Like I get it, the clothes have to be cute or they won't sell well because a grandparent would never buy something practical.

But do we really really need the tiny arm holes? Or all these cutesy parts that soak up vomit like sponges? Or endless rows of buttons? My baby is 8 months old and putting a onesie on her feels like putting a fingerless gloves on an octopus. An octopus with very little patience.

I dream of the day where it's socially acceptable to dress your baby with a poncho and that's it. Or even better, those gym bro t-shirts with the huge arm holes.

My 16 year old came home from his girlfriends last night and said her parents have offered him to move in.

They've been dating for 3 months, friends for a bit longer.

I know i need to speak to her parents as he may be exaggerating ...it could have been a case of "you're welcome any time! You should just move in ha ha ha". But 3 months is incredibly early to even consider that at his age.

I just don't know how I feel about this. Yes, legally, at 16 years old he can move out but he wont talk to me as to why. He has few rules at home, a few chores but nothing crazy. Help with washing the pots a few times a week and walk the dog in the morning. So its not as if he feels restricted. If anything, its the opposite. He has plenty of privacy and we include him in everything we can but he chooses to go to his room on his xbox.

Has anyone else had any experience with a similar situation? I'm just a bit lost.

Edit. Should have clarified, we're in the UK. We have always shown interest and tried to encourage him to spend time with us, participate in activities, days out etc but, typical teenage boy, would rather be in his room.

This has come from no where.

I want to say no, of course I do, but because legally he can mkve out at 16, i dont want it to get to a point where i say no and he decides to do it anyway.

I'm baffled as to what the state of minds her parents are in to even offer this without even meeting me or my wife.

I took on a 13 (now 17) year old and he came from an extremely abusive household. I’ve had a ton of issues with him but I think he’s finally gotten ok with his permanent housing and has warmed up to me a lot this year and has gotten very cuddly. Last night he was angry screaming about how bad our family is and how they’ve messed him up so I put on a show and just held him in my lap and he fell asleep in less than 5 mins, it was the sweetest thing. I’m not perfect but he feels so safe with me and I love that I’m doing something right

I don't even care if they sleep in actually I am just SO SICK of them waking up before 6am. My son (5) wakes up and immediately leaves his room to go bother my daughter (4) in her room, or go try to sneak candy or juice from the kitchen (which we've told him a million times not to have food in his room and not to eat things without us knowing in case he chokes Gd forbid) or he just gets into things he shouldn't.

In an ideal world I'd have the money to set up some kind of climbing thing in his room that he could do in the morning instead of waking everyone else up.

When we get up to reprimand him, or when he inevitably bothers his sister and she scresms, it wakes my 6mo old who is impossible to get back to sleep and cranky from being tired.

Since I know it will be asked they go to bed around 7:30 and we're working to slowly move that later but in the past it doesn't matter what time they go to bed they're up before 6.

Any advice?

I know the timing sounds weird, but the youngest (18) just graduated and the oldest two (22 and 20) took a few gap years after graduating. I'm so happy and excited for them, especially for the oldest two who had a hard time figuring out what they wanted to do.

However it's the first time any of them have left home for any amount of time more than a few weeks and I'm feeling a little anxious. The good thing is they are all going to the same college 3 hours away so I know they'll have each other close if they need it. But after 22 years I'm going to have an empty house (well with my husband) and I don't know how I'm going to handle it.

Any words of encouragement are appreciated.

I was a single mom raising two kids and I cant tell you how worried I was, everyday was a task. But now when I look back a them I love how they have grown up. They actually wanna be with me. Make plans with me. Share their lives with me and it makes me so happy

My daughter is 11 years old and has obtained an irrationally-strong need to purchase everything she sees. I'm not talking about just a phase.. This has been an issue for years. Its been manageable for awhile, but now she's earning her own money and using it to buy more than our tiny house can handle. Everything from dime-sized ceramic ducks, to camping chairs and even a flippin fish tank "for art" that she doesn't even use.

We are a divorced family and I worry shes using it as some type of coping mechanism. On days shes low on money, she asks me for *everything* she sees and its exhausting and embarassing. We cant even go outside because she wants to window shop and buy the most unnecessary items she sees out and about.

Does this seem like something we'll need to see a counselor for? I worry about her turning into a hoarder when she starts actually working a job and living on her own. But also, would love any recommendations for the "now" without completely stripping her of child-sized income.

At this age she is off on her own quite a bit with friends and school activities, and I dont want to leave her without any money. But if she's using her lunch money to buy her friends pokemon cards (even though she hates pokemon) .....then I just dont know. I just feel at a loss.

I just caught my 7 year old (who has a super runny nose from a cold) wiping their nose on our bathroom hand towel... That we use to dry our hands... Our clean hands... And here I thought washing my hands would help stop the spread of diseases. No wonder I am already sick.

His grandmother gives him a towel to use when he is visiting her because she is weird about germs and doesn't have a bathroom garbage (hence no tissues in the house I suppose). So, I guess all week my kid has been secretly using our hand towels as tissue replacements too. The kicker? WE HAVE TISSUES NEXT TO THE GARBAGE IN OUR BATHROOM. Knowing I have been drying my hands on snot towels is just... so gross...

Rant over. I'm going to make some tea.

Little bit of background before I elaborate: I am a single father and we live in a rural part of the country. We live in a small town, and I never went to college or had much of an education at all. I work as a construction worker, but I always knew my son was destined for something bigger. He was very smart from a young age and he had a lot of problems with his grades in the sense that he would beat himself up over tiny mistakes. Then, in high school that problem went away, but now that he is away at college at a very prestigious school for aerospace engineering, that has come back in full force.

He is currently a sophomore, and he wants to become an officer in the Air Force (probably since I enlisted in the AF after high school), so I was very supportive of that! But he is going all out for it, taking on every opportunity he can. He is advising three undergraduate group research projects in aerospace engineering, maintaining a 4.0 GPA, has a campus job, works out every morning, is a TA and a tutor for the math department, and is doing a research internship at a Naval Base! He only gets about two-three hours of sleep a night, and his whole personality is gone. When I call him, he is like a ghost: his eyes are glossed over, he looks like he is falling asleep, and he isn’t the same kid I know him to be. He has never been one to ask for help, and whenever I say that maybe he is doing too much, he always says something along the lines of “No, it’s okay! I’ve got it!” He refuses to admit that anything is wrong, and always wants to put 100% into everything when that isn’t really possible.

He complains when he messes up on exams, is hard on himself when his workout isn’t as good as he hoped, and is just so hard on himself in general when he is doing so much that it is unsustainable!

I am really worried for him because I can tell how badly he wants to succeed, but I also see that he is losing himself in chasing his dreams this harshly. I know nothing about college. Is this normal? Any other parents go through this? How can I help him see that what he is doing isn’t healthy before something happens?

Hi,

I am a mum of a 4.5 year old. My child is very smart with academics, her vocabulary is excellent and can communicate extremely well.

I also believe she has a fairly rich childhood. She is the only child - and my husband and I spend a lot of quality time with her. We don't fight much and we have a good stable family. She visits her grandparents everyday and has deep bonds with them and my brother. She also has playmates, who she plays with every evening. She also trains roller skates casually a few times a week.

I don't believe we pressurise her or cause unnecessary stress to her. We are fairly chill and don't stress on "excellence" - rather we encourage experiences and talk a lot to her. No hitting and no swear words in the household.

Recently, I notice that her behaviour is extremely egoistic. For instance, something switches whenever we say no to anything. No, we cannot visit the grandparents at 10:30pm in the night, we can go tomorrow morning. Or, no, I cannot leave you off to independently walk up 3 flight of stairs to get to your friend's place - I will see you off till their doorstep. Or, this could even be something as simple as, please put on your clothes now, we need to leave in 10 minutes. Like, the moment she thinks she is dominated, instructed or her opinions not honoured, she goes into a sulking, brooding mode. She stops talking, goes into a room and cuts of all communication. She just stops responding.

If we insist and don't give in, the tantrum starts and she kicks and cries even for an hour, repeating the same sentence, "you've scolded me!", or, "you've hurt me!". Like, it is getting extremely difficult to have an amicable or peaceful time at home. I am getting scared of the mornings and times when I have to spend time with her. Like, she threatens that she will never come home and will stay with gradparents "forever". Or, when she has a tough time in my parents' house, she will be upset and go sit on the public staircase for as long as she pleases.

I really don't know how to make peace. Or what behaviour of mine I should change. I talk to her when she is calm about these things, trying to explain everyone's perspective. I hug her when she has tantrums, I encourage physical activity or breathing techniques when she just cannot shake off a thought and is caught in a loop of self-sympathy. But nothing works. My husband and I are tired.

If you have had a similar phase with your child, what helped?

Basically, whenever I was growing up and I got my period I didn’t really have my mom around in my life so it was my dad‘s sister. who was younger than him. Who asked me if I had got my period and I honestly lied because I grew up in a very misogynist household where my dad hated women and still does honestly we don’t really talk. Anyways, because of that I low-key knew like getting my period was something that was not good at least that’s how my dad viewed it because I would hear my grandma so his mom and his sister like talk about it whenever I was in the other room and I was like 10 years old and my dad would just say oh no that’s not gonna happen anytime soon like in a disgruntled voice

So anyways, it caused a lot of shame for me growing up. Like I always just felt dirty and and whenever I was in the bathroom at school, I’d be so embarrassed, even though it’s literally the girls bathroom and everybody’s probably going through a similar thing I would quietly try to open the package of whatever I was using so no one would hear because I was so embarrassed and I didn’t want everyone else to think I was gross.

And then it definitely didn’t help that when my dad met my stepmom. She basically explained it to me as oh now you’re a woman so I just felt kind of weird because literally five minutes before that I felt like a kid and now I felt like I was just given this fucking prophecy basically for someone was like oh yeah your whole life literally just changed and then you’re kinda like what the fuck in your head

Basically, I don’t want any of this situation to ever happened to my daughter. She’s only four months old, but I find myself thinking about these things now. And I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to explain that to her that hey you’re still a kid like this is just some thing that happens to the human body can I put this in a way that’s not traumatizing and that doesn’t try to say oh and now you’re grown-up. Because that can be really heartbreaking for a kid a hear.

My point is not to trauma dump.

Hi all. My eight year old daughter is my sweet, beautiful girl and I love her endlessly, but I'm at a complete loss on how to talk to her about something that's been driving me up the wall. She interrupts absolutely everything. Doesn't matter who I'm talking to, she cannot let a conversation happen around her without jumping in, whether it's just blurting random noise, adding her own opinion, or peppering whoever is talking with questions.

Just in the past hour alone. My husband and I were going over the day's plan and I mentioned that place A is about 20 minutes from place B. The second "20 minutes" left my mouth she shouted "TWENTY MINUTES TWENTY MINUTES" so loud that my husband couldn't even hear my normal speaking voice anymore. This exact thing happens multiple times a day and she gets corrected every single time, yet nothing changes.

Another example, I was reading something about a celebrity's before and after surgery photos and said to my husband quietly, wow that's kind of sad she felt she had to do that. My daughter was in a completely different room and still screamed out "WHAT? What's sad?" I told her it was a private conversation between adults, not something for her.

Even when I'm just talking to the baby, she'll shriek whatever I'm saying right back at me in an exaggerated voice. I'll say something simple like let's dress the baby and she screams "DRESS A BABYYYYYY" right over me.

What I actually need help with is figuring out how to communicate with her about this in a way that actually sticks. I've tried explaining, correcting her in the moment, taking away privileges, and none of it seems to translate into her actually understanding why this bothers me or changing the behavior long term. I genuinely don't know what I'm doing wrong in how I'm talking to her about it, or if there's a better way to approach this conversation with an eight year old that I'm just not seeing.

Adding this because I know how these threads go. She gets plenty of one on one time, more than the baby does honestly. She's not doing this because she isn't heard, she has plenty of opportunities to talk and be listened to. I'm not looking to get picked apart, just genuinely asking if anyone has found a way to actually communicate about this that works.

My baby is 7 months old. I obviously love her so much but she cries about 85% of the time. At 6 month checkup doctor said nothing looks wrong and she just seems to be a clingy baby since she almost always calms down once my husband or, mostly I, hold her.

She mostly wakes up screaming and crying. Usually when i nurse her she pops off each boob about 10 times screaming and crying before finally latching for a considerable time and drinking. Can rarely play on her mat alone without screaming and crying.

I feel blessed that she 1.) Enjoys her car seat and 2.) Isn't a terrible sleeper. Still, her near constant crying and need for constant attention and entertainment is wearing on me. I try to keep it together, but I find myself sometimes snapping at my toddler or telling him I dont want to play because I'm just so exhausted and overstimulated. I dont want to be this way. I just want the crying to stop. I feel so terrible that she seems so unhappy.

I've read other babies grow out of it as they become more mobile and I'm hoping that's true for her, too. She usually loves sitting up assisted. Im so eager for her to start crawling and pulling herself up.

Please tell me I'm not alone and it gets better.

My son wants a build a bear birthday party with his first grade class; has anyone done a party there or been to one? Will first graders like this?

Are you a pro at bedtime? King of the dad jokes? An expert at sensing impending mischief?

Mine is that I am excellent at reading children's books out loud and seem to have a pied piper effect on children when I do. Every time I go to the library and read to my toddler, I end up attracting a gaggle of children who want to listen in and who also bring me books they want me to read. Now I was a teacher and admittedly have had some practice with this, but I do find it funny. I've ended up doing an impromptu public story time more times than I can count.

For those of you who have had a newborn and a toddler, when did you feel comfortable taking care of both of them at once? I have a two-year-old and a six-week-old, and I find taking care of both of them by myself so stressful and hard.

We have a 16m old boy who is wild and crazy like most other little boys are. He loves the tub but he hates being washed. Its like wrestling a little alligator the way he thrashes and spins, which on a slippery little baby is dangerous! He always pushes me away and sometimes cries. Its seriously a full body workout and It makes me feel like im not washing him in a correct way, like I must be doing something wrong and none of my other mom friends complain about tub time.

This sounds so silly but im looking for tips and suggestions to make tub time less excruciating (no judgement, please! First time mom here!)

My tub routine: take bath cup and wet hair, take sudsy washcloth and wrestle from head to toe, bath cup again to rinse upper body/hair. I do this as gently as possible trying my best to avoid water in the eyes when rinsing, but hard to avoid the way he fights.

*We play with his tub toys after the washing is done, to get the hard part over with first LOL

Title says it all. I (33M) have a G (8M) and he’s always done sports. Just the ymca, never pushed him to a certain sport, has tried them all. Over the last year he’s gotten more into swimming and soccer. So we got him onto a mini swim team (only go to meets when you want/are ready) and stuck with YMCA soccer for the time being. Seasons have started for both and the swim team is more than what he’s used to. Swimming longer lengths….. all that… but I think he’s been humbled a bit in both sports. I’ve always had a rule with him playing these sports. Try your hardest, listen to your coach.

The last week or two, especially in swimming he’s been acting out during practice, not listening to coaches and definitely not trying his best. It’s frustrating to watch because I know he can be better and get better, and I try to tell him that….

Am I expecting too much? How can I help him focus on just himself to get better like I know he wants? I’ll take any advice.

My baby is 9 months old. He is an active crawler and pulls to stand already for a few months. He has several toy boxes with various toys such as different texture cards, balls, music toys, busy cubes etc. but I fear that I as a mum not doing enough for his development.

I spend the whole day with him cause I’m a SAHM so he is definitely always around me. He spends a lot of the day pulling up to stand on his baby gate or roaming around the rooms crawling behind me. I sometimes try to read him books while he is doing something next to me so that he hears the language. Sitting down together is not possible because he will just not sit still. He enjoys playing peekaboo and hide and seek around the house or just having to chase me from one room to the other. We also have tickley time that he likes and laughs. Most often I give him toys to choose from in the room where I am doing something and he explores them.

My worry is though is that we have little sit down and play time in which I would actually teach him something. I see others doing things like naming colours and the baby chooses the right colour, but mine doesn’t. Sitting down together and learning animal noises also. But my baby doesn’t seem to be interested in all of this. Overall playing together consists of him climbing all over me, biting me, pinching or pulling my hair so it gets overstimulating for me very quickly lol

Worried that I’m not doing enough for his development.

I’d really appreciate some objective opinions on this because I’m struggling to work out whether I’m being unreasonable or whether this is something worth pushing back on with the school.

My daughter goes to school in New Zealand, it’s a small school and they only have one class per calendar year group/cohort group. The school year runs Feb-Dec, across four terms. Sorry if this is too NZ specific.

My daughter is nearly 6 and started Year 1 this year in term 1. When she started school, there was a little group of 9 children who all began together on the very first day. They’ve become her established friendship group, and she has particularly close friendships within that group as well as having made new friends with other kids that have started throughout the year.

The school has said they want to move my daughter up into the next class up in term 4. This is largely numbers based because of pressure on the size of her current class but also she is one of the oldest and most capable academically alongside the other two girls that will go up with her (1 of which she is good friends with).

The kids she originally started school with in 2026 will continue together, whereas my daughter would join this older group of 2025 kids and move into an already-established peer group rather than progressing alongside the kids and friends she started with (alongside these other two girls from her current cohort).

I know children are adaptable and that she would probably make new friends. I also understand that schools have to balance numbers, teacher availability, learning needs, etc. I’m not expecting the school to organise everything around my child.

But I feel quite uncomfortable about deliberately disrupting a friendship group that has been a really important source of security for her. I feel like 12 months is actually quite a long time socially when you’re 5/6. And it sounds like she would move into this group permanently, so she may never actually be with her original cohort again and she has such a great wee group of friends!

She seems finally settled following the typical adjustment to school, particularly learning to navigate the social stuff. At home we had some very significant tantrums and meltdowns this year which I attribute to school. She is now much happier and more settled, and her friendships seem to be a big part of that. She is doing well with the academic aspect so I have no concerns about that and at 5 the social stuff seems more important to me.

So I’m struggling with the idea of saying, essentially, “She’ll be fine, she’ll make new friends,” when she already has a group of friends she feels safe and happy with.

The school have asked my thoughts and seem relatively open to a discussion.

Am I being too protective here?

Would you:

Accept that class placements are ultimately the school's decision and let her get on with it?

Ask the school to reconsider and explain why maintaining some continuity might be particularly important for her?

Actually push quite hard for her to remain with at least some of her existing friends?

I’m genuinely interested in hearing from teachers and parents who have been on either side of this. I don't want to be the unreasonable parent who thinks her child should get special treatment — I just can't shake the feeling that, given her history of struggling with the transition and the fact that she has finally settled, breaking up her established social group seems unnecessarily disruptive if there are other options. Particularly as this is more of a numbers issue rather than oh your child is too advanced for the 2026 year group or something like that.

So, I really just want to know what you guys do when hanging out with your early toddlers. Our child is 14 months old, can’t yet talk and her idea of playing right now is just crawling and pulling stuff down/putting stuff in her mouth.

My husband and I both work full time so she is at a daycare during most of the week. During the weekend, though, we split days. Saturday mornings I’m able to sleep in and basically do whatever I want, and Sunday morning is his morning to sleep in. I hate it but i DREAD these Sunday mornings. After she is up and fed, etc. I have no idea what to do with her to entertain her. I guess she can entertain herself, but I’m so incredibly bored during this time. I feel like I can’t be on my phone or have the TV on- I want her to know I’m there and paying attention to her, but it’s just so incredibly boring. I hate that I dread our mommy-daughter time but I just do :(

What do you guys do during this phase? Or maybe I am just looking for people to relate.

My daughter has been sleeping through the night for months but the past few nights is just screaming in the middle of the night. Not sure if she's teething or what but when I bring her in my room she calms down. Just curious to see if anyone else has dealt with a 13 month sleep regression as she's been sleeping great for months

My amazing bonus kid is a bit like a Great Dane puppy whose has just started growing into his paws. He is the perfect size for Boys 8 to be waaay too short but comfy, 10 is almost comically loose like a 90’s music video. So we tried a 10 slim and guess what? He’s just perfectly sized that the 10 slim won’t close.

In addition I was told jeans are too tight in… places (his exact words 🤣) so like any advice on real pants (not pj/sweat pants/joggers) that come I a good variety of sizes we can try?