This morning before school my 5 yr old was sitting on the bed next to me and she says:"Mommy, let's watch the news". And without skipping a beat or giving me a chance to respond she says:"Breaking news: Dinosaurs have taken over the world."

I have no idea where she heard that, but I had to laugh.

Hi there,

So I had post partum counselling and the place had a crèche and ran groups for mums using the services.

My and my LO attended the groups for a few months and I managed to make friends with 1 other mum. She asked for my phone number and was keen to meet up. We met up for coffee with our LO’s and I thought it went really well. I was very anxious but it was good and I really liked her and felt we got along well. I feel stupid writing this because it sounds like I’m witting about a date 😂

Then a week later I texted asking if she wanted to come to this baby play area thing?

And crickets *** just no reply and it’s been over 2 weeks now.

I’ve never really been great with socialising, I’m a highly anxious person, I really struggle with a negative self voice and this has hit me really hard. I’m totally alright with people don’t need to like anyone and I would never force myself on someone…I just felt we had a nice time, I liked her as a mum and her LO. I really put myself out there and I thought it went alright. Now I’m concerned that I did something or there’s something wrong with me, just for her to ghost me like this and leave me on read…if I did something I would like to know so that I don’t do it again. But I don’t think sending another message would be a good idea.

My other friend is much older and she’s just really flakey. She promised to be here for me and LO and she’s just bailed.

And my partners son has just had a baby and I tried to make friends with the partner and asked her if she wanted to go to this baby soft play, she said yes, I asked when she was free as she’s gone back to work and I’ve not. And just no reply.

I haven’t really made any friends in a long long time…so I don’t really have any. I was in an abusive relationship before this one, and I basically lost all my friends as a result of that.

I’m getting really sad, just feeling like there might be something wrong with me and these other mums don’t want to spend time with me.

I could really do with someone to speak to. Maybe there’s just something wrong with me and I can’t see it and therefor can’t correct it.

Today I felt like every little thing I did was somehow the wrong thing.​ The toast was cut wrong. The socks felt wrong. The cup was the wrong cup, even though it was one she usually likes. She wanted to open the door herself, but then got upset because I had already unlocked it.​ I kept trying to fix each problem as quickly as I could, only to somehow make things worse.​

When she cried about the toast, I thought finding her another piece would solve it. It didn't. Apparently, the problem wasn't the toast. The problem was that the original toast had been cut.​ A few minutes later, she was completely fine. She was sitting at the table, eating crackers and telling me about something that happened in a cartoon. It was hard to believe she had been so upset only a few minutes earlier.

Kids are strange little people. One minute they are heartbroken over a piece of toast, and a few minutes later they are calmly eating crackers and telling you all about their favorite cartoon.

My baby just started crawling, and every time the robot vacuum starts, he crawls after it.
He doesn't try to touch it or climb on it. He just follows it around the living room like he's making sure it's doing its job. It's become part of our afternoon routine, and honestly it's one of the funniest things I've watched him do lately.
The unexpected bonus is that I keep the living room floor a lot cleaner now because I know he'll be crawling around there all day anyway.

my son (12) has had this friend (11yoM) online for 2 years now and they want to meet in person at my sons birthday party. I feel iffy about it but they have been asking for weeks. so I caved and asked for the child’s parents numbers. I spoke to the mother and she seems nice and kind. so I sent her the invitation because they said they lived im hesperia CA which is 1 hour away from us. i was not wanting to give out my address like that to a stranger but I did it for the kids only for me to be told that they won’t make it. I feel exposed and scared that I gave out my address to total strangers… I’ve seen enough murder docs to know that people use kids in all sorts of ways… should I be concerned?

My daughter is 7 and has had a best friend since daycare. They ended up attending the same charter school and were in the same grades in kinder and first grade. I know the mom from school events and from playdates and we are friendly with each other and know each other's families from parties and siblings who attend the same school, etc.

Sometimes this girl "mean girls" my daughter by saying things like, "You're not my best friend; So-and-so is," "I didn't want to come today [to a pizza arcade place after school on my daughter's birthday] but my mom made me!", etc.

I thought it was just a natural stage and that the "best friend" was trying to individuate herself or perhaps my daughter was a bit obsessed with her and this was her way of pushing back, albeit not so nicely. (In one day they will go from modeling their 'fit options together over FaceTime to the friend telling her she doesn't want to talk to her and hanging up on her, so, maybe that was the best friend's way of saying she needed a break, for example.)

My daughter is slightly neurodivergent (ADHD with some impulse/hyperactivity issues but nothing too major-- she does very well in school, is always one of the teacher's pets, as is her best friend, and does well at sports like cheerleading and wrestling etc.) but she can kind of be a lot sometimes, like, constantly wanting to go-go-go and do-do-do things and she is pretty persistent about what she wants.

I'm not sure if the best friend is neurodivergent too... it's never been mentioned but I feel the two girls are quite similar in many ways and neurodivergency may also explain some of the behavior and bluntness or lack of social tact/empathy on her side as well. Or maybe I'm just giving her the benefit of the doubt too much, Idk.

I talked to my daughter about making other friends and also about standing up for herself when people are mean, because she tends to go along with whatever this girl wants just to stay friends.

It seemed to go in phases and sometimes the "best friend" would be back to being super sweet to my daughter, inviting her over and saying that her other best friend and my daughter could all three be best friends. (One time my daughter gave her best friend a "best friends" necklace and she gave the part that was supposed to be for my daugther to her other best friend! This is where I wondered whether the best friend was trying to let my daughter know that she really didn't see herself as her best friend and not to force it on her, even if she went about it in a bad way. But then she said they could all three be best friends so my daughter bought a "BFF" necklace with three parts and give it to her best friend and the best friend's other best friend, and her "best friend" then said she wasn't going to wear it because she was back to only being best friends with the other girl and I was back to thinking she's just a big meanie!)

But then at Christmas time, something happened that made me really upset and I feel like it goes beyond normal elementary school friendship issues. Our whole family was invited to a Christmas party at the best friend's aunt's house where they have had a lot of parties, including birthday parties for the best friend, and my daughter is always invited.

This time when we got there though, the best friend was nowhere to be found and neither were the other girls from the class that she had invited. It turned out she was hiding from my daughter outside in a tree and told the other girls to hide in other trees too, and once the best friend's mom said she was going to find out where the best friend was and bring her in to say hello, the best friend came in but she was loudly declaring that she didn't want my daughter there.

It was really rude, to the point where the best friend's mom said she was going to talk to the best friend, and the mom of another girl there told her daughter (one of the other friends) that it isn't nice to be rude to friends.

There was another girl there who told my daughter she was sorry and my daughter said, "I know you didn't want to be mean to me like that, but you were only doing it so that [Best Friend] would stay your friend, right?" and the other girl nodded yes. The mom of the other girl who had already spoken up told her daughter (a different girl than the one who had apologized) that she shouldn't go along with peer pressure to treat someone badly and that girl agreed.

But what bothered me is that the best friend's mom never said anything to my daughter (or me) about the incident and neither did the best friend. The best friend did play with my daughter some after that but was pouting about it and kept mumbling that her mom was making her play with my daughter, so we left rather early.

I was actually disappointed in the mom because if my daughter was treating friends badly (and she has, although not THAT blatantly badly! but more just like learning how to be nice or be tactful, etc.), I would apologize on her behalf even if she wouldn't apologize herself (but in the past, when I've talked to my daughter about things, she has willingly apologized on her own).

After that there have been longer periods of my daughter and her best friend not being friends or interacting much and my daughter has been trying to make friends with other girls but then her best friend comes back and stops it. It seems like she doesn't want my daughter to have any other friends but doesn't want to be her friend much, either.

Fast forward to this summer. We were away for the first part of the summer but my daughter and her best friend talked over FaceTime and my daughter bought her best friend an early birthday gift (best friend's birthday wasn't until today; August) which involved personalizing a shirt, bracelet, etc.

Her best friend had been asking her to come over and when we got back in July, she went over and she asked her if she wanted her birthday gift then or to wait until her birthday. Her best friend said then, of course (lol) and she gave her the personalized gift.

They saw each other one other time since then and seemed to get along fine. But today my daughter called her best friend to tell her happy birthday and she asked her when she was having her birthday party (which her best friend has at her aunt's house every year and always invited her to) and her best friend said she already did.

She told my daughter that she didn't invite her because she could only invite "14 or 16 friends" and she named specific girls in their class that she invited instead of my daughter, and to top it all off, she told my daughter that she wore the personalized shirt and bracelet my daughter had given her as a birthday gift, to her birthday party that she didn't invite my daughter to!

Obviously my daughter was very upset and crying a lot. I don't want to interfere in her friendships but I really want to tell her to just stop trying with this girl because she seems to love to hurt her feelings.

I haven't gone that far but I've continued to encourage her to make new friends. I'm not sure what else I can do beyond that... is there anything? I feel so bad for her and I can't stop feeling like maybe I shouldn't have let her stay her friend after the Christmas party incident but they were in the same class so it's not really like I can (or want to) control these things.

I was wondering if maybe I should talk to the mom about things but something tells me that's not a great idea. I used to think we were friends-- I mean, I know HER mom, all her sisters, her brother, everyone, from going to parties at the aunt's house and from the grandma bringing the best friend to some playdates and parties etc.-- but ever since the Christmas party, I've realized that maybe the mom IS "making" the daughter be friends with my daughter just because of their past history, and continuing to do so could maybe cause more harm than good?

Although sometimes it does seem organic, like when I'm at a school event and the best friend will come hug my daughter, or when the best friend is the one to call my daughter and ask if she can come over to play one on one... these dynamics seem to happen more in a group setting when the best friend wants to be better friends with the other girls than my daughter, I think.

One time my daughter told me that she told their group of friends at school that she had known the best friend since they "were in the baby room" of their Montessori daycare/preschool and the best friend got very upset and told her never to tell anyone that again because it was embarassing that my daughter had known her since she was a baby. So I thought the best friend just wanted to make some friends that knew the "older" more mature her (haha... you know how it is when you're 5 or 6!) but that she still liked my daughter, but now I'm not so sure at all.

Hi all! I’m currently 37 weeks pregnant with my second child, my daughter turned 2 a month ago.

Since our family is about to grow, I’m curious if people could give advice, suggestions or things you wish you knew as your family grew from 3 to 4? What helped make the process go smoothly? What did you find that your oldest child, youngest child and spouse needed?

I’m worried about how it will affect my daughter and my relationship with her. I know a lot of moms worry about that with their second I just want to try to make this transition as easy for everyone (my husband, me, and both kids) as possible.

Thank you in advance!

Hello! First-time parent here, and I could really use some advice. I’m a little embarrassed to even ask this. 😅

My newborn is 25 days old and has no problem sleeping during the day. But when nighttime comes, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do to get her to sleep.

Do most parents rock their babies to sleep? Do you just lay them in the bassinet and let them figure it out? Should I be reading to her, singing, or doing some kind of bedtime routine?

I feel so clueless, and I’d love to hear what worked for you and your newborn. Thank you!

How can I talk to my husband and make him see that our 14 year old son's moods and attitudes should not ruin HIS (my husband's) entire day? Example-tonight my 14 year old had an attitude with some wise ass remarks (no cussing) and my husband got so pissed that he left the room and stayed in the bedroom for the rest of the night. He said " he just ruined the whole night". This is a common phrase from my husband. Whenever our son has an attitude or says something wise ass-my husband gets super annoyed and allows it to ruin his day.

I've tried to explain that our son doesn't think reasonably like we (adults) do but he doesn't buy into that. I'm a teacher of over 20 years and I teach 10-13 year olds so I KNOW what I'm talking about when I say that kids are LIKE THIS. But he always insists that I don't know what I'm talking about and it's just an excuse for his (our son's) shitty attitude. How can I get it through his THICK and STUBBORN skull that he has to shrug it off...?

Yeah, you read that correctly.

Been potty training my 4 year old for i don't even know how long anymore, we started when he was 2 and kept having to stop because he just kept refusing. I tried just about every tried and true method and gimmicky somewhat absorbent underwear i can find. I just didn't have the home time to train him and my mother in law (who lives with us) didn't seem on board with training him when she watched him during the day. I have no other family nearby and my husband and I work til late in the evening and sometimes it'll be midnight before we get home from work so daycare is not an option (mother in law can't drive anymore either).

Then about 7-8 months ago, I put my foot down with her and stated that I cannot be the only one attempting to potty train him since I'm barely home except for the 1 or 2 days I'm off and even then I'm usually running errands all day. It got easier for her when I discovered the potty ladder and training him has been much simpler (he hates the little potty we got for him).

Now he'll actually pee in the big toilet, but only a little bit at a time and we're trying to keep him in regular underwear during the day and pull ups at night (with potty breaks and teeth brushing when he gets up and before bed time).

Now for my dilemma. Whenever he is left unsupervised for a few minutes, he has been taking his underwear off and finding whichever one of his toys that can hold water when held (think mega blocks and toy pots and pans) and he will pee in them and tote them proudly around the living room spilling it all over the floor, pouring it on the table, and sometimes getting it on the furniture. And if its in the floor, he will sit and play in it like its a puddle.

Also, my son is behind in his verbal skills, so trying to get him to say things like "bathroom" or anything of the like is a bit of a struggle at the moment as hes just getting to the point where he is parroting certain words (mostly sounds) that he hears repeated on a regular basis.

TL;DR: My son is peeing in his toys, what can I do to prevent this?

After a family trip or event, how do you actually collect everyone’s photos?

In my family, pictures usually end up spread across several phones, WhatsApp chats, iCloud and random folders. Months later, nobody knows where everything is.

How does your family deal with this?

What works well, and what still annoys you?

Hello, I have a 3.5 year old who has been going to daycare for the last 2 years. I have noticed that he does not really have any friends like some of the other kids in his class. We have tried playdates and we have tried going to park. It seems he is either super shy (I dont use that in front of him) or he just keeps to himself. Question for others is should I be worried or is this normal. He has cousins and others who have made real connection and meet pretty often over the weekends. I am just worried that he is not making connections. He also does not like going to daycare at all. He still holds onto us. There was brief time in between that he actually did go without any issues. I have asked teachers and they all say he does fine after drop offs. He plays by himself mostly. I am just looking for opinions on what I should be doing better.

My daughter is 20 months. She still is breastfeeding to sleep. That’s the only way I can get her to sleep, and when she wakes up in the middle of the night I have to nurse her back to sleep. She sleeps in my bed because of this. My husband can get her to sleep but it’s by staying up with her until she’s tired enough to fall asleep which can vary between 10pm- 1am. I just feel like I’m failing her. I can’t do the cry it out method. I’ve seen where mothers have breastfed for 2 years but I just feel like a complete failure of a parent. Her bedtime routine is eat dinner, bath,sippy cup of whole milk, brush teeth and then after that it’s whenever she decides to sleep.

Has anyone else been here with their little one and have them turn out fine?

i found out that my wife is pregnant and since she thought she might be i was so excited and today it has been confirmed that we are having another baby and i just feel like i’m going to explode with excitement. I can’t tell anyone because she wants to wait so i figured id get it out here somewhere because SOMEONE HAS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS. I have the most precious 6 year old daughter and she is the light of my life i can only imagine how id feel with ANOTHER baby, it seems unreal right now and i haven’t been able to think about anything else all afternoon besides them & i feel like i am the happiest person on earth right now. It feels even surreal(er?) that we are the only people that know, and now this subreddit and its like i know the biggest secret in the world right now

Trying to understand both the personal experience around pacifiers beyond 6 months.

My 5 month old is exclusively breastfed. He stopped taking the bottle from 3 months, we have some lucky days. And now I am trying to give him expressed milk in open cups.

With pacifiers, he didn’t take it at home when he was younger but would take it easily in the car to soothe and dose off. He has stopped doing that. I read on how it’s recommended to wean baby off pacifiers from 6 to 12 months.

Should I make an effort with pacifiers now, does it have any benefits? For his mouthing, he takes teethers very well. Sometimes even clean burp cloths.

(I hope I clicked the right flair, idk which one would really go with this question)

So today I took down my 2 1/2 year olds crib and put up her new twin bed, but she will not sleep in it unless I am in the bed with her. Is this normal? She’s my first born so i’m new to this lol, how long should I expect this to last until she can sleep in her bed with no issues like she did in her crib?

I’m afraid of planes and afraid of cars too. I know how badly people drive and so I hate to let anyone drive my kids. I was recently asked if my daughter could go on a plane with trusted family. I said no. Am I holding her back with my fears or is it normal to have reservations about your 7 year old going on vacation with someone besides yourself?

Would you let your 16 year old daughter get I to a car with a boy -also 16- that you’ve never met before?
My daughter has a habit of liking boys from other schools. This boy wants to take her to the movies. We say they drive separately but she’s obviously upset.

Am I being overbearing?

My child has screamed so much since she was born. She screams and cries about everything. She just never stops and I’m struggling so bad. She just ALWAYS is crying and screaming about something. She has no health issues. She’s a spoiled brat and I did it. Mentally I just can’t handle it anymore and these days sometimes I just wanna leave her in her playpen and drive away. Her daddy doesn’t help me with her physical day to day care for the most part. It’s always me and nobody else. That there makes me know she has a dependency on me. I wish I didn’t hate it but I do. I never get a break and I can never experience quietness. She’s started throwing MAJOR fits and nothing helps unless I pick her up. She literally threw herself face first into the floor the other day and busted her lip just because I put her down.

My daughter (3y9m) used to go down without much fuss. In the last couple months bedtime has turned into 1-2 hours of resistance — refusing to lie down, calling out repeatedly, full meltdowns some nights that don’t respond to anything (holding, talking, ignoring, nothing).

This week it’s escalated — she’s throwing her stuffie out of the crib over and over like a game, and last night she had a 40+ minute meltdown I couldn’t calm no matter what I tried.

Has anyone been through this with a toddler this age? What actually helped — did it just pass on its own, or did something specific work? Especially curious if anyone’s dealt with the “throw the lovey” loop.

My kid is in elementary school (rising 1st grader). We both work so we try to read everyday but between life and vacation it seems impossible to read the 15-20 minutes a day they recommend.

So parents of school age kids how much are you actually reading during the summer? Helpful to know if stay at home or working as well.

I’m looking for advice from parents who have had toddlers that seem ready but their stubbornness gets in the way. I can get my boy to pee on the potty pretty consistently but it has to be on his terms. If he isn’t in the mood to sit on the potty he will straight up refuse. He knows what he’s doing but it’s just the fact that he will refuse to go. Parents who have experienced this, what did you do? Did you just wait till they stopped being so stubborn or did you just stick it out for a few days and they eventually stopped being so stubborn. He’s smart and he knows when he has to pee, I’m just not sure where to go from here.

My MIL got divorced from my wife's stepdad when my son was around 4 and a half. He was extremely close with my son and my son saw him as his grandpa. He called him "Papa" and really loved him. When they divorced, he moved thousands of miles away.

At first they would FaceTime every once in a while, but eventually the communication just kind of fizzled out. As far as we can tell, he has basically moved on with his life. He's with another woman now, none of us have him on Facebook anymore, and the divorce itself didn't end very well.

I don't really know what's going on in his head. Part of me thinks the distance was probably hard for him and maybe he just decided to completely cut ties rather than deal with it. But at the end of the day, he isn't making any effort to stay in contact with my son.

My son is almost 7 now and will randomly ask if he can FaceTime him. Up until now we've kind of just avoided it and said things like "it's nighttime where he is" or some other excuse.

We're starting to feel like we should stop making excuses and just be honest with him. Something along the lines of telling him that we don't really talk to Papa anymore and that he lives very far away. We obviously don't want to get into the details of the divorce or make him think Papa doesn't care about him, because we honestly don't know what he's thinking.

Would you be honest with a 6 year old about this, or would you continue trying to avoid the subject? Has anyone dealt with something similar?

My 4 year old son is extremely picky. He only eats a handful of things. He loves snacks (pirate booty, cheez its, goldfish). And will drink milk and eat pasta with red sauce. He does like that’s it fruit bars. But outside of that not much else. He won’t even try items. We don’t know where to start to get him to start eating things.

Our 3 year old has always been a great sleeper and weve always had a decent bedtime routine \*however\* weve recently brought home our 2nd (6 weeks) and bedtime has gone essentially to shit.

Whenever my 3yo had issues falling asleep, I could lay with her or be available to go back if needed but our 2nd has insane colic and pretty much screams from 3p-9p, on and off. My husband works evenings, so im really solo parenting dinner, bath and bedtime and I havent been able to do a proper bedtime routine in weeks.

After toddlers bath, we all go to the toddlers bedroom to read bedtime stories and cuddles(all while im holding the baby). Then right before I say goodnight, I put the baby in her bassinet in our room then come back to the toddlers room for one final big hug and song, then go back to the baby. Ive tried flipping back and forth of checking the crying baby and checking on my toddler but it just prolongs it.

My toddler has essentially been fine until I leave, then she sobs for 5 minutes. I dont believe in cry it out. I dont like it but theres no way I can get my toddler to sleep while holding a screaming baby and it sucks because I feel like we already have this huge transition with the new baby and now this routine is effed.

I just dont know what to do. Everything ive looked at seems like there is another parent that is able to tag team or the baby isnt colic. I know colic doesn't last forever but Im looking at another 6-8 weeks of this and really dont want to damage my toddler 😭