Parenting Contents Archive

How do you handle sending your kids to school?

I’m legitimately scared with all these school shootings going on. I’ve talked to friends and they say that while they’re worried about it, they can’t homeschool due to reasons/their kids would miss out/you can’t control what happens all the time. While I agree with all this, *can’t* we do something about it? I don’t understand how we’re just pacified with how things are handled and excused with the gun industry and shit politicians. I’m part of March For Our Lives and try to keep up with similar things, but…how can I justify sending my baby to school where there’s such imminent risk now? I dread the day it’s my own kid that people see on the news. I mourn for the families that have lost their babies because people are horrible. How do you do it? Do you teach safety lessons? Kevlar backpacks?

My son who is speech delayed said "I love you".

That is all, im beaming, out of the blue he looked at me and said "I wouve youw" I basically tackled him to the ground hugging him. Im one proud mama hen.

Should I have done something differently??

So this morning after my kids left for school, a teenage (14-15?) girl shows up at my house. Mind you I live in a rural area and my closest neighbor is half a mile down the road. She had a pair of broken glasses on and said she missed the bus this morning because she broke her glasses and had been walking down the road, going door to door asking someone to take her to school. From what I gathered, she has missed enough days that she would have been in trouble if she hadn’t gone. I did give her a ride to school, which is 15 minutes away. I vaguely remember seeing her walking down the road with a group of teenagers this summer and I think she lives in a house where we’re fairly sure there’s drug activity going on. She said her mom couldn’t leave work to take her and told her to walk to school. School is a good 15 mile ‘walk’ and it was raining this morning. Am I in the wrong for taking her to school?? Should I have called her mom or something first?

Parents with babies who solely contact nap during the day - what does your daily schedule look like?

My 7 week old only contact naps during the day. It makes me feel completely useless because I can't get anything done while he sleeps and when he's awake I feel I have to entertain him / feed him. I can wear him in the sling for an hour or two but it kills my back (he is 13-14lb). What does your day look like if your baby only contact naps?

Would like some opinions on my MIL’s “offer”

To preface I am civil with my MIL but we have history so I have a lot of bias hence my post here. My kids are 12, 14 and 15. Girl and 2 boys respectively. My MIL recently made the offer to my wife who then brought to me. It’s pretty straightforward, she’d like to offer each child $10000 if they don’t drink till they are 20. This feels to me like such a loaded offer. The kids are already sneaky with their screen time. I can’t see them being on the up and up as time goes on and their peers start experimenting. She’s not a teetotaler herself. Has 2 or 3 drinks every couple of days. But FIL was an alcoholic and could be verbally abusive so that may have something to do with the offer(passed now). I told my wife why doesn’t she just stick it in an RESP for the kids but she says she would never go for that. Appreciate any opinions on this. Thanks.

Where do you change your baby’s diaper?

After they grow out of the changing table I mean.

When to play with baby

Have a newborn that is 7 days old and we feel like we aren’t engaging with him enough. At the moment it’s sleep, change, feed, repeat. He doesn’t seem to be awake much other than that but we’re worried we’re neglecting him, when should we start playing with him more regularly?

How much time do you give your kids to get ready before school?

My daughters bed time is 8:30. She wakes up at 6:15. She always falls asleep very quickly so she always gets right around 9.5 hours of sleep. She’s 6 years old. Her dad goes into work while she’s in school & gets off at 9 so she only ever sees him on his days off (Monday) and weekends. Lately she’s been asking to stay up an extra hour, until 9:30 basically so she can see dad briefly before she goes to bed. He gets home about 9:15. I might be looking too far into it but I don’t want her to have a bad sleep schedule. We leave for school at 7:35. Much of her getting ready in the morning is just sitting around. I think it’s good for her to have a “waking up” time before she’s rushed to get dressed and eat breakfast. Thinking of letting her go to bed at 9:30 & pushing wake up time to 6:45. That would give her just under an hour to get ready for school. Any thoughts here?

Working From Home while Watching Kids

We are looking at the costs of having a baby. The 5 years of daycare until they are old enough for public school is obviously a huge expense. My husband works from home 2 days a week and mentioned watching the baby on those days. Does anyone work from home while watching their children? What ages is this best possible? What about when you have multiple kids? How did you bring it up with your boss? He gets 4 months of paternity (a month more than my maternity lol) which is a huge help in the beginning.

What age should siblings have their own bedrooms?

I’m looking for opinions about what age do siblings start to need their own bedrooms for the purposes of privacy and decency. (Possibly they can share indefinitely if they are the same sex?) Thanks in advance for your thoughts! EDIT: if you do not think it is a necessity, then please comment instead what age do you think separate bedrooms would be desirable or helpful for the purposes of privacy and decency.

Overwhelmed

Husband was arrested for domestic violence last night. He took my phone during the incident so I screamed until someone heard and called the police. I am a SAHM with no income. I’m scared as fuck but this is the safest I have felt in a long time. I’m calling crisis lines and looking for work but I have a housing option available thankfully. I could really use some advice/support from those of you who left an abuser. Edit to add that he is an alcoholic who thinks I am being dramatic. And he smiled in his mugshot.

how long until you take your sick baby to the Dr?

I'm not asking medical advice, just want to know if I'm being reasonable or not. For your baby under 1, (mines 7 months) how long with ONLY a stuffy nose until you take them to the pedi? Still sleeping fine, Still happy, no fever, nothing but mass amounts of snot.

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When should my child start reading?

My 5 year old is in his 3rd year of preschool (he missed the deadline for kindergarten by a couple weeks). He is doing really well but I’m wondering if he should be further along in reading… He can identify all upper and lower case letters and about half the letter sounds. We have a teacher conference tomorrow and my wife is thinking we should be upset with the school because he is not further along in reading. Should he be reading at least a little by now?

Where do you eat your secret snacks?

For me, it’s my kids’ bedrooms. Because they’re fucking never in there.