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?

**Anyone else have a really shy/anxious 4yo? Trying to work out what's normal.**

Our daughter is 4, just turned in June so she's the youngest in her kindy class. She's always been on the cautious side. Never did daycare — she was home with my wife or me and did playschool, so she's grown up pretty attached to us. When she started kindy it took ages before she stopped crying at drop off, but she got there and has been fine ever since.

About two months ago we signed her up for kids martial arts (4-7yr class) thinking it'd be good for her confidence. The gym is great, coaches are lovely, other kids are lovely. But every single time she cries the moment we walk in. We've been persistent, going twice a week, and mostly she just watches from the sidelines with my wife. She's managed a couple of half sessions and actually enjoyed them, but then the next class it's back to square one. The coaches and other kids keep inviting her in and she's just in shut down mode and refuses, too shy etc.

My wife's been finding it really hard. She came home in tears after one session, feeling embarrassed in front of the other parents and guilty that the coaches keep stopping to coax her when they should be teaching. She's convinced no other kid at kindy or the martial arts is like this and that something must be wrong.

Then a couple of weeks ago it started showing up at kindy too, which is new. She stayed inside by herself at recess and wouldn't go out even when her friends asked her to. Teachers thought she was sick but she wasn't. She just said she was tired. I tried to gently ask her about it at home that night and she completely shut down, said "I'm tired" again and walked out to watch TV.

And then today we had a Father's Day morning at kindy, dads invited in for an hour. She was okay for most of it, bit reserved, I had to nudge her to join in. But at the end all the kids went up the front to sing a song they'd been rehearsing all week. She just stood there biting her sleeve (a new thing she does when she's anxious), didn't sing, and burst into tears near the end. A teacher comforted her before I got to her. After that her little friend went to give her a hug and she was apprehensive about even that. She just shut down. None of the other kids are like that and I'm a bit heartbroken.

Probably didn't help that there were a bunch of unfamiliar dads in the room.

For context I've got ADHD myself, so I don't know how much of this is just genetics doing its thing.

We're thinking of pausing martial arts for now and thinking maybe a GP visit wouldn't hurt.

I guess I'm just after other dads who've been through this. Did your kid grow out of it? Did anything actually help, or did pushing make it worse? At what point did you decide it was worth getting someone professional involved vs just letting them be who they are? And how did you handle your partner stressing about it, because that's half the battle at the moment.

Any thoughts appreciated fellow daddits!

I am absolutely buried with work, working late again, feeling behind on so many tasks, and my beautiful, wonderful kids just wanted to have fun and play with me tonight and I could only give them about 20-30 minutes. I hate having to say no, and I would so much rather chill with them than anything else. Pardon my bitching, just need to vent about this shit.

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)

I have a 5 month old daughter, my first. I’m an elder millennial. My father is pushing 80 and underwent major surgery today and things haven’t gone as planned.

The last few years have been hard as I’ve been dealing with both my aging parents (it’s not all on me— I have siblings!) but no one prepares you for how hard it is to watch your parents age.

Truthfully, my relationship with my dad is complicated (not bad, just complicated) but my heart is just broken.

There’s still a good chance of survival I think, but he’s been sedated for almost 16 hours for what should have been a 4-5 hour surgery.

There’s more context to all this than I care to give, but man this is hard. Thanks for reading guys.

"Happy birthday to my amazing son! Watching you grow into the man you are today has been the greatest joy, and I'm incredibly proud of your kindness, strength, and everything you've achieved; may this year bring you endless happiness, success, and everything your heart desires, always remember you're my pride and joy, and I'll always be here for you."

This is what my dad sent me on my birthday

Did I win???

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?

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.

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!

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

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

from, dad with little sleep

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.

We’re in a pretty good spot with my four year where our bedtime routine is only about 15 minutes. But, it’s still stressful that I’m going to take one wrong step and screw it up.

So, what age do bedtime routines fade and they just do it themself? I have no memory of when that started when I was a kid.

Looking for advice from my fellow Dads in what my wife and I can do here.

We have a 4 year old boy and a 2 year old girl. My wife and I are totally out of ideas what we can do on their level of crying and screaming nonstop.

I wake up in the morning to screaming and crying that they want to get out of their room. We do and then go downstairs to either our dogs being in the room doing absolutely nothing beyond they’re in the room (yes, that will start crying and yelling that they don’t like this), then something else will happen and then something else and it’s just the worst day from hell to start the day.

My wife or myself or together as a family we all go to daycare for the day. The trip there is usually full of screaming about whatever from a stuffed animal to they want the other parent who isn’t there.

When we pick them up from daycare, it’s more crying and screaming on the way home. Then when we are home and we’re making dinner, more crying and screaming.

Then bedtime we end the day with screaming Momma and Dada for literal hours while crying and screaming. They go to bed at 7:30ish and then until 11:00pm, it just keeps repeating of Momma and Dada?! If we go in and ask what’s up? It’s like, to ask us a question like why is the sky blue? Or some other stall tactic.

We both feel so overstimulated and we love our kids, but holy shit. Both of you just stop screaming and crying like 70% of the time we’re with you!

We have tried everything we can think of.

Coddling them, let them scream it out, laying in bed with them for a while, having time outs, having 1-1 chats of their actions are not okay, ignoring whatever they did (within reason), playing along with their asks, asking them what’s going on? Why are you doing this?

We’re both so tired.

Has anyone else been in this situation before? Suggestions?

Turns out building one is about as much as you can buy one online. But it way more fun and rewarding to build it with the kids, headaches and all. Also I know the shop is a disaster its on the list to clean but, you know..... kids and life.

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.

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?

My just turned seven year old has a stuffed husky dog plus that he’s had for three or four years and he LOVES this thing. Takes it with him everywhere. Has given him a personality. Almost like a family member.

He’s been gone for month. We’ve turned the house upside down and it’s done. He liked to put him in empty Amazon boxes, pretending it was a doghouse, and I’m almost certain now that either I or my wife accidentally threw him away in one of those.

He’s absolutely devastated and I’m heartbroken as well. He’s still depressed, continues to ask about him. I’ve tried everything. Have gotten several new ones, exact same ones, at his request. But it’s just not the same for him and I’m really struggling now helping him to get through this.

What else can I try to do? I’m just gutted, and so is he.

…my sons class is nut free 💔

PB&J is like half of his diet

dads, whats the best sunflower/etc butter?

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.

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?