Parenting Contents Archive

need some perspective - how can anyone say "I loved the newborn stage"?

I read quite some times that new parents say they loved the newborn stage. All I remember from my baby being a newborn was me googling when things will get easier. I have never felt so bad in my life. I was drowning. I can't pinpoint what was so bad about it. But anyhow, I just really struggle to understand how anyone could love this stage? What was it in particular? Please describe for dummies :) I am just so curious about what it was that was missing for me...

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If your MIL wrote a parenting book...

What would your reaction be if your husband whipped it out in the middle of a disagreement? Because my response was not, I guess, as receptive as he anticipated.

My 13 year old daughter just came out as Bisexual

As the subject says, she just came out to me, her father, and I need some insights. She is not sexually active, so she is basing this off of feelings and attraction (feel free to educate me if this is not generally correct). I did tell her she had time to sort out her feelings and it was perfectly normal to feel attraction for a human being no matter if they were male or female. I even told her that I as a heterosexual male can see when another male is arrive or even hot. She giggled at that lol. Her mother and I are divorced and she’s definitely struggling with how to tell her mom, she definitely will not take it well. She is undiagnosed, but she’s a textbook covert narcissist. Just any advice for helping her either know it’s a junior high phase, realize it’s definitely her sexuality, or someone between. I can answer more questions as they come up in the comments, i didn’t want to write a novel here, but definitely would like some help navigating this minefield.

Questions about toddler age bday parties

So I have a 4 year old. He’s in school. Recently he came home with a birthday invite but on top of the fact I’m a single parent and it’s hard to line up stuff sometimes we’re actually busy on that day from previous stuff. Anyway I call the number to let them know that my son won’t be able to go unfortunately. The parent was like that’s totally fine you can just send a gift with your son to school. This is where I’m torn. Is this a new thing? Even when I was growing up I never remembered my parents sending me with gifts to students whos parties I did not attend. Just wondering because honestly I feel like it’s weird for us to get this kid a present for a party he’s not even attending. However, I’m open to being wrong I just wanted to check and see how to handle this. Thanks everyone.

Snuggling baby real close while they sleep on your chest ❤❤

Currently what I'm doing right now. This is one of my favorite things to do with my little girl. I can just hold her close to my heart and bond with her, and I know that she's sleeping where she is most comfortable 🥰

Is it weird to make grandma a Mother’s Day gift from grand child?

My baby is 6mo and my mom watches her for 3-4 hrs for free every weekday (we are incredibly lucky). Would it be weird or thoughtful to make my mom a card “from the baby” with 5 things baby loves about her? In addition to a card and proper gift from me, of course. I’m worried she’ll find some weird implication that she’s raising my child and that it will weird her out, and it’s not grandparents day…. but I’m probably over thinking this.

Have you noticed any surprising physical characteristics in your LO?

My LO has 2 cow licks in the exact same spots as her dad. It is so stinking cute but I know it will become unruly at some point 😂 I guess there is an underlying genetic component? She also had every stork bite possible at birth (eyelid, forehead, nose, lip, & neck) of which only the neck is still present. What have you noticed?

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Putting kids to sleep is hell

I am a single father and for the last couple of months, putting my kids (2 and 4 yo) to sleep has been increasingly stressful. It starts as screaming, continues with calling for me every 2 seconds and ends with me being completely done with life every evening. I really don't know what to do anymore. I tried reading to them, laying down with them and ignoring them. But it just keeps getting worse. They spend about half of the time at their mother's place and half at mine. I don't know how she handles the evenings but by experience it involves lots of TV and no rules. I don't want to end up regretting having kids because of the 2 hours of stress every evening. Did someone have similar experiences? How did you handle it?

Saying I love you

It’s a silly thing, but I didn’t grow up in a family where we said it. So I say it almost compulsively to my kids (and pets 😅). My (9yo) daughter even likes to write poetry about how much she loves her family and it makes me so happy 🥰 Growing up, I always felt like I had to earn love, so I make sure to tell my kids I love them with no strings attached. I noticed recently I have also been saying it to my kids’ friends, without thinking. Today my daughter’s best friend (9yo) told me she loved me with the biggest smile. I just can’t get over it. Please, tell everyone you love that you love them. Some kids might not ever hear it otherwise. ❤️

5 yo calls grandma “mom”

I’m the mom. The grandma is my mother in law. They have been playing this game where the grandma is mom. This game runs for a couple days when we visit each other, and my daughter runs around the house loudly calling my in law “mom”. It feels weird to me, but I felt it’d be too “trivial” for me to stop this. It’d ruin the fun. Does this happen to you? Does anyone try to avoid this or I’m just being sensitive? Background: do not have a great relationship with my in law.

Daughter Cut from the Team

My shy 7th grade daughter finally found her thing: cheerleading. She had never cheered before loved every moment. She was the only 7th grader that won special recognition at her first cheer camp, choreographed routines that her coaches implemented, and won MVP of the 7th grade squad at the end of year celebration. Her coach decides to focus on her family time and is not coming back for my daughter’s 8th grade year. The new coach holds tryouts and my daughter does not make either football or basketball (the previous year she was on both squads). She is devastated and crying all weekend. The new coach says do not contact me for 3 days after the results are posted. That will be Wednesday. My wife and I want to contact her and plead our daughter’s case. We just don’t understand how she went from the MVP to nothing. Any suggestions or advice?

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy. ~Robert A. Heinlein #parentingtips