Parenting Contents Archive

Would you let your toddler stay in the same house with unvaccinated adults?

We had planned a family reunion with about 10 people for this fall, and I just found out not everyone is vaccinated. One of those not vaccinated is traveling from Florida. I’m considering not bringing my 3-year-old. I feel like living in a crowded house for 3 days is a bigger risk than, say, going to the grocery store or meeting up at the park. And the delta variant scares me a little. How much of a risk do you think it is to have several days of close contact with unvaccinated adults?

My wife wakes our baby up every night and I don’t know how to make her stop.

My son is just over 6 months old, and virtually every single night my wife gets up between 2/3AM to nurse/hold him. The thing is that I really don’t think he needs this at all. He makes noise when he sleeps, which I would equate to babbling as opposed to crying. When my wife gets him in the middle of the night, he is face down (how he insists to sleep) and babbling with his eyes shut. When she grabs him, he has a startled sort of jump through his body. He completely seems asleep to me. Our doctor just confirmed to us at 6 month checkup that he does not require food in the middle of the night. And he stayed with his grandparents last week and slept through the night for the first time. I think it’s because he was not woken up! I don’t know what to do, and I feel like the lack of sleep is wearing on both of us. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions?

What stops us from seeking help for PPD?

I had full blown postpartum depression and I never seeked help! Now after the fog is over, I wonder what was going on, why didn't I ask for help? In my case, it was probably just being overwhelmed and putting myself first. What about you? What stops/stopped you from seeking help if you had postpartum depression? I am genuinely curious why we, moms, dont seek help when we are down?

Never able to feel caught up

Anyone else exhausted and feeling constant guilt because of the millions of things that need to be done that pile up weekend after weekend? Two full time working parents, three kids, a yard full of weeds, laundry to be folded, messes that reappear no matter how much cleaning you do… how does anyone ever feel caught up!! There is an impossible balance between recovering from the work week and managing a household that makes me feel like a total failure. I am convinced that I just don’t know how to manage my time, but the moment I start to get something done the toddler demands to be held. Does it ever get easier?

How much formula should a 6 month have during the day when having 3 meals?

Hi everyone, My baby is now on 3 meals a day as well as formula which is fine. The problem I'm having is that he's having a lot of trouble sleeping at night and wakes to feed around 3 times (with constant stirring in between). His bottle feeds are a bit sporadic at the moment so I'm trying to keep a diary to see how much he's being fed, naps, etc. But until then, does anyone know how much formula he should be getting during the day? I'm worried that I'm under-feeding him which is causing him to wake frequently for feeds in the night 😞 Any advice would be great! Thank you

2 yo irrationally afraid of houseflies

Okay I know flies are gross and annoying but she is absolutely terrified of them, like screaming, crying, complete panic. She keeps saying they’re going to eat her(??) I don’t know where she got that idea from like at all. I told her that it won’t eat her and this kind of fly doesn’t even have a mouth to do that. Any attempts to calm her down won’t work. She only calms down once the fly is gone or killed but there are a lot of flies in our house right now I think because of the heat. I seriously don’t know what to do to help her not be scared anymore.

Child refusing my culture

I moved to the country I currently reside in at the age of 23 and married a local man. Don't get me wrong, I could have used my language more and presented my child with the culture more than what I did, it was a hard time financially and I was working non stop, but the result is that now at the age of 5 he is English and only English. Food can only be local, television only local, books only in English etc. It makes me sad that he is refusing to explore that part of him and he is not able to communicate with my side of the family, but then again I don't want to make him do something he doesn't want to. Should I pursue trying to educate him about the culture and language from my home country?

Father Gets Upset When My Step-Children Call Me “Daddy”

I’ve been with my Fiancé for over 2 years now and have been taking care of her two girls the whole time. They are 4 and 5 now, but I met them when they were 2 and 3. I love them like they’re my own. We encourage them to call me whatever they want. They either call me by my name or they call me Daddy. Their Father, however, gets very upset with this and his side of the family, including him, do their best to teach them that this is wrong whenever they visit. It’s to the point where he’s actually tried taking legal action, with his lawyer calling it “disturbing.” (It obviously didn’t get any traction). Is there anything I can do to prevent this guy from causing my girls any further confusion? Is there anyone else who has faced a similar situation?

Deep cleaned my master suite, try to enjoy the fruits of my Labour…. And everything just goes to hell in a hand basket

Oh you know, worked my ass off making the space nice and clean, relaxing yesterday… go to fucking use it to try to get a break from angry toddler and some relief from third trimester pains… only to have the entire shower shelf come crashing down with everything on the shelves…. More cleaning today. Sighhhhh. I woke up with a migraine and nosebleed- oy I’m over it.

Twin daughters prefer me over dad. Dad is sad. Help?

My twins are 6 years old and have been mommy’s girls from day one. They never went through the phase of being daddies girls ever. My husband is a good dad but works a lot. I am the one who is always around and does the pick ups and drop offs. We are both equally strict with them, he spoils them more and I’m ok with that because it’s their thing. But they just prefer me to him. Always wanting to sit by me, put them to bed, cuddles with me, just basically obsessed with me lol. Anyways, now my husband has expressed to me that he is upset they don’t want him like they want me and he’s wondering what he can do to strengthen their bond. I’ve told him to just show interest in their lives, remember their favorites, know who their friends are, etc. But I would like to know what others have done to help strengthen the bonds their spouse has with the other parent. Is there anything I should be doing? What about him? Thanks for your help!

Both my husband and I are down with a stomach bug, and trying desperately to keep up with out 7 month old baby.

I can't hold food down. How the heck can I take care of a kid?

Is a baby gate considered a fence? (Neighborhood rules)

Hello everyone. We’re moving into a community that doesn’t allow fences as part of their rules. I was wondering if you thought they would possibly consider an outdoor baby gate to corral our toddler on the deck with a fence or not? My husband doesn’t think we even need to ask because it’s a gate, not a fence. But if you live in a community with similar rules, what are your thoughts? There’s a huge ditch behind our house, and that worries me. :( Any safety advice if you think it is a no go?

My 2yo will no longer go to bed

I am at the end of my rope here. My child just will NOT ago to sleep at bedtime. We have had a bedtime routine in place for over a year now. She always has her bath, a book, milk and bed. Up until recently this routine worked and although she may have sometimes cried a little she always went off to sleep. Well not anymore. Lately she just keeps getting up, and no matter how many times we do the putback routine she keeps getting up. It took us over two hours of putting her back to bed a week ago and now it’s at the stage where we physically have to hold her door shut so she’ll go to bed. I hate doing that as it makes me feel terrible, but nothing is working. She still has a daytime nap and I have thought about dropping that, but on the days we’ve tried she’s tired and irritated by 4pm and won’t eat dinner. Please help, any advice and tips would be greatly appreciated.

"If we don’t express our emotions, they pile up like a debt that will eventually come due." @everforwardclub https://t.co/u1wvzzh8QC

My 8 day old daughter only stops crying to eat and sleep but doesn’t sleep much.

We can calm her down for a little bit like 5-10minutes but then she starts up again. We tried colic cure and baby gasX we have tried everything on the entire internet nothing works and the doctor said she’s healthy. We average about 1 hour of sleep a day now. This can’t be normal.