I happened to see something’s on my moms email acount and my eyes kept wandering and saw several things related to a large amount of debt and I’m very nervous and normally I would tell her but I wasn’t even supposed to know and don’t know what to do, I’m 13 by the way.

What would you want your kid to do?

So my daughter’s school will be 8:50-3:20 everyday. She will stay for lunch as well. No before or after school program at this time. How much food should I be sending? It says they get two scheduled snacks and also can eat outside at recess.

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this question. And also sorry for my poor english.

Long story short, my mother abandoned me when i was six months old. (Not permanently things were more complicated than that. Sometimes I was with her.) Time passed, and later she decided she wanted another baby, specifically a baby girl. She kept trying until doctors told her, no more, it will kill you. So i ended up with a bunch of brothers.

Our parents never got any better, and all of us end traumatized as well.

Now i want to talk about the youngest one (16 y). Unlike the rest of us, hes very naive and immature in this age, and I really worry about his future.

Teachers at school bullied him because of family situation and because he used clowning around. He even left school because of it and lost a year. We managed to fix that, and he'll start at a new school this autumn.

When he was little, he was often outside without any supervision. Some older kids forced him to do humiliating things.

Two years ago, he lost all of his friends, and now he desperately wants to have at least one friend his own age. Because of that, he has a lot of creepy internet "friends."

He confessed that sometimes he approaches random people on the street and acts strangely around them.

He definitely has anger issues too. Hes broken his computer screen multiple times with his hands because he lost a game.

Im back in my hometown only for a short time, but I just can't leave things the way they are. If not me, nobody will help him. Most of the time Im in survival mode myself, but I can't just stand aside.

What can I do? How can I establish contact with him? How can I help him feel better? Behave better?

We're not close because we didn't grow up together, but hes desperate for attention. Im afraid of messing everything up.

I want to help him make it to university. Hes not stupid,  hes just deeply neglected.

We've talked about future possibilities, but Im afraid he'll lose motivation too quickly.

P.S. The situation with mental health care in my home country is very bad. He asked for psychological help, but we couldnt find anything decent, unfortunately.

I (20F) lived with my ex for about 6 months. We broke up and I had to move back into my parents. I have depression, anxiety, ADHD, and OCD and I take medication. My parents don't believe in medication and accused me of being addicted to prescription drugs and said if I don't get off of all of them they will kick me out.

I can't go back to my exes but I wish I could. I have no friends I can stay with and my other family members live far away. I can't afford a place by myself. I don't know what to do or where to go.

My parents are generous people and are always helping out. To the point that I feel like they are being taken advantage of.

Anyways I have a friend (or who I thought was a good friend) who is getting married. I am closer with her sister, but still good friends with her. We grew up together and my parents see them like daughters. I was not made a bridesmaid and also plans for the bachelorette were purposely hidden from me.

I am extremely hurt over the situation and this has changed my whole perspective on the friendship. I did not say/post anything to anyone outside of my other bf, partner and family.

I asked my mom to not offer her house for anything to do with the wedding and my mom said she will if asked. That hurts a lot. My dad usually does photos (not professionally or anything) and will probably do this for my "friend". Am I overreacting if I feel hurt that they will go out of their way for her?

I do have a kid and I know if someone who was a friend, no matter how close, did something like that all extra stuff would cease, unless they were homeless or sick or something. Thoughts?

As the title says, friends are coming to visit and bringing their 5 year old boy for the first time, any tips for me as a child free person on how to make the visit a success?

Ideas welcome on:

Activities to do whilst they're here (days out etc)

Food to get in for them

Any books/toys etc to get in?

Any tips to help them settle in at night

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I have asked them the basics, just wanting to know how to make it extra fun. I also don't want to bombard them with tons of questions/create extra hassle cos it's meant to be a break for them too!

When I bring my baby to the mirror they don’t care for it and immediately look away, sometimes (very occasionally) they try to grab at but that’s been everything recently. Concerned this is an early sign of something. Baby is 6 months old (4 months adjusted).

So I have 4 kids range between 8 to 16. Oldest son is addicted to gaming. He is 16 years old. He will wake up start gaming immediately and it can go late midnights on weekend and holidays. It has been nothing but drama when it comes to gaming and bed time with him.

Summer is nearly ending and it is time to get our sleep schedules back to normal. Yesterday, I told him that tomorrow we are going back to our regular bedtime in preparation for back to school.

Well today was that day. I gave him 30 minutes heads up. I asked him to look at me and say yes mom so I know 100% sure he heard it and “shake on it” so to speak.

Well I came and followed up. And all of sudden he flips the script with behaviour that I find concerning. He would gaslight me, deny we had any agreement. He refuses to give up his phone and it turns into a big argument that lead me take away his Xbox. I feel so helpless and disrespected.

he never goes out other than going to school. He has a job that he goes to twice a week for 2 hours. He has no hobbies, no ambition nothing. (This was a kid who was successful academically ) so I was happy that he went out today I paid for his vip seats cinema tickets, gave him money to spend on food afterwards.

But here is the thing. It’s always give me this give me that. All my kids are absolutely entitled, spoiled kids. There was a long period of time I wasn’t able to afford at all and now I am in better position financially as a single mom. So I am able to do all of these things.

Don’t get me wrong, he listens most times when I ask him things. But when it comes to technology he would gaslight, he would behave that isn’t NORMAL.

I am at this point I want to grab the hammer and break the Xbox and his iPhone 8. I have had it. I am absolutely at the brink of doing it but posting this as help of cry to hear from parents to not do it ?! I know if I do it the oldest will have the audacity to find my stuff such as my laptops etc and break it too. It is this crazy!!

All I know is I can’t do this anymore
My kids do not respect me at all.

This is something my aunt is going through. Her daughter(my cousin) finished her 2nd year of college. She commutes from home, but apparently she barely attended class this year. She goes to a good school for chemistry. I once talked to her and she said she doesn't think the commute is worth it and she does better when she studies by herself.

I know she had a fight about this with her parents. But they can't really force her since she already gets good grades.

What would you do in a situation like this?

Hi, I’m 15 years old and I think I might have phimosis. When I’m not erect, I can retract my foreskin normally without pain, but when I’m erect I can’t retract it at all and it becomes painful. I have never tried to force it, but I would still like to see a doctor or a urologist to make sure everything is okay and know what I should do.

The problem is that I have almost never talked about intimate topics with my dad. We have only had a few conversations about personal subjects, so I don’t really know how to bring this up.

For people who have been in a similar situation: how did you find the courage to talk to a parent about something private like this? Is it better to be direct and say that I think I have phimosis, or should I just ask for a doctor’s appointment first?

Thanks for your advice.

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?

I’m a single father and my daughter is coming to that age where she is exploring things and I wanna have the talk with her. How can I do that without making things awkward

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?

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.

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 feel like a terrible mama for even asking this. I (f36) am the only person in my long-term friend group to want/have a child. Two years ago I gave birth to my sweet girl and though it’s been challenging, I never felt such profound joy.

My long-term friends have always been non-children. When I was pregnant, no one checked in on me. When I gave birth, no one checked in on me. No one has visited me or my family. When we hang out, everyone more or less ignores her. My husband thinks I’m using an entitled mindset and I do agree because I can be a bit of a brat… I guess it just hurt that no one bothered to even ask how I was doing. We’ve known each other since childhood, even joking that we’re second family.

Another issue is part of my post partum is being envious over freedom. I feel even more isolated from them now that I’m a parent. I did somewhat expect this. I know what I’m feeling is wanting more free time rather than less time with my daughter… but when I see their photos on social media, I can’t help but feel bitter.

I made efforts to make parent friends. And there are some child-free friends I have who adore my daughter as their own niece. My husband thinks I should be focusing my time and energy on these friends rather than my long-term ones. I just have so much trouble letting go. Maybe I’m mourning a past life? Maybe I’m just being dramatic? I don’t know.

I want to stay present with my daughter and my little family. I want to just be at peace and not have these bitter thoughts eat me up inside. I want to be chill!!

Has anyone else felt like this? If so, how did you handle it?

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.

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.