Looking to get an idea of what solo parents do for a nighttime routine with two children. We have an 8 month old and a 2 year old. I’m going to be going back to work full time and working evening shifts past bedtime about 2 days a week and my wife is a bit stressed. Our 8 month old does not put herself down yet. Both kids share the same bedtime give or take. During the daytime naps the oldest normally has our youngest in the room until our oldest gets put down for a nap, but my wife is concerned that this won’t translate over too well. She doesn’t know if she should try putting the younger child down first since she gets a bit more cranky in the evening. That’s just a little snippet, but I’m happy to hear any feedback or what other parents in similar situations do.

Thank you in advanced.

My 13 month old is still barely eating solids. Under guidance of ped we’re still largely on BM and seeing OT and speech. Professionals say we’re doing all the right things, eating with him, solids before milk, making it low pressure, safe foods and new foods, lots of exposures.

He’ll eat some things some times but never a “meals” worth and sometimes nothing. Progress has been painfully slow.

Anyone have a similar situation that worked out? I’m getting very anxious (thought trying not to show it during meals).

To the MODs if it has to get taken down, I completely understand.

I got the news about an hour ago and I am devastated, but trying to hold onto hope because we are in the early stages of it. However, changes will be occurring and I want to prepare him for those changes and be honest.

As a community we don't have to get into the details of it, to also prevent triggering others.

I would very much appreciate how you guys explained it to your child so I have something to work with.

Lastly, thank you for sharing and please know I appreciate your help and support.

Hello all,

I hope I'm using the right flair because I'm at loss here and could really use your help.

I have two daughters, 8.5 and 6. They're both potty trained and have been since they were little.

However, nighttime is another story altogether.

We're dealing with so many accidents during the night! We cut off fluids an hour before bedtime and also have them go pee before stories but between the two of them, there's an accident every other night. Not only am I getting tired of all the laundry but we go camping this weekend and I'm so worried one of them will have an accident overnight. We'll be at a music festival two hours from home so it's not like we can just drive back for extra bedding, plus the forecast calls for rain so I won't be able to rinse the bedding out and hang it to dry.

I think the problem is that they're very deep sleepers and don't notice their bladders need emptying until it's already too late. Half the time they wake up and are surprised they've wet the bed.

Did your kiddos have this problem? What did you do about it? We thought about using pull-ups for this weekend but I don't want to drop $60 only to use a few pull-ups out of each box and toss the rest.

Any and all advice is welcome.

I’m stuck in the classic “they must be teething” cycle (5mo) 😅a lot of the symptoms but gums aren’t red.

Anyone else go through this?

what factors did you consider when picking a school for your child? what are some red & green flags when choosing a nursery/primary school?
if it helps for context we’re in london UK

After 13 months, it just keeps getting harder.

Any time I had to do something, I would either carry her with me or leave her in the stroller, but now she is too heavy and fights after a few minutes in the stroller. If I leave her in a safe and closed space, she will just cry non-stop because she wants to stay with me.

I love her, I would stay glued with her if I could but dear lord I just want to use the bathroom, take a bath and eat by myself. Is that too much to ask?

So I’m ATTEMPTING to potty train my 3 year old (she’ll be 4 in November). I’ve been at this for a week nd she still thinks the underwear is diapers. Like she knows they aren’t but treats them like they are. She’ll come to me immediately after going saying she needs a diaper change when she really just peed her pants. I have a timer going so every 30 minutes I make her drink a bunch of water nd then sit on the potty a few minutes after. She simply is NOT getting it.

We’ve done the ms Rachel video, the songs, the timers, the charts, the stickers, the treats….. she just won’t pee on the potty.

A couple months ago she started asking to go on her own nd occasionally would actually go in the potty but the second I get prepared to actually train her, she suddenly has no interest.

I also can’t stay home with her for a few days- a week bc of my job. So when I’m home I do my best, when I have to go to work it’s back in the pull-ups she goes (her aunt watches her when I work but she has two kids 3and under and does a LOT for the household so asking her to take up the potty training probly is gonna be a no-go.)

Do I just do my best nd keep at it? Anything I havnt tried yet? At this point it feels like she’s gonna be in diapers until she’s 7 😭

Okay fellow parents, I need some advice on how long to allow my 4YO to leave out her constructive toys. I'm talking her Magnatiles or blocks or play tent; Toys that allow her to use her creativity and independent play. I love that she has fun with these and they keep her entertained for so long and make her use her imagination but...they are in the way! They take up space on the table or floor and she begs to leave them up for DAYS.

How long do you allow your kids to leave this stuff up? Do you just...work around it practically indefinitely? Do you have a set time limit for how long things like this can be up?

Hello!

My child's elementary school lets students out everyday the first week at noon (12). They offer no daycare before or after school the first week. I work full time and I can't take off a week...not sure if this school is in the norm.

Does this happen for anyone else? Is this normal for a school? Any ideas for solutions when you are the only person?

What's a dad to do with no other help?!

I really wished before I had my baby that someone told me to get and browse the Mayo Clinic book for everything you need to know to get you through at least the first year if not more. It would have really helped me to know like what milestones to expect, how to start solids, how to shape sleep, what to do when they get teeth, etc etc some things already knew but it was a really really helpful resource. I wish I would have had before.

I'm starting to wonder if there's maybe some good resources for general parenting when it comes to how to handle meltdowns with toddlers, discipline appropriate for age, etc.

I'm not someone who's into the overly gentle let's think about our feelings kind of thing but I'm also not one that would ever spank or anything like that.

But I also don't want it to be a 10 mins conversation about feelings every time. You are throwing sand in the kids face? Okay we are done with the sandbox now. And remove from the fun. Things like that. And then perhaps later have a brief conversation about it if there seems to be confusion or repeat offenses.

Any good guides, books, resources that are age appropriate?

Our little one is nearly two and most nights they roll around and settle themselves down to sleep in their cot.

This has however led to them kicking the bars and sometimes this leads to them getting their legs caught and this has ended with us needing to intervene and help them get loose if they can't do it themselves.

I don't know if there is anything 'safe' we can use to prevent them from putting their legs through the bars because ive heard there's a lot of risk with using things like cot bumpers as it can increase the risk of SIDS etc.

Should we look to change their cot out for something else or are we better off for now sticking to the cot they how now until they're old enough to go into their own small bed?

My almost four year old is having a tantrum day. Screaming tantrums over little things like screaming at me for milk as I’m literally pouring it.

I don’t usually do this but I had her take a break in her room, with the door not locked. I’ve been researching tantrums and cannot be followed around the house by a screaming child several times a day. It gets to the point where I need to have boundaries.

Well my sister (who is not a mom) decides she wants to go in after two minutes to coddle my child and I had to set a firm boundary that tantrums do not get attention from now on because I need the behavior to stop getting coddled by the family I live with, which is why they aren’t getting better.

I’d appreciate any advice. I feel bad having to set boundaries around family and basically parent them too about this age group and normal parenting strategies.

Edit: I went into the room after ten minutes with snacks and no judgement. We talked about how screaming hurts our ears, and if she’s screaming she can go take a break in her room to calm down.

Me and my wife are mentally MD physically exuasted from all the fighting between our two children. We have a boy and girl under 10 years old. I know alot of people say we should cherrish the moments. Oh time passes so fast! All that talk.

Honestly I’m ready for the kids to move out. I want to spend an evening with my wife alone without the kids. We tried leaving them at grandmas house but we are so tired and overstimulated it just becomes a time where you can rest and not actively do anything.

I get why people divorce. It’s for the every other week. Yes part of is it the relationship bla bla bla but it the kids that make us not enjoy eachother. We rarly fight over anything when it comes to our relationship. We had rough patches but solved them. It feels like we are just drifting towards old age together been (for the lack of better words) slaves to our kids. This summerbreak has been tough.

My LO will be entering daycare soon at 4 months, just looking for some positive words from others who went through this transition.

Made a previous post about 12 month old crying all day at daycare and the consensus was to give her more time.

It's been 3 weeks of 3 days per week and they just emailed me to basically say that she's not adjusting. She often refuses to eat and doesn't play or participate. She needs to be held constantly in order to keep her from crying. She's not like that at home. They do their best but have to balance the needs of all the kids - of course. There's 3 teachers and 10 kids ages 10-18months. They are asking me what I recommend they do to help her.

I don't have any suggestions for them because the truth is that she just wants to be with her parents... she's always been a velcro baby. So, I'm tempted to just pull her out and try again when she's 18 months (this wouldn't be simple but we could make it work) and would be in the toddler room (January). Would this mess her up even more?

Only other thing I can think of is going all-in and doing 5 days per week and hoping that it forces an adjustment but this feels... cruel? I need the time away to keep our lives running smoothly, take care of our house, myself and eventually get back to work but I'm torn between that and knowing that she's struggling all day wanting to be home.

The kicker is that we have another baby on the way, arriving in January so I really need to get her settled into a good routine.

I have a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old, and bedtime has become absolutely atrocious lately.

No matter what we try, they constantly come out of their rooms after we’ve put them to bed. We’ve even tried letting them stay in their rooms and play quietly until they fall asleep, but they still come out.

The reason is always different:
“I have to tell you something.”
“I’m not tired.”
“I’m scared.”
Or some other excuse every single night.

We’ve tried sticker charts and reward systems, but they only seem to work for a couple of nights before the kids lose interest.

Our current approach is to calmly walk them back to their rooms every time they come out. The problem is that bedtime is really the only alone time my husband and I get together. Sometimes we’d like to relax upstairs and watch TV, but they just keep coming into our bedroom, making it incredibly frustrating and it’s no longer us calmly walking them back.

Other times, once they realize talking to us isn’t getting the reaction they want, they’ll sneak into each other’s rooms to play. That eventually turns into fighting, which means we have to separate them and basically restart the entire bedtime process all over again.
I’m at a loss. Has anyone dealt with something similar or found something that actually worked long-term?

Hi everyone, I might need some tips or just someone to tell me I'm not alone.

So to start from the beginning, when my daughter was just a baby, we went out for baby swimming courses and she loved playing in water, had no issues with water in her face et cetera. Even in her bathtub she had lots of fun.

As she got older, we had to stop going to the courses because it went against her sleep schedule. She still bathes 2 times a week. One day she refused to sit down in the bathtub anymore, she preferred to stand all the time and play like that. Around the same time, she started hating water in her face and screamed as soon as it came anywhere near her face, which made washing her hair an absolute pain.

Now she's 2;8 years old and... it's gotten even worse. She likes playing in the tub - still standing upright - and all is fine, until we have to wash her. Now she even starts screaming as soon as we just use the sponge to wet her skin, not even full on washing. Getting her clean sounds like we're seriously injuring her. As soon as she gets wet she screams as if we burned her. And I don't even want to talk about the hair washing.

It's exhausting and my ears hurt. She loved water once, but now she wants to stay far, far away from it and I don't know what to do about it anymore. I tried going in the tub with her, but she still hates it and screams at me.

Anyone else have an aquaphobic? Or some idea on what I could do to make it easier on her? Or is this something that passes with age?

My first just turned 2, and he's an amazing sleeper. He's always been high sleep needs. He didn't drop his 2nd nap until around 16 months. When he was on 2 nap schedule, it was around 15 hours of total daily sleep (two 1.5 hr naps and 12 hrs overnight). Now, he takes one 2-hour nap, and still sleeps 7pm-7am. Sometimes, he's tired by 6:30pm and that's when he goes to bed (earlier bedtime doesn't result in earlier waking). He's only had a couple sleep regressions that lasted 2-3 days. We did sleep train at 4.5 months old, but I'm told by multiple people and reddit posts that him being an amazing sleeper had nothing to do with us, it was all just in his nature to be a good sleeper.

We have another one coming in about a month. What are the chances that she will also be a good sleeper like her brother? I see so many posts from parents of amazing sleepers that got humbled by their second child. I'm kind of getting scared.

My 3 year old will be starting preschool in the fall. I am so stressed about not being near him. My partner and I both work from home and our son has been with a nanny during the day while we work so he has always been within reach of us. I am so stressed about the idea of him not being close. I don't trust others to keep him safe while they are also overseeing a dozen other kids in a preschool setting. I have seen summer camp groups on outings this summer and witnessed many instances where children were not within sight of the adults and could have just ran off. How do you all find peace with your child being away from you in a preschool setting?

This has nothing to do with how much you love your kids. Rather I see many videos talking about how you'll miss this age, even if you don't think you will.

Any parents out there not miss those first 5 years, meaning you may have fond memories, but would not go back to relive those times?

How do you teach a child to stand up for herself?

My daughter is 14, an only child. She’s been a top student since grade school and very competitive in academics. She’s a "secured" kid and very open with me about what happens in school.

I don’t remember a time she fought back or defended herself. When someone tried to bully her, she just ignored it.
One time a girl purposely bumped her shoulder. She was affected by it and told me, but when I asked what she did, she said "Hindi ko pinansin."

There was also a time she found out a friend was lying to her and she had proof. But she never confronted her. She still talks to her like nothing happened.

Is she just too nice? Is she afraid? Or is this common for only children who never learned how to fight back or set boundaries?

My sister in law had agreed to watch my 15 month old while my husband and I continue packing up our house to move. Then she mentioned she was going over to her mother in laws house so her kids could swim. I felt bad saying that I just simply can’t trust another adult to watch her around or in water. My husband felt a little offended and I tried my best to explain that accidents happen even to people who think “that would never happen to me” and that I’d rather have us as the accountable adults if anything. He said I was being paranoid but idk at this point!

We have two girls, one is 2 years old and her sister is 4 months old. Both pretty much sleep through the night. The 4 month old currently sleeps in a bassinet in our room while the 2 year old sleeps in a crib in her room. Both use sleep sacks and generally go to bed around the same time at night. The 2yo is also potty trained but not for sleep (she wears a pull-up diaper for naptime and bedtime).
Now that the 4mo is getting bigger, we're trying to think ahead to her moving out of our room, preferably to share a room with her sister. Optimally, we'd be transitioning our toddler to a "big girl"/toddler bed so her baby sister can move into the crib.

It sounds like a great idea for the two sisters to share a room while they're little but I'm a little worried about doing it right, without upsetting things. We technically have a third bedroom we could move the baby into when the time comes but I don't want to take my wife's office away from her. I'm encouraged by the fact that both girls genuinely love being around each other. Our toddler likes when her baby sister is placed into her crib with her (supervised, we never let them sleep like that or anything).

Any advice here? Is there an optimal way/timing to do this?

I have a toddler, his hair is getting long and I want to put it in french/dutch braids. We are extremely white Irish, so perhaps braids are not as normalized for kids who look like him -not that I personally care but not sure if I should?

My husband is very against braiding his hair. I think he thinks there's a feminization aspect. Im curious if anyone has had a similar experience or if they received unsolicited comments from the public or their peers?

I think long hair is beautiful on boys and men, I think braids are the healthiest way to take care of long hair. I do not see braids as a gendered expression.

Is there something I'm missing? Is there a productive way to have this conversation with my husband? I want to prevent bullying while also not bowing down to sexist ideology/gender stereotypes. I also want to keep my son cooler while keeping his hair out of his face, logistically it's makes sense to me.

What's your take?