afraid to send him to school this morning.

Not to mention the shootings that can happen, that's always in the back of my head, but now this too? I can't wait until this year is over, and I cannot believe I am beginning to consider homeschooling from fear something could happen to my son in school :(

Hello all,

My 19 month old has had 3 separate events that sort of resemble night terrors, and I'm looking for some insight.

The wife and I decided sleep training was the way around a year old, and generally he sleeps through the night fully now - but three times in the last few weeks, this event set will happen:

He will wake up standing in his crib screaming as if he's being hurt, when we go to check on him he's inconsolable so after checking him for bodily harm, I bring him to bed with us with a bottle screaming the whole way. After a few minutes of thrashing about, he sits up and looks around, seemingly confused about his surroundings and he's fine; he gets his bottle and back off to sleep within a minute or two.

The confusing part for me is he is very aware my wife and I are in the room during these fits, when during a night terror they're supposedly in almost a trance-like state. The "waking up" motions he does is also baffling to me.

Thoughts?

With some jurisdictions categorically recommending that children under a certain age (in the case of Denmark under 13) should not have a tablet or smartphone, what is your opinion on the appropriate age/way to introduce these devices to your children's life? Do you use your own devices together with your children? If so, how and when?

While my own children are still unquestionably too young for tablets or smartphones, I'm already afraid of the social pressure that is likely to arise at an ever younger age when their friends start getting devices.

I think I handled it well.
I told them yes in a longx50 time. While I was wiping their butt. Then they asked if they were going to die. I told them maybe, when they are an old old old lady like Grandma.
That seemed to go well enough.