Parenting Contents Archive

Do what works best for your baby for sleep

Browsing through reddit when I see "feed your baby to sleep" and "don't feed your baby to sleep." Ya'll I can not stress this enough. DO WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU, YOUR BABY AND YOUR FAMILY. I remember trying to find advice as a new parent and feeling like I was failing my baby. If your baby is safe and happy then you're doing it right. If being a parent has taught me anything it's to be in the now. What works for your baby this week may not be the same tomorrow, or next week. Take it one day, shit one hour at a time. Know you're doing great and soon the early days will be behind you and you may even miss them a little. Give that baby a snuggle for me and stay strong 💪 you got this.

Baby sitters bringing their own kids

I’ve been trying to find a sitter to help my parents out with my kiddo while I’m working, for maybe 4-8 hours a week on a Saturday. Everyone I’ve interviewed has requested at least $17/hour and 2 have requested to bring their own kids with them. Is this common? If a sitter is bringing their own children to your house, is the going hourly rate still over $15/hr? How do you expect them to handle conflict between their child(Ren) and yours? Do they bring their own snacks and such or do you provide that for their kids in addition to their hourly wage? And how do you ensure your kid is getting adequate attention/supervision, particularly if the sitter’s kids are significantly younger, like toddler age?

In what ways are you failing as a parent?

What are some ways you feel like you suck as a parent or some mistakes you have made ? I ask because maybe if we have a thread of all our mistakes, screw up and general ways we just suck as parents it’ll make us all feel a little bit better about ourselves lol ! Judgement free zone !

I fucking hate my life :)

14 month old showing anger issues which seems to be genetic from his dad, who’s always fucking angry for nothing from the minute he wakes up till he goes to sleep. All of a sudden being “sensitive” when people make jokes about him when he jokes about everyone and isn’t apologetic when others get offended. I’m so fucking tired of walking on eggshells with both husband and son. I can’t even say good morning and give my son a kiss without him getting all pissy and wanting to slap me in the face. I feel so defeated every single day, it’s starting to get harder and harder to pretend to be happy everyday and that nothings wrong. I’m so tired of doing everything and making sure my husband has nothing to worry about just for him to get mad at me over a stupid fucking joke. I’m seriously going to blow up one of these days, I’m not sure how much longer I can keep holding everything in.

When did you first scare your baby?

So this morning hubs and I are tidying the house as my father is coming over for the night. Our 3 month old daughter was sitting in her bounce chair, and my hubs was vacuuming. I've heard of some babies falling asleep with the vacuum on, however as hubby was vacuuming she was staring at him wide-eyed wondering what in god's name he was doing. He finally went to vacuum under her bounce chair and was making a funny face at her, when she dropped her bottom lip and starting wailing because she was scared. I immediately picked her up to comfort her but we couldn't help but laugh because she kept turning around and giving daddy a look of frightened betrayal. When did your baby have their first scare and what did they do? EDIT: I should've added "accidentally" to my title, I don't want people thinking I'm out here purposefully trying to traumatize my child!

"..the best way to help children become adaptable is to help them become comfortable with prediction errors. Those who see errors as opportunities to learn & try again are the ppl who will most quickly find new solutions."-Madeline Levine It's how kids become resilient!

Independent play

Is there an age where babies start to enjoy independent play or is it something they just have to get used to? We try to periodically have him be alone in the pack n play with some stuff in there to play around with but he just hates being left alone. He'll just cry and scream. He's totally down with playing by himself on my bed if I'm sitting there but put him on floor or pack n play alone and he freaks. It makes it kind of hard to be able to do anything else bc I can't even leave him somewhere without him crying. He's 6.5 months btw.

At the End of my Rope with Scissors

I have lost the will to be a Mother. I am in the process of exiting an abusive marriage and moved halfway across the country to do so. It is extremely isolating, I don't have a vehicle, and I'm working from home. I have a little assistance from my brother and sister-in-law, but it is still incredibly difficult. My 2.5 yo daughter is going through a sleep regression and struggling with teething pains so bedtime/naps have been a complete disaster. I am completely depleted, I feel as if I have nothing left to give her at this time. I have started taking anti-depressants but haven't seen results yet. I guess I'm here to seek encouragement, motivation, anything to get through this. I have never felt so hopeless before, though I know no situation is truly hopeless it is still hard to make it from one day to the next.

Daughter wants to do 300,000 steps on November for charity!

She's 7. A friend at school recently had a baby brother but he was a few weeks early so spent a lot of time in hospital. A charity got in touch with the family and were amazingly supportive. My daughter is my rainbow baby and while I've never needed this particular charity's help, they do amazing work for preemie babies. I was scrolling SM and saw the mum is doing this steps for charity and wanted to be sponsored. Last year my daughter raised £550 for the NHS during lockdown. She asked if she could do steps too as she loves raising money for others. I got in touch with the charity and they said only over 18s can sign up but she can join in. She's had it up 24 hours and already raised £35! I'm so proud of her!

What's so amazing about the SNOO bassinet?

My baby is too old for it anyway, but I just came across the SNOO bassinet for the first time and was shocked to see it costs nearly $2,000. And you can only use it for up to 4-6 months. Yet some people swear by it. Is it really that amazing?

2 year sleep aggression … help!!!!

I posted this to toddlers too but thought I might try here as well… When this sleep regression hit, her schedule was down tight: 7:30pm bedtime, 7-ish am wake up (she typically sleeps through the night) and a 1:30 pm nap time where she would happily go down for her nap and sleep until 4pm. Now she’s hit sleep regression. Wakes up multiple times in the night, won’t go down for her nap. She acts like she’s being tortured. My question is this: if my 2 year old barely sleeps through the night causing back to back meltdown epic tantrums, should I make her have a morning nap? Or should I stick as closely to her afternoon nap schedule as possible??? She’s obviously exhausted….. Help!!!

Baby's sense of humour...

- Husband: cutting up branches outside and putting them in a bin - Baby: watching and laughing uncontrollably 😂🥰 What are some random things that make your baby laugh?!

Baby won't smile at me.

Baby will smile at anyone. Anyone. But not me. I really have to work to get a small little half-smile, and most of the time he will just look at me as if I'm a crazy person. He will smile at dad, and when I talk to him a few seconds later. Nothing. I spend my entire day and night taking care of him, and it feels as if I'm just the person who changes his diaper - not his mom whom he loves. I'm having some difficulty with PPD and I'm currently going to a therapist for it. And it feels as if my baby realizes that I'm not 100% happy and is punishing me for it. Any other parents who are experiencing this? It hurts because I love this bub so much and went through hell for him. :( He is 12 weeks old by the way.

I always want whats best

As a parent I want the best for my daughter as most of you will for your kids. I was watching a video on tiktok the other day where a woman was preaching that kids don’t legally need to do homework as it is against the human rights act. Now this is for the people in UK mainly but what’s your opinion? My mind says if there is anything more rewarding is playing words and letter games to see how she knows them and not to simply leave it all to the school to teach them. It’s called engaging with your child. I will do anything for my daughter even it puts me out. Please tell me what you think.

negative self talk in a 5yr old

My kid often gets grumpy and tells us they are "stupid, and no one likes them." "I'm nobody. I'm nothing" They say that their school friends tell them this, but by all accounts from school and before and after school program, this is not true. The teacher assures us our child is "exactly where they need to be" intelligence wise, and she has not witnessed any bullying. I watch TV with my kid, and nothing they watch has these kinds of messages and they are an only child. Neither myself nor my husband uses this kind of language. We are worried it's negative self talk. Is my kid too young for therapy. My heart hurts for them so bad.