Parenting Contents Archive

My son's new school doesn't serve lunch. Is this a thing?

We just moved to small town southwest of Chicago due to my wife's new assignment. Earlier this week I went to register our son for school and learned that the school district doesn't serve lunch. I was taken aback and when I asked the admin staffer why they didn't have a lunch program she replied that they have never had one. The buildings don't have cafeteria kitchens, so they can't prepare or store food even if they wanted to. We can pay for our son to have milk, but that's the only thing they provide. Is this something anyone else has experienced in their kid's school? Maybe I'm just out of touch or unaware of how things are done, but I've never heard of a school, especially a public one, where they simply didn't serve lunch.

How much does your partner help if they are working full time?

My partner was helping a ton in the early days postpartum, but as the time went on and he returned to work the help started to dwindle down to almost nothing. I’m currently still on maternity leave, so I do almost everything by myself. He works 12 hr shifts and when he comes home from work he’ll hold our baby for 20-30 min and then I take over again. We got into a huge fight last night because he went out for a business dinner on his off day and kept saying he didn’t know what time he’d be home. He got upset cause I wanted an estimate of what time he would be coming home so I could expect help or not. He came home, yelled and said that since he’s working full time and I’m not back at work yet I should be doing all the care for the baby. Am I in the wrong? Do your working partners do more than just hold the baby for 20-30 min daily?

Is it worth it (husband question)?

Just got home from taking kids swimming, found husband eating all the kids snacks. Asked him to not eat their favorites since it just adds more grocery runs. He does the bare minimum and acts like it’s a major deal when he does anything…I swear this guy wouldn’t wipe his behind if he didn’t have to. Long story short, he blew up/ it was awful..he called me worthless, useless POS, told me to get a f$cking job, and how dare I ask anything of him when he bought our house. I used to make six figures until a couple of years ago, now at home with the kiddos. I had a big health setback and our son has special needs which I’ve been focused on. Long story short is it worth getting a divorce? I feel a bit stuck financially since I don’t have an income, or should I just suck it up because he is paying the mortgage and other bills? He’s not physically abusive just a shitty dad and partner. Otherwise he does travel a lot so I only have to tolerate him 1/2 of the time.

Over the last two-and-a-half years there has been a spotlight on teachers—teacher stress, teacher burnout, teacher resignation. But what about the principals? @ByEmilyTate @EdSurge https://t.co/ge8tiAla27

My Wife, My Daughter, and Snapchat...

I will try to make this as brief as possible... I guess I'm trying to figure out if it's weird that my wife is Snapchat friends and has long streaks with all of my daughter's friends, both male and female. My daughter is 14, as are all of her friends. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned or don't understand, but a 40-year-old woman sending snapchats to 14 year old girls and boys just seems kind of weird to me. Thoughts?

How to let child listen to music without tablet/device access?

Our 12yo would constantly be on a device if we let them. Seriously, constantly. (And addiction runs in the family) The latest tactic is claiming they "just want to listen to music." Well of course I want to allow that! *But* ... that devolves into scrolling youtube and watching a bunch of music videos. This might be a fine use during their screen time, but they're using the music excuse all the time, and complaining about "can't even listen to music" if we say no. SO, **how can we allow LISTENING to music without giving access to a device**? Thanks for suggestions

I don’t feel like doing this anymore.

My heart and chest are heavy and aching. My daughter is 6 months and I’m over this. I love her and enjoy her but This is too much for me. I struggle with depression anxiety n pmdd. I’m already on meds etc so please don’t even go that route with advice or comments. I’m I alone in this feeling? I don’t want to caregive anymore. I’m anger and annoyed most of the day. I’m exhausted and can never seem to get good or enough sleep. I not only have feelings of anger, depression, disappointment but with these feelings comes feelings of shame for feeling this way. I feel like the worst person. I have a wonderful husband/ home life. Our baby isn’t a hard baby (She gets annoying but nothing I wouldn’t expect from a baby. She deserves better my family deserves better. I needed to get this out and I guess I’m hoping I’m not alone.

Why do we interpret 'dada' as 'daddy'?

Came to this question by seeing a comic of a mom being frustrated the baby only says dada even though she does all the work. I am wondering why we interpret 'dada' as referring to the dad. Is there any evidence that babies do mean dad when they say 'dada'? I am in Belgium and kids here say 'dada' just as much as kids in English-speaking countries. It's in fact a developmental milestone that is monitored here that kids play with consonants and the a-sound: 'dada', but also 'gaga' and 'baba', for example. Except our word for 'dad' is 'papa'. So 'dada' is not necessarily interpreted as referring to dad, since it's not closer to 'papa' than it is to 'mama'. Could it be that 'dada' is just a random word and not an attempt to refer to dad? I don't know if I'm making sense but I've been pondering for a few days now.

Bathing baby at 4 months

How can I stop her HATING bath time?

Accident Prone Child

I think my child needs a bubble. She runs everywhere, never walks, so she’s covered in bruises from falling or running into things. She burned her hand last month while we were cooking. Today she gave herself a black eye because she was jumping on the couch (despite me telling her not to every 5 stinking seconds) and missed which sent her flying to the floor and her face landing on a toy. I’m so tired of feeling like a shit parent. I wish I could say that I don’t watch her and that’s how it happens but I *do* watch her. I’m tired of the guilt that I have. I’m just tired.

Is a spa/hot tub a good investment with three little kids?

My kids (5 and under) love the water, specifically bathing in warm water. They often ask why I can’t join them in the bath. I’ve always wanted a pool but our backyard is too small, so now I’m thinking a hot tub would be a perfect solution to our kids wanting to bathe with me (obviously not a substitute for a real bath). I wanna get a good one that’s safe and will last a while, but I’m wondering: will I or the kids ever actually use it? Are there families here who have one? Is it worth it? We live where summers are hot and winters are cold, and we have four seasons.

Stressed about surprise pregnancy

My boobs were hurting so I figured, eh why not take a test for reassurance? Well that backfired with a blazing positive and my period isn’t even due for two more days. 😭 (Edit: it’s also stressful for me that the rest was SO positive so early!? Like something is off?) This isn’t entirely unwelcome (although ideally this would have happened a few months later) but I’m finding a million reasons to stress about it. Also I drank this week and last week several nights in a row (was on vacation). Ugh feeling so guilty about that. These are such weird times with the downturn/recession talk which is scary and we just bought a house…. I know everything will be ok in the end but why am I stressing so much? Why am I so depressed suddenly? I just found out two hours ago and I feel like I can’t process this. I guess I’m wondering…are these feelings normal? I already have a 4 year old and this feels very different than the first time.

Anyone not use a pack and play?

Baby is almost 5 months old and we didn’t bother buying one. We don’t plan to do overnights at families houses till at least a year old, and I felt weird about plopping her in one to play at home (maybe when she’s crawling/standing I’ll want a safe space to plop her in idk) But anyone just not use/buy one? Any huge pros to them?

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Obsessed with my baby’s brain

We discovered at 4.5 months that my LO wasn’t eating efficiently directly from the boob. She was getting enough food to produce plenty of diapers and sleep through the night but has consistently been 3rd/5th percentile in weight — and under 3rd percentile at her most recent appointment. She’s been gaining weight but very, very slowly. We started quantifying her intake (giving bottles of breast milk), with some boob afterwards, and she’s finally starting to steadily gain more. We have a weight check in a couple of weeks with her pediatrician. She’s a happy baby and is meeting all her milestones. My mama heart hurts a little though knowing she wasn’t getting as much food/nutrition as she should have been getting. Here’s my Q: has her development been hurt by this? Any research out there showing adverse, long-term impacts to baby’s brain if they’ve been a little underfed in those early months? =(