I have twin boys "1 year old" when I carry them or hug them they twist around and try to break free to crawl on the floor but every time they see me they crawl towards me and grab my pant leg. Then I carry them and they act like I'm hurting them although I try to be as gentle as possible.. but they keep trying to break free whether I'm sitting or walking or standing....Thoughts?

When did kids get this smart? My 3 year old just slapped me really hard across the face, when I asked him why he slapped me, his response was " I didn't slap you daddy, I just high fived your face"

Recently had the back yard renovated with a new outdoor kitchen and I’ve got 2 under 2. I’ve got some baby proofing gear (also pictured) but I don’t know how well it’s going to hold up being outside. Behind the doors is completely open space. The kitchen is covered by a pergola so not threat there. Any tips, tricks, or recommendations are greatly appreciated. Questions about the setup, process, lessons learned are also welcome. If this isn’t the right place to post, I’ll delete and move.

…my sons class is nut free 💔

PB&J is like half of his diet

dads, whats the best sunflower/etc butter?

I'll start this off by saying I'm immensely lucky. My wife and I work at a place that grants 6 months of parental leave per parent. 3 months are paid and the other three can be supplemented with vacation and sick leave. Wife and I have done a split leave - we took the first two weeks together and she got the first three months, I take the next, then we trade off again so kiddo gets a whole year with a parent. This is the process we used with our first and the process we are planning to use for the second.

I realize not everyone has that benefit and that not everyone has support close by - my in laws live only five minutes away. With that being said I've been burned out for months before I took leave and the burnout is still here. My day to day routine is slowly driving me crazy.

This day to day routine is killing me. 😭

6a- wake up and feed baby

7a - get toddler on potty and turn on Elmo so I can once again feed baby

8a - finally get around to making toddler breakfast and once again feed baby. Try to get both boys dressed for the day.

9a - MIL arrives and allows me to get dressed. Change toddler again due to inevitable potty accident. Feed baby again. Get bottles and changes of clothing ready for outing.

10a try to get out of the house for an outing for child's enrichment. Park or library on days where MIL is here.

11a stress about toddler running away as fast as he can from his grandparents while I sit and feed baby again.

12p - lunch time

1p - MIL leaves for a doctor's appointment or a lunch with a friend or a client. I take the boys on a drive and pray they fall asleep

2p - put toddler in bed and pray he stays asleep. Baby is awake and needs food again. Feed baby.

3p - try to get something done. I could do class work or laundry or dishes. Fail and fall asleep.

3:30p toddler and baby are both awake and crying. Put toddler on the potty and leave crying baby somewhere safe. Put toddler in front of TV and make milk for baby. Try not to cry.

4p wife is driving home from work. Hold fussy baby and try to play with toddler and read him books.

5p wife is home and needs to make dinner. Keep distracting the boys. Feed baby and play with toddler.

6p wonder how it's already 6p. Finish dinner. Help wrangle the boys to go on a walk or take them on another outing to the park this time with wife.

7p go home and put toddler in front of Elmo. Give him snack. Feed baby. Give toddler his bath.

8p try to keep baby from crying and read the toddler his book with wife.

8:30 brush teeth with family to encourage toddler to have healthy habits

9p baby is hungry again. Feed him. Give him bath. Get him changed in jammies.

9:30 wife has finally convinced toddler to sleep. She has to do dishes for the baby bottles and get ready for work. Hold steady and stay with baby.

10p - trade baby duty. Take out the trash. Do laundry. Do dishes. It's somehow 10:30. Feed baby his last bottle for the night.

11p - try not to cry and do class work until I cannot keep eyes open.

3a - baby is awake and needs milk.

6-a repeat.

I managed to do full time work and graduate school classes and parent my first kid last year. I don't know why it feels so much harder now when I don't even have the work stress in the equation.

TLDR: I'm in a very privileged situation yet I am still exhausted.

Perks of having kids sleep in your bed. Woke up to an eye poke ( solid eye poke) then boom, kick to the balls ( another solid hit).

Does your kick have some moves you have to defend while sleeping?

I guess I just need to vent briefly, but I'm at my wits end. I can't even remember the last time I got a full night's sleep. My one year old daughter will rarely be asleep before 10:30-11:00, no matter what we do with nap adjustments or bedtime routine, etc... I never wake up in the morning without our LO kicking me in the face because she's been brought into bed.

I want to do ferber training, but as gutting as it is, my wife just won't get on board with it. All I know is that I need sleep. I've resorted to buying a couch for my shop and sleeping at work after I send my crews out for the day, but then I'm neglecting my responsibilities.

I feel like every aspect of my life is absolutely suffering and something's bound to give.

I just don't know what else to do at this point.

I took off my wedding ring for good today. Over the last month I’ve realized that the damn thing won’t stay on anymore because I’m down 85 pounds since December. This particular ring can’t be resized, unfortunately. In the market for a replacement now! Considering doing a tattoo, maybe getting a glowstone ring (is that cringe now?). Anyone have any cool ring tattoos or thought on glowstone rings to share?

Hello Fellow Dads

Please help. My family just moved to a different state for my job. It’s only been two months and she decides she doesn’t love me anymore because I work too much and wants to leave. She’s said she’s taking my two boys who are only one and two and our dog of 6 years. She said because I work so much I can’t care for them so she gets to take them and care for them. I’m guessing she’s going to her parents 3 states over where I won’t be able to see them often. She says I can visit them when I can and that she won’t keep them from me but I don’t believe her. Is she able to do this? What can I do to be sure I still know my boys?

Hey,

As an avid gamer I'd like to get my kids into gaming as its something they are both curious about. Unfortunately they are both quite young (3 and 4 y/o) and still developing hand eye co-ordination, therefore there will be quite a skill discrepancy and they will likely get frustrated if they keep failing which I don't want to keep happening and then being asked to do it for them.

Any recommendations for Co-Op games which are either very low stakes or are of a level where 1 player can carry the entire game without having to take over? Looking ideally for games that can be played in true co-op on the same device rather than Network.

If it helps my console list is

Megadrive

Ps1/Ps2

xbox360

Xbox one

Ps4

Switch

PC (current mid range gaming setup)

We have essentially exhausted all of our ideas for our 1 and 2 year old when it’s crummy outside. We either have rain or it’s too hot to be outside lately and we’ve done everything our minds can think up. Now, I’d love some suggestions from the awesome dads on here that have some creative games or activities for boys! Thanks in advance gents!

I currently drive a 2016 Rogue and my wife drives a 2012 Civic. My car is mostly fine but she is well due for an upgrade, especially with an almost-6 y/o and a 16 month old.

We want to spend about $50k max (we're paying cash, no financing), and my wife is leaning toward an electric SUV. We're in NJ and have plenty of charging spots. I'm more in favor of a Minivan, but it'll mostly be her daily driver, so it'll be a bit more her call in the end. What are your guys' suggestions? She was specifically looking at the Grand Highlander (Hybrid), Santa Fe (Hybrid), Ev9 (Electric), and the Model Y (I'm a bit iffy on Tesla for obvious reasons).

So I love my wife. She has two kids from previous relationships 13f and 18m. We also now have a 1 month old boy together.

Normal newborn struggles but that's not why I'm here.

something I've always battled with the step-daughter is just wasting energy and water. I've backed off on my comments overall but still point stuff out at times.

Like the one I regularly make directly to the step daughter is please close the door while the AC is on. This is because otherwise if she's waiting for her dad to pick her up she'll just leave it open for half hour or more. or when she's about getting ready to leave she'll just stand there with the door open for 10 minutes.

I don't like yell or anything. Just "Step daughter can you please either go or close the door the AC is on."

I do make comments to the wife about her 1+ hour long showers but I'm not going to touch that one directly.

My ten month old daughter does not sleep. She hasn't slept through a night yet. She is up every 2 hours. She does not sit still. I don't know if she can't get comfortable or what, but nothing the wife and I do work.

She is still nursing, so my wife will get her from the crib, feed her until she falls asleep, and put her back in the crib. Repeat every 1-2 hours.

We can't live like this. How does this child have so much energy on 4-6 hours of sleep a night?

Any advice is welcome. I'm desperate. Thanks, dads.

My wife is at 35 weeks with our first. I'm really excited, we have pretty much everything ready, we are about to finish birthing classes, I've been trying to take everything off her plate that I can and be Mr. Supportive Perfect Husband, and I thought we'd been checking all the right boxes.

She has been exploding at me pretty much every day for the past week or two. Yelling about how she's alone in this, how she doesn't want my parents anywhere near the kid for at least three weeks, how I won't take any of her issues seriously if she gets post-partum depression, etc. My dad has dementia, and she told me tonight I'm incapable of "standing up" to him? That has never been brought up previously, is objectively not true, and is also not really a factor since he's far along enough in his dementia that you can't "stand up" to him, it's more like babysitting. She seems convinced he'll hurt our baby, which none of us would ever allow. I honestly kind of wonder if her following the Clancy trial has contributed to these fears.

Is it normal for her to be having massive blow ups like this? Is this something anyone else experienced? I try talking to her about it with every ounce of empathy and active listening my moderately autistic self can muster and she just gets angrier.

For the last years I have ran many marathons and I am part of a running club, but unfortunate enough I am already not able to run anymore for over one year and recovery will take at least one more year.

When my boy was 2 months I just joined a local race with him in my carrier on my chest because I missed it so much and I got a lot of weird looks and finished last in the walking categories. Since then I didn't dare to do it anymore. Personally I loved it as something we did together, gave mum some rest and he always fell right away asleep when we walk like this together.

Now that he is 1 and a bit bigger he loves to go hike with me in the backpack and I would like to join some races as I really miss it, but can't run of course. Did anybody else do that here and just joined the walking categorie with their child?

So my son has been reliably daytime potty trained for 4 years now, but going into 2nd grade he still wears pull-ups and absolutely soaks them *nightly*.

Totally understand that bedwetting isn't a huge big deal, particularly with boys (we've discussed with the pediatrician a few times).

But, what I'm wondering - is it at all worrying that he's basically never had a single dry night, ever--? At seven?

We never shame him at all, nor do his siblings - everyone just kind of accepts that he needs pull-ups at night, and the family as a whole is super super chill with it.

But I'm gradually getting a bit nervous, because even friend's family that we've talked with that have kids dealing with bedwetting, they at least have *occasional* dry nights...? Some quite a bit younger than my son, who would wake up in a puddle of pee if he didn't have a Goodnight on. Pediatrician is completely unconcerned, as he's never had any kind of issues with constipation, nothing.

Help, dadditors!

My wife and I have 18-month-old twins, and we’re taking our first flight with them next month (they’ll be almost 20 months old). I don’t know that any amount of preparation will truly make me feel ready for this, but I’d love to hear from parents who have done it: what have you found that actually makes traveling/flying with toddlers less stressful?

We’re renting car seats with our rental car, so at least we won’t have to haul those through the airport. We’ll also be bringing their Pack ’n Plays, which feels like a lot already.

Our other big question is transportation in the airport. We have a Cybex Gazelle stroller, but we’re also considering getting a wagon (specifically the Veer City Cruiser). The wagon is…expensive, though, so I’m not sure if it’s worth buying one specifically for this trip (we’d use it for other stuff, too, but this would be the initial use).

Basically, I’d love any and all advice: airport logistics, what to bring, what not to bring, stroller vs. wagon, getting through security, surviving the actual flight, etc.

What do you wish you had known before your first flight with toddlers?

I don’t know why but this birthday is just weighing much more heavily on me than the first 4. Maybes it’s because he starts kindergarten next week or maybe because I just turned 40 a couple of weeks ago but this birthday seems much more transformational. On the one hand I’m so excited for the future, so proud of the person he’s becoming, and overall I’m just really happy with my relationship with him. But there’s just a deep, deep sense of melancholy that’s hanging around my neck. Maybe there are others who have felt/ or are currently feeling like this as well.

Seriously, I know you want it so stop spitting it out

from, dad with little sleep

Seriously it’s mostly happy shrieks but sometimes we’re somewhere where the sound bounces like a stairwell and I get worried.

It's weird to me that as a kid, Reading Rainbow was something that taught me that it was ok to be different. It was ok to read books and use your imagination. That it was ok to ask why, and how, and who and where. It was a favorite part of my day, to escape into that world of books because I was taught that it was ok by Geordi LaForge.

Today, Reading Rainbow is still teaching me things. Like that it's ok to say, "I am not ok". That it is ok to show emotion. To cry. To seek help and talk to people about your problems and not to just hide them for fear of humility or the fear of being exposed and being weak. And that it is still ok to escape. Into your imagination, into a book, into yourself.

I am not ok. I do not like myself. I have been struggling for awhile. I am not happy with who I am and the world I've created for myself to live in. I love life, I love the people in my life. I don't want any of that to change, I want myself to change.

And that scares me.

So far therapy hasn't given me any tools or new ways to look at my struggle. So far my efforts haven't worked. But for my kids, my wife, and myself I'll continue trying.

Thank you Mychal for making your own struggles public. For teaching everyone, kids, adults, that it is ok to be yourself, even if that person is sad. And for being you. I am happy you are here. For me, for my children, and for humanity in general.

https://people.com/reading-rainbow-host-mychal-threets-shares-update-after-being-hospitalized-psychiatric-hold-12065882

My wife sent me this picture of my daughter's squishmallow wearing my tshirt late at night after I attended a friend's wedding at a different city. I have never slept outside the house since she was born (she is 7 now). She put the tshirt on it and hugged it to sleep saying that she misses dad. Needless to say I hadn't cried like this in a while and being alone at my hotel room didn't help.

Edit: I'm not upset and I had the choice to go on trips with friends and family but I choose not to because I always wanted to be there for her. I got emotional and cried because I felt I wasn't there when she needed me even if it was just for a before bedtime hug and I wanted to share the story.

Hi Dads!

New first time dad here to an adorable 12 week old boy. A few days ago I handled my first bath time solo (usually my wife and I do bath time together) and my lower back and knees were not ready!

I just turned 34 recently and want to be able to keep playing with my baby for longer stretches as he gets more active! I’ve got some weight to lose, but with a desk job and gaming hobby I know I’ve got more to work on 😅.

Any stretches some dads can recommend to help with mobility and being able to spend more time at his level?

I can bend down and touch my toes so I’m not starting from absolute zero! But my hips and lower back need some help!

And whoever (Usborne and your excellent books) uses this battery to keep powering their books.