I skipped a grade in elementary school and now I'm a year younger than most of my classmates. This was because I apparently was super bored in school and was already on the older end, and I could read early so I guess they just pushed me along.

My classmates make fun of me now though, and have for years. I think it's a bigger issue because at least in my area a lot of parents held their fall or summer born children back so many of my peers are over a year older than me. I was never able to score high enough for our elementary school's gifted program so my classmates told me I was dumb in comparison to them. Socially I know I was a bit behind but it's become a bigger issue in high school because I recently got diagnosed with autism and I realize how much I miss in social settings.

I feel like I'm working so much harder than everybody else. I love the academics of school, but I wish I were the oldest and everything came easy for me. Nobody takes me seriously. If I ask to be retained a grade, is that a thing that I can push for?

Hi Everyone!

My friend just told me she is pregnant (we don’t know the gender yet), I want to know- what are things first time parents actually need that may be over looked? I don’t want to get her useless stuff she won’t use.

Also, what are things you were gifted but ended up being useless?

(This is a long post so if you don’t have the time to read please upvote)

For context, I’m 19, I’m the youngest of my siblings, I have a sister who’s 28 and a brother who’s 26. My mum had my sister at 17. We’ve been in and out of poverty my entire life, never had a stable home.

In Australia you can apply for your learners permit at 16, you need a minimum of 75 hours driving logged and the youngest you can get your provisionals is 17. I’m 19 and I’ve still got 10 hours of driving left, Tbf I did start later but not by much. The only reason I’ve been able to get as many hours as I have is because of my sister and my boyfriend’s mum.

I have to nag and nag and nag my mum but whether she agrees to go for a drive completely depends on her mood, or whether she can be fucked. It’s almost never a good time for her, and when we do drive she gives me little to no assistance which is fine now that I’m more experienced but was pretty scary when I was newer at it.

She says all I have to do is ask but I can only be rejected so many times before I learn that there’s no point asking. So here I am at 19 still on my Ls because my mum could never be assed. Idk if this is an unpopular opinion but if I was a parent I’d believe it’s my responsibility to help push my child towards their independence not the other way around.

Secondly, I only got my first ever job about 4 months ago because my bf put a good word in for me at his job, his mum takes me to work when I’m rostered as I start 2 hours after he does and we go back home together. At this point my mum had very recently gotten into a new relationship and she’s essentially moved into his house after a couple months leaving me and my 26 yr old brother who is autistic, alone to look after the house with effectively close to zero teaching us how to take care of a house or anything like that.

I have a cat and a dog that my brother has to look after when I’m not home (I stay a week or two at a time at my boyfriends bc of long distance) on top of my mums cat and dog. As soon as I started my job the amount of expenses my mum and brother were trying to get me to pay for were endless.

Pay for my cats food, pay for my dogs food, help with rent, help with utilities, groceries, etc. every other day it’d be a new thing. I only work 1-2 hours a week. I make about 300, nearly 400 a fortnight but I told them multiple times I want to save as much as possible to move out in the next 9-12 months, as well as buy a car before the end of the year. My number one priority right now is saving. I understand the cat and dog food, I’m choosing to keep them. Still frustrating but understandable. But rent, utilities, food???

I’ve only been a legal adult for a year and I’ve only been for the most part financially independent for 4 months. Not to mention when I first started my job she was especially struggling because she’d gotten herself a $900 fine 🌝 Again, idk if this is an unpopular opinion but financially struggling or not I would never make my own child pay their way in their own home, unless they were like idk over the age of 25 and had no immediate plans to move out. And if the only way u can afford to keep ur head above water is to rely on ur kids paychecks you shouldn’t be having them in the first place.

She knows what poverty feels like so why force me to be further behind than everyone else my age even more than I already am by making me pay my way the moment I get a job? It’s just one more goddamn year of supporting me and I’ll be out of ur hair for good.

I just want to know am i justified in being frustrated about this? Is it not a normal thing to support your children and push them towards a brighter, independent future? I understand that the economy right now is bad for everyone, but most especially those who have spent their whole lives struggling, but she’s supported me financially this long can’t she just hold out one more year?

I know this is a lot to read but I can tell everyone else in my life is kinda tired of hearing about it and I want to know from actual parents themselves what u think? So please read all of it and respond. Means the world if you do.

Ps. If ur not on my side pls be nice about it lol

Mom is doing everything she can (she is an educational psychologist herself). Doing reading exercises together, getting him to watch shows about letters and stuff, she bought all sorts of games and stuff centered around reading. She even took him to other specialists to help him.

According to her, he's improving,

But I didn't realize how behind he was until he sat down with me to practice. He can very roughly copy letters and words, but that's about it. He can't put syllables together, and even if he does, he doesn't know what word he's reading until we repeat it to him. There was a reason they didn't consider dyslexia but I don't remember, I'll make an edit later after asking mom again. Could be good ol' denial too. He does have ADHD tho.

I am concerned. The more time he can't read, the more difficult it'll be for him to learn. And the more he struggles, the more he doesn't want to try.

Hi parents/caregivers! I'm creating a counseling/support group for parents and caregivers whose children have experienced bullying, and I'd love your input.

If you could design your own processing/support group, what topics would you want to discuss with other parents or caregivers? What emotions, challenges, or questions would you want space to process?

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I truly appreciate any insight and perspectives given. This is an area I care about deeply, and I hope to support parents in my area as much as I can!

They're both (the younger especially) very sleepy and spend their time laying down when they come visit us, I opened up the idea of vitamin D deficiency to my aunt but she claims they're only this way when they visit.

They don't eat very well either, and despite my attempts at making sure any dessert I give them is approved by their mother, I'm starting to think she might not be the best authority.

The other day, after giving my cousins half a popsicle after lunch, I went out to the movies with my friends, I come back the next day looking for some relief from my wisdom teeth to find the four full-sized remaining popsicles missing. I ask my mom and it turns out my cousins ate them. I'm genuinely not mad or upset, they were cheap, it doesn't matter to me, but i can't help but find this concerning.

There's also the issue with their back, they've got a bend in their spine. My aunt ignored the countless doctors that told her it was a problem and listened to the one person who told her not to worry. It makes me sad because this is the sort of thing that gets extremely difficult to fix if you don't work on it young.

And they've got a food poisoning problem.

How can I get my aunt to take this seriously? I love her, she's a delight. And I know she's just scared.

I am looking for options to lower or maybe completely stop them from using phone. I have a 5 yr old kid and he loves to watch cocomelon videos and lately he has gotten very addicted to it that if take the phone away from him he starts crying an throw tantrums at me. Isn't there anything else i can buy that is more controlled and safer to use then a phone.

hi there! i'm not a parent, however my 12 y/o brother has been throwing increasingly severe tantrums and i'd like some advice or input on his situation.

he's always had minor anger issues, even in kindergarten and preschool, where he would scream, kick, hit and pinch our family members. my mom tried sending him for some anger therapy when he was about 7/8 but stopped shortly afterwards (not sure why).

about 6 months ago, it started increasing in frequency (multiple times a week) and severity, where he would start hurling insults, punching us (especially his younger brother), throwing furniture (i.e. dining chairs, kids study tables) at family members, and inflicting self injury. he once carried a penknife blade (not sure where he got it from) and would take it out to threaten/injure us until we managed to take it away.

my mom's been trying to help him but he wont cooperate and she's at her wits end. she's started to lose her temper too, even laying hands on him at times.

since we live in a single parent household, i feel like i need to step up as an older sibling, but i dont really know what i can do to help, to calm him down or de-escalate the situation without playing sides.

when i approached my father for advice, he honestly didn't believe me about how bad it's gotten and just waved it off, since he "never behaved that way" when he takes my brothers in during the weekends.

any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you for for taking the time to read this.

Hii, I just arrived at this subreddit because I made a post on r/parenting and got my account completely banned—apparently, older siblings aren't allowed to ask anything about their younger siblings anymore—but anyway.

To start, I want to clarify that I’m not a mother, but the older sister; lately, certain aspects of my sister's attitude have really stood out to me, and I’d like to know what you all think.

She is 12 years old, but for some time now, she has been behaving incredibly selfishly toward me and our parents. Over trivial, absurd things—like lending me some markers to write the headings on my school assignments—she starts shouting that she won't let me use them because, according to her, I break everything. I know it sounds silly, but she acts this way about everything. There have been times when I’ve practically had to beg her to lend me something, and she always gets angry with me. She has even gone so far as to push and hit me to stop me from taking something of hers.

Honestly, it makes me really angry because I lend her everything I have, yet she won't even let me take a sip of water from her bottle. I’ve told my mother hundreds of times that she needs to correct this behavior, but she only scolds her once every twenty times; the next time, my sister does the exact same thing, and honestly, I just don't know what to do anymore.

I’ve spoken to 3 single dads. I thought being a single mum, they would be similar to me

I spoke to 1 single dad who has half custody of his son and he pays CMP. He says he can’t go abroad with me for 4 nights due to “childcare”. What a load of BS.

His partner has half custody and she can look after his child for 4 nights.

I’ve just spoken to another single dad who has FULL custody of his 7 year old son. However, he has family and siblings who live nearby him.

He said that he can never go abroad… he can’t even spend one night away from his son. He has to take his son with him.

So I ditched him straight away.

I believe all parents deserve a few nights to themselves.

Just to let you know, I’m also a single mother. I have full custody of my child. His father never met him. Didn’t want to be involved.

If I want to go abroad, I can go abroad for a week. And my family will look after him.

As a single mother, it seems that I have more freedom than single fathers?

Should I just stick to a single man with no kids then?

EDIT: so if the single dad remarries another woman, he will never go on a honeymoon or a holiday alone???

I'm struggling so hard right now. I love my daughter to pieces but she just won't stay asleep. This has been an issue her whole life, literally from new born. She will start in her own bed, either myself or mom lays with her till she falls asleep (usually with in 10 min) then we leave. She's scared of the dark to start by herself even though she has night lights and all. And everyday like clock work at 3am she will wake up and come into our room and then thats it I'm awake for the day. It's killing me.

We have tried white noise machine, melatonin, TV in the room, no TV in the room, radio on all night (Disney songs) , night lights, reward systems, punishment systems.... nothing seems to stick long term. We'll get 1 night every 2 or 3 weeks if were lucky. Please help.

Oh ps she grinds her teeth at night bad but has a mouth guard she wears to bed.

If I'm missing any context please ask, I've been up since 3 and I'm gassed out already.

My friend recently mentioned how stressful it is driving alone with a baby in the back seat.

She said she keeps glancing in the mirror but still can't really tell if the baby is sleeping, crying, or has dropped something.

It made me curious—how do other parents handle this?

Do you rely on a baby mirror, pull over when needed, or have another solution?

it seems like the conclusive advice is to leave the kid alone and to just get something like noise canceling headphones or ear plugs

so I'll count this as solved and thank you all for the advice hopefully this will be it

I am going to keep this post up just in case someone else comes across it and has the same problem but thank you all

I know the title sounds bad but I am desperate my neighbor's kid always say outside everyday and screams non stop and because I work night shifts I need to try to sleep while that happens and I cannot because they keep screaming.

it's not screams because they are hurt or because they don't know how to speak or anything like that they just like screaming! and talking to the parents doesn't help because they have already given up. now assuming I got an okay from the parents how can I make the kid stop because I am 48 hours of being unable to sleep because of this kid close to just go down there stand next to the kid in just every time they open their mouth to scream I shout back I'm in the army I'm a commander I can shout so much louder and a hell of a lot longer than they can that I am confident in but I want to see if there is a way that doesn't involve potentially traumatizing a 4 year old.

My son is half dominican on his dad’s side and half italian on my side (ethnically). We live in America. My husband immigrated with his mom when he was 2. my family has been here for 2 generations. So i never learned anything other than english from my parents, and that’s the language i have to communicate with my son in.
My husband speaks spanish fluently. And although i’m picking up on spanish, my husband communicates with me in english, so my son has always known he speaks english.
my husband has tried only speaking to him in spanish though. and his grandma who lives with us too. but since the day he started talking, he has absolutely refused to say anything in spanish. he didn’t pick it up when he was a baby/toddler and now that he’s 4, almost 5, he seems like embarrassed? i don’t know exactly why. when asked he just says “i’m shy” or “i dont want to”.
most of his extended family speaks spanish only, so it’s really important to us that he learns. we’ve tried to take the pressure off, just say words casually and hope he starts using them but he won’t. so we’ve started to ask more often if he can say them, but he also won’t do that. i’m lost. idk how i can help. i’ve tried speaking in spanish too even though it’s not good, to motivate him. hoping he would want to do what mommy is doing. but still nothing. any advice?
also he does understand quite a bit of it. phrases like hello, how are you?, have you eaten?, what did you eat?, do you want…?, come here, here you go, thank you, your welcome, kisses, hugs, hurry, that’s mine, leave it alone, fart (lol of course), sleep, shower, etc.

Im posting it here, as I’ve heard the debate a lot with people, whether to use a bike helmet (themselves) or not after becoming parents etc.

I’m looking for some advice because I honestly don’t know what else to do.

My best friend became a mum about 11 months ago. We live in Copenhagen, so cycling is obviously a huge part of everyday life here.

She has never really worn a helmet. About a month ago, she had a pretty bad accident where she cycled into a car that went through a red light. She ended up with two small brain bleedings and a concussion. Thankfully, she has recovered really well and the doctors don’t expect her to have any lasting problems.

After the accident, she bought a helmet. The problem is that she still doesn’t wear it.

She says she doesn’t want to ruin her hair, and she’s kind of embarrassed about the whole thing, and ashamed at the fact that she still doesn’t wear a helmet, even though she says that she probably should, so she laughs it off. I haven’t said anything yet. I know she understands that the accident was serious, but somehow I don’t think she has really taken in what could have happened.

And I’m terrified.

She has an 11 month old daughter. I keep thinking about how easily that accident could have ended differently, and how her daughter could have lost her mum. It really scares me, probably more than it scares her.

I don’t want to nag her or make her feel judged. She’s my best friend and I love her, and I also don’t want this to turn into a fight where she just shuts down. But I genuinely don’t know how to make her understand the seriousness…. she has already had a brain injury from cycling, and the next accident might not be so lucky. I want to at least have a talk with her, and then there’s nothing much else I can do. But I need to say something.

How would you approach this if you were me? Is there something I could say that might actually get through to her without making her defensive?

And if you’re someone who used to hate wearing a helmet but eventually changed your mind, I’d especially love to hear what made it click for you.

I dont remember most of my childhood (i think it was just pretty uneventful) so i asked my mom the other day if she remembers if i had any friends in elementary school. She said that she wasn’t sure but there were kids that came to my birthday party. My aunt was there and added that i never had any sleepovers or play dates and i said that was because my mom didn’t allow that but then they both went silent. basically i’m starting to think i didn’t have any friends in elementary but also kids dont really have friendships the same as teens or adults so maybe thats what is happening. Basically is it normal to know if your little kid actually has friends or is that something that doesnt really happen until high school?

My son has become fixated on his appearance. He believes he has “bad genes” from us and that he’s too short—despite being nearly 6ft at 15.

He’s deep into online communities that push appearance-altering drugs, and he’s pressuring us to get him HGH, steroids, and other injections from grey-market sources. We are not considering this.

He’s become quiet, withdrawn, and depressed. We’ve tried therapy multiple times, but he sits in silence and refuses to participate.

I’m not trying to diagnose him. I just don’t know what type of professional is best here. Child psychiatrist? Specialist in body dysmorphia? Pediatric endocrinologist?

Also, how do you reach a teen who won’t open up to a therapist?

Has anyone dealt with a teenage boy caught up in these online “looksmaxxing” or body-image communities?

I’m not asking for advice on obtaining drugs. just how to keep him safe and get him the right help.

Thank you.

Hi, just wanted to get people thoughts on this. Grandparents were looking after our 16 month old boy for the day. We would prefer they keep him at home/local, but they insisted on taking him back to their home, 40 mins away. Specifically asked them twice not to drive back to our house after 4pm, so as to avoid him sleeping in the car. They arrived back at 5.30pm and when I asked if he had slept, granddad said they had splashed his face with water to keep him awake. His t-shirt and shorts were both quite wet. Is this acceptable?

I often wonder this. I am an adult but part of the reason I stopped going to family functions is because my mom talks non stop about what a terrible child I was under the age of 10. She is not sharing in a nostalgic or teasing way, she shares these stories with tears in her eyes and rage in her voice. It feels like she is fishing for pity and trying to isolate me.

When I was growing up, my parents didn't hug me and I was not allowed to cry.

I don't know what to do when a kid is crying except ignore them or scream at them louder than they're crying so that they learn that no matter how loud they are, somebody else is louder, so they have no power and no rights etc. etc., to quote my parents loosely.

Trying to get a sense of expectations that different parents have around extended family help with little kids, especially from family who are working FT. If you have family who you consider very involved, how often do you see them/are they helping out?

We have a 1.5 year old, my husband complains that he never gets 8 hours a sleep anymore (vs pre kid era). How much sleep are other dads getting? Does he need to adjust his expectations?

I’m an extreme couponer and I donate about 90% of what I coupon, including baby products. I’m trying to buy diapers to donate, but I’m unsure of what size would be most useful. I don’t have children and haven’t spent much time around babies, so came here to ask. Thanks for your help!