Parenting Contents Archive

What do you put in your diaper bag?

Diapers, obviously. A change of clothes, bottles or nursing equipment, a burp cloth and maybe some nursing pads. What else do you put in your diaper bag? Curious if people have some unusual items they swear by!

If you knew what you know now…would you get married again?

Just to start, I’ve been married just shy of 9 years. We have a 7, 5 and 11 month old. I am the breadwinner. I work full time from home, take care of our kids and house primarily, do all our bills, managing or finances/prepare for our future. My husband works full time. Is a good Dad and does do a fair brunt of the parenting but since I’m home I just get saddled with more of it. He does not prepare for anything. If it is something like a dr appt, i do it. Our future - he doesn’t know where our insurance is or pay our mortgage. Savings - what are those? Date nights? His prep is “how about we go out sat the 7th. Now you find the sitter, figure out where we are going and when.” If i knew this was what my marriage would have looked like i would have never gotten married. If we get divorced i will never marry again.

Is breastfeeding more important than your mental health?

Hi, i dont know if i am looking for validation or just venting. We recently had a baby (11weeks). I was never comfortable with bfing and was vocal about it since the beginning. But my partner was very keen that the baby be bf. So we decided on bfing for 3 months (we do supplement with formula since I wasn’t producing enough). I decided that i want to stop at 10 weeks cos of the amount of mental stress it was giving (baby was constantly snacking). My partner is telling me that i am being selfish and that the baby will end up having health problems like me (i am formula fed baby and have IBS and arthritis). I feel so broke and guilty, i keep thinking that if somewhere down the line if she has health problems it would be my fault and it was because i was selfish. I know fed is best but cant help taking partner’s words to heart. I am almost thinking that maybe i should restart bfing! Edit- Apologies for the grammatical error. Sobbing while writing this.

What was your birth experience like if you were induced?

I’m 21F and currently 34 weeks pregnant. I just found out I’m going to have to be induced at 38 weeks due to IUGR (My babygirl is a shrimp and measuring in the 5th percentile) This is my first pregnancy and I’m honestly quite nervous at the thought of being induced. I hear it’s a longer, more difficult process than natural labor and I’d just like to prepare myself. Any advice/experience is welcomed and appreciated, thank you :)

14 month old bangs head

My 14 month old often sleeps through the night, however sometimes he wakes up and bangs his head on the pillow repeatedly. This can go on for 10-15 minutes if not longer. Sometimes he is upset and crying but usually he’s just banging it up and down. Sometimes when he is sitting during the day he will sit up against his crib or playpen and rock back and forth repeatedly. We get concerned when it seems like he’s doing it for a long period of time (like 20+ minutes) or it seems really aggressive, or against something hard like the bars of the crib. Is this developmentally appropriate? What purpose is it serving? Self soothing?

Water just is not quenching my thirst… 😶

LO is 8 weeks old and I am exclusively breastfeeding. I drink so much water all day but I am still thirsty! Is there anything else that you recommend ladies that helped with the thirst?? Can I add something to my water….

I don’t know how to interact with adults anymore

Before becoming a mom, I always considered myself a social butterfly/people person. My husband and I decided it is best for me to stay home with LO (5months) for at least a year and I am grateful to be able to be home and spend time with my son. With that being said, without the day-to-day interactions with adults that I had at work, I feel like I am losing the skill of normal conversation. We had a play date with an old friend and her son yesterday, and I kept losing focus on topics, forgetting what question I had asked literally 30 seconds earlier, and making almost inappropriate comments. I left feeling defeated. My husband thinks it’s just because I am sleep deprived (which is absolutely true), but I don’t even feel like myself anymore. I guess the point of this post is looking for some reassurance that I’m not alone or that this won’t last forever. It’s definitely an aspect of parenthood that I wasn’t prepared for.

Almost 1 year old. Wow.

My baby is almost one years old. I just can’t believe it. Where has the time gone? Where is my little baby? He’s almost walking, he’s eating meals, he’s giggling and babbling away. I’ll never forget the night I met him, so tiny and squishy and new. Some of the days have been SO SLOW, but really it’s all gone by so fast. It’s a blur. Time really is a thief. Anyone else feel this?

Is chores really that important?

I've been called weird by some other parents because I believe that it's not a child's place to do chores around the house. It's a child's time to relax and have fun during their childhood and I honestly don't mind doing everything around the house and taking care of them. But the issue is I have a friend who complained to me because their child go rude with them during a argument and thrpe in about how I don't make my kids do chores. Anyways one of my friends saids I'm making my child spoiled by not making them do things around the house and still giving them a allowance. But I can't ae eit from that pov. It's my job as a parent to take care of them and make sure their happy and healthy. I literally don't mind cooking and cleaning after work. I just wanted to see others opinions on this

How do I tell my daughter that her favorite uncle can’t be in her life anymore?

My 4yo daughter has had a special bond with my husband’s brother. He is her favorite uncle. She talks about him a lot, talks to him through FaceTime, and gets really excited when we visit. However, recent events have occurred that have made it clear that he is not a safe person to be around ever again. He attempted to stab his mother (my daughter’s grandmother). He has struggled with mental health in the past so I was cautious about having my daughter around him. But I had no idea that it could get to this point. He’s currently in jail and I’m hopeful that his mental health will improve but I cannot trust him around my daughter anymore. My husband is so upset that he can’t even really speak about the subject. How do I tell my daughter that this uncle will not be in her life? I don’t think it’s appropriate to share the details with her but I feel like she will start to question what’s going on. I get that this is above Reddit’s pay grade but I’m just looking for advice. Thanks.

question about custody

My ex doesn't take the kids for his weekends. Sometimes he shows up to events for them or appointments, sometimes he doesn't. The last time he had them for an overnight was last July, and he abused them (there were investigations and cases opened on it). He told me this year he would not be taking them for July, and he was nocall no show on the exchange time (June 30th, 6pm). Well he just emailed a couple of hours ago *demanding* I drop them off with him tonight at 6pm. (Our orders say he must pick the up at my house). I wrote him back and told him that he stated he was not going to take them, and he did not show up on the exchange date. I know he's going to stir up legal fire and he has his own backhanded reasons for suddenly doing this (his parents bankroll him), but have any of you had a situation where the ex missed the time and then tried to say they want it later? what happened??

Crying out during naps

Hello! My wife and I are first time parents to our really sweet 3 month old daughter. Recently she has been waking up during her naps thrashing, crying out and then falling back to sleep. This has started around 40 minutes into her nap and we know it isn’t long enough for her most times. Sometimes her being unsettled lasts a minute or two and I worry that we’re not interjecting fast enough. However, if we do interject, it usually wakes her up, regardless of what we try. I don’t want her to feel like we’re abandoning her and I don’t want to CIO. I’m not sure if it’s just her trying to learn to settle herself or if we should continue to try and settle her, despite most attempts not working. Thanks for the advice!

How to get out of survival mode?!

I’m 4 months postpartum and even though things are easier now, I still feel like every day is a race to get to the next.. to survive. I don’t find myself cycling through high highs and low lows emotionally but I feel muted at best and like I’m going through the motions. My baby is still waking up randomly at night (sometimes once sometimes 3 times sometimes not at all) for feedings so that isn’t helping. Of course I feel SO guilty for being anything less than super peppy and happy all the time. I guess I’m just looking to put thoughts to “paper” and indulge in a bit of a pity party but if you have any advice, I’d love to hear it.

Dressing a girly girl for dummies

My beautiful, sweet, outgoing seven year old is a girly girl. I am not. She loves clothes and picking out outfits. I have some killer band tee shirts. She HATES jeans. I love them. She's going into first grade next year and I have no idea what clothes to shop for, style wise. Is only leggings a good idea? Is there something else? Can anyone give me some ideas?

Who pays for entry tickets for playdates?

I invited a couple of my kids friends to an indoor playground for a play date. They’re all young (4-6 yrs old) and all the kids are just meeting there. Usually I do “free” play dates (Ie hosting them in my house). So it’s my first time inviting the kids to a public paid venue. My question is: do I need to pay for all the kids entry tickets? Or do parents usually pay for their own kids tickets?