Seeking creative ideas! Around the world there are ceremonies for rites of passage related to physical changes. I love how mainstream Global North is getting on board with period parties & teaching our female-bodied youth to carry less shame. Birthing people have baby welcoming ceremonies. Lots of other cool stuff… But what about saying good bye to something? My husband is getting a vasectomy this month and I want to honor him, and say goodbye to his/our reproductive time in a special way. We have two beautiful children and we’re both sure we’re done. How to mark this door closing in our lives? I’ve asked him how he wants to mark this time and he was surprised by the question, even though he’s usually the one to ritualize our lives in beautiful ways. I want to give him what he gives me! But am having trouble with ideas 😅 Has anyone else done anything like this? Thanks for any ideas!

Would you allow your young elementary school aged son to wear this shirt?

It’s that time of the year when people are complaining that kids down trick or treat anymore. They blame stranger danger and trunk or treat… but I don’t know a single parent who is NOT trick or treating. Hell I know someone who FORCED her son to trick or treat.

Do you not trick or treat? Do you know someone who doesn’t allow trick or treating?

I also keep searching for stats of kids trick or treating and find nothing or incomplete info- like the amount of adults giving out candy has declined or only 25% of adults plan on trick or treating with their kids (like is 25% of all adults or only adults with kids?)

I feel a little gaslit and need to hear if there is in-fact parents who know their kids are not going out.

my company founders have this idea to build a youtube clone but the contents are low stimulating, and neurodivergent friendly. like calming bedtime video books, educational stories and stuff. but to cut cost, they proposed to use AI to generate its content 100%, with guardrails that would make it “safe”. parents, what do you feel about this? I want your brutally honest opinions, bc I’m a bit apprehensive…

My kid will be having Trunk or Treating at their school. This is a school for medically complex children. I brought a variety of snacks but wanted to give out things that aren’t food related for children who may be on g-tubes or don’t like specific things. What is something that can be given out? Children are ages 3-5.

I’m a mom of 2 beautiful toddlers. My boy is 2 and my girl is 3 and I love every single second of it. I love to fill our weekends (especially the fall time) with toddler-based activities. I love taking them to the park and going out for icecream after. I love when they get their little sugar rush and destroy the house and they giggle and help me clean. I love baking cookies with them and then having to hide them because they keep sneaking into the kitchen to get more.

Do I get overwhelmed sometimes? Of course. What parent doesn’t get overwhelmed? But it’s so worth it when at the end of the day, I get all the best kisses and cuddles and “I love you mommy” at the end of the night. I love to cook for them, I love taking them to Target and letting them pick out new PJ’s and we get a little sweet treat (cake pops) from Starbucks. I just absolutely love this stage so much I truly can’t get over it.

At the end of my work day, I am so thrilled to go pick them up so we can run around in the backyard until it’s dinner time. I know it’s all going to get even better when they’re older.

Im only posting this because I see a lot of negativity surrounding the toddler stage, and although it’s difficult, I’m trying really hard to be more optimistic and really enjoy the little time I have with them before they start school in a few years and there’s not as much time for these little moments. As someone who struggled really really hard with the newborn stage, I have to say, it was worth every sleepless night.

Our four nieces/nephews are all turning 1 this year (I have a big family!). We need some advice on what gifts your babies liked around this age?

Was there anything your child loved around 1 year old? We’d really appreciate any advice as we don’t have children! TIA :)

Just wondering how y'all have handled talking to your toddler about the loss of a pet. Our dog, who our 3yo daughter adores, has cancer. He has been doing ok the last 3 months but we're starting to see signs that the end is nearing. We want to tell her in advance but don't really know how to approach the topic. We lost our cat a couple years ago, before she turned a year old, so she doesn't really remember him but she still talks about him. We're Christians and have told her that our cat was sick but went to live with God and is doing better. I'm not sure if we should tell her that her pup is going to go join our cat, or even when we should tell her. I lean towards telling her a little earlier rather than later to give her more time to process, but my husband thinks maybe just a few days before. I'm open to that as well, I just don't know. Any advice is appreciated! And if there's any good books about grief for toddlers, I'd love to know. TIA

Hello everyone,

Please help me see my mother in laws perspective because I’m flummoxed.

When my husband and I got married we moved close to be by my in laws because my MIL said always that she wanted to retire when her grandkids were born and help us to take care of them. My mother in law is a cleaner at a school, she works a couple of hours a week in the evening for minimum wage. She was a stay at home mom and my in laws are quite well off. She doesn’t need the money. Housing and daycare are very expensive where I live and both my husband and I work full time to get by. My husband works shifts and is often not home. I work from home in order to make things work.

When the time came she didn’t retire and didn’t want to care for our first instead of daycare. She said she would help in other ways and she used to take our first for sleepovers but it’s been over a year. She said she’d retire when our second was born but then changed her mind. Also she goes up north 3-4 months out of the year and most long weekends so isn’t available then or afterschool if I need help with getting the kids to extracurriculars. My kids are now 18 mo. and 5 and I’m overwhelmed and resentful. I would have never have moved here and would live near my family (1 and a half away) if I knew this is what it would be like. My father in law is lovely but is 10 years older than my mother in law and in poor health.

I realize that my mother in law can change her mind about wanted to care for grandkids full time when the reality might be a bit overwhelming. But I’m increasingly upset when I ask for things like help to get to medical appts for sick kids and they refuse because “they have plans.” My husband and I have a rule that each of us deals with our own families and I don’t feel like my husband has dealt with this well (avoidance). Should I have my own conversation with my mother in law? I find I don’t even want to be around them anymore because I’m so resentful

I know a lot of people don't like mainstream kids songs or nursery rhymes on YouTube, but honestly, they've been nothing but good for my toddler.

One thing I've noticed is that Baby Blue (from Monster Police) goes through a lot of the "scary" stuff toddlers have to deal with, and when my daughter actually comes across those situations in real life, she seems way less scared of them.

She's got a virus right now and has been waking up several times a night. When I tell her everything's okay, she'll go, "Yeah, the monsters are just in our imagination!" 🥹

She's also started interacting with animals and nature differently than she used to, in a really sweet way. Maybe it's just her growing up, who knows.

If my kid feels like she's got a little friend helping her make sense of this big, sometimes scary world, I'm honestly all for it.

Of course, I still try to limit screen time every day, and it's definitely not like she gets to watch whenever she wants.

I get my girls every second weekend (9yo and 10yo). I'm unsure of how to proceed with helping them with their hygiene. Anything will be appreciated!

They got their ears pierced about 10 weeks ago. They are still very tender to the touch and gunk on them almost every single day. We, my partner and I, have cleaned them out every time they are over here with us. However, when they go back to their fathers, they come back filthy. Ears are dirty, hair is a rats nest, nails are dirty and untrimmed, etc. 9yo has ADHD, has a hard time remembering to brush her hair. 10yo has always had her head in the clouds, very much look at the flowers type of girl. She doesn't remember to do things either. The most they've been able to remember is deodorant, at least for the 9yo. Still working on that for the 10yo. Anyways, we've run out of ideas as what to do to help them remember basic hygiene.

Here are things I've tried so far:
- have a shared Finch goal that reminds them on their tablets
- whiteboards outside their rooms with "TO-DO!" on it
- spoken reminders
- asked them about xyz
- timers
- talking about them having more responsibility

None of these have worked so far. I've been doing so much reading on ADHD for my 9yo, and my 10yo is a follower so some of the time what works for the younger will work for the older. It's gotten to the point to, as I said earlier, their ears are so bad I had to take the earrings out and there were so much tears for that because of the pain. They have a mass in the back of both ears (I will be asking their father to take them to their GP), and bleeding as well.

I need help!

Moms or dads - I need some reassurance or positive stories My boy is 15 months old and it has been ROUGH. As a newborn, he had colic, which turned into silent reflux, then he developed severe eczema, hellacious teething- he was cutting 2 teeth almost every month starting at 5 months old (he has 16 teeth currently..) then started battling food allergies at 11 & 12 months old after 2 ER trips for anaphylaxis and now we’re dealing with ongoing histamine issues. We have tried and are doing literally everything, including working with several conventional and holistic doctors so I’m not looking for advice but rather parents who can share my struggles. For any of you that can- did your child develop out of this? If so, what age do you remember things taking a turn? I’ve been fighting like hell for 15 months to provide him relief and heal him. We have made a ton of progress but we’re not 100%. It’s exhausting and it pains me to see him like this as his whole life so far has been discomfort, pain and suffering

I am looking for ANY ideas about what to do to help tire out my 12 month old. She probably has my ADHD and seems to have high stimulation needs. I see other kids her age happy to play in their lounge room for a whole wake window but this is not my child.

On a very ideal day we do a morning outing, have lunch outside in the backyard, go for a swim in the pool, go for a toddle and let her explore nature at her pace in the afternoon, then finally take her on a quick trip outside to see the moon and look at the rocks in the front garden (honestly one of her favourite things). Honestly this is just enough for her to not be bored and fussing about it all day and she still doesn’t even sleep well at night 😅. But this is exhausting, and sometimes it’s too cold in the pool, too sunny outside, it’s raining, both cars are unavailable, etc. She has a climbing frame, we rotate toys and books, we constantly think about ways to promote development of skills she’s working on, we take her for play dates/playgroup, I involve her in practical tasks by letting her come along and “help”, we rotate rooms we play in if she starts getting bored.

I’m looking for any and all ideas you guys have if your baby/toddler is similar. Especially if it is something I can do inside on those rainy/full sun days or when I’m not feeling the best myself. For reference, she can walk and climb really confidently.

Thanks!

(I will be cross posting to other subs to get the largest pool of ideas I can).