A kid brings over a drawing, a Lego build, or something they’ve written, and it’s surprisingly easy to start offering suggestions before finding out what they wanted to show you.
You could make the base wider. That word is spelled wrong. Have you tried doing it this way?
All potentially useful. Also a slightly rough reception for somebody who walked over feeling pretty pleased with themselves.
There’s something worth trying before offering help: ask them to show you their favorite part. They might have spent twenty minutes figuring out something you barely noticed.
That leaves room for an actual conversation about what they made. If they want help getting the tower to stand up, you can still help. If they’re excited that it has a secret door, you can spend a minute appreciating the secret door.
You don’t have to pretend everything is a masterpiece. Being interested is enough.
I think the tricky part is that helping feels like paying attention. Sometimes it is. Other times, it means we’ve taken over before they finished showing us.

Edit: a lot of you are commenting before reading the whole post and it’s obvious. Or you’re just missing the point.

I have 3 kids and my eldest is 10, and for the life of me it seems to be a challenge to schedule "play dates". He's expressed sadness and feeling excluded because he doesn't hang out with as many people. For context, we don't live in a neighborhood and there are limited neighborhoods in the town. He is well liked, plays sports and has friends at school, so I know it's not because hes "not liked". Every since he was in maybe 2nd grade it has been an effort, more so recently to link up and have him hang out with friends. Parents seem really dismissive and unreliable. They are either always busy with sports or something or never follow up and ask if he is available to hang out. I have two other younger kids and have started to reach out to other parents to schedule hang outs and am experiencing the same thing.

This isn't with every parent that I've reached out to, but I'm like, why am I the only one reaching out and why is this so hard? I'm literally starting to feel like I'm harassing these parents and have just stopped reaching out to some. I'm a middle millennial and hung out with so many kids, granted some, but not all, were in my neighborhood when I was a kid.

Are kids just not as interested to hang out outside of school anymore, or are parents just busy/lazy? I'm so confused.

STOP THE WEDDING. SAVE THE GIRL. 🤍
I know this isn’t necessarily what the song was written to mean, but I have turned Stop the Wedding into something much bigger in my home. A lesson I want my daughter to carry with her for the rest of her life.
Harper, if you ever read this when you’re older, I hope you understand something that I wish every little girl was taught before she became a woman.
You can stop the wedding.
Even if you’ve bought the dress.
Even if the invitations have been sent.
Even if your family has travelled from the other side of the world.
Even if the flowers are arranged, the music is playing, and every single person you love is sitting waiting for you to walk down that aisle.
You can still stop the wedding.
You can change your mind at the altar. You can say no after saying yes. You can walk away from a life everyone else thought you wanted.
You can disappoint a room full of people without having failed a single one of them.
Because a wedding is a day. A marriage is a life. And you should never feel that you have to sacrifice the rest of your life to save one day’s embarrassment.
I want my daughter to understand that being a good woman does not mean being an obedient woman. That keeping your promises does not mean surrendering your right to make a different choice when your heart, your circumstances or your understanding of what you want has changed.
I want her to know that she does not have to make a villain out of someone to justify leaving them. Someone can be a good person and still not be the person she wants to spend her life with. She does not need to wait until she has been hurt badly enough to earn permission to walk away.
And this lesson goes far beyond a wedding.
It applies to relationships, friendships, situations that make her uncomfortable, and every moment in life when she feels trapped by the expectations of other people.
Because I would rather my daughter stand in front of a hundred disappointed wedding guests than stand at fifty years old looking back on a life she never wanted because she was too afraid to say no.
I would rather she be brave enough to disappoint the world than spend her life believing she has to disappoint herself to keep it happy.
Girls are so often taught how to be chosen, how to be loved, how to be good enough to be someone’s wife.
But I want to teach mine that she is a whole person before she is anybody’s anything.
She is allowed to choose. She is allowed to change her mind. She is allowed to leave. And she is allowed to begin again.
Harper, you do not owe the world a lifetime of keeping a promise that your heart no longer wishes to make.
You owe yourself the honesty to live a life you can stand behind.
So if the day ever comes when you are standing at an altar and every voice around you is telling you to continue, but something inside you is telling you to stop…
STOP THE WEDDING, BABY.
Let the music stop. Let the guests whisper. Let people misunderstand you.
You can rebuild a wedding. You can rebuild a plan. You can rebuild a future.
But you deserve to know that you are allowed to choose the future you actually want.
And if you ever need someone to remind you of that, your mum will be right there.
Not to push you towards the altar.
Not to pull you away from it.
But to hold your hand and remind you that the choice has always been yours. 🤍
STOP THE WEDDING MOVEMENT.
For every girl who needs to know that I do is a choice, not a life sentence. And for every woman who wishes somebody had told her sooner that she was allowed to stop.

My 14 year old son loves chatting with me before school, usually right when he wakes up. I hear him open his bedroom door, come straight downstairs in his PJs (complete with messy bedhead and sleepy eyes) and he just sits next to me on the couch and talks about whatever’s on his mind for the day. It’s really sweet ❤️

But at these times he always has pretty strong morning breath! He sits beside me on the couch and faces directly to me, and he tends to talk pretty exuberantly (even though he just woke up 😂). So I can really smell his morning breath as he talks! Overall I would say his oral hygiene is good, and his breath is fine after brushing. Which he does religiously before leaving for school. So it’s just first thing in the morning that I notice.

It doesn’t really bother me, but I feel like he has no idea what his breath smells like to me lol. Would you mention it so he knows, especially for sleepovers or anytime he might chat with other people first thing in the morning? I don’t want to make him self conscious, but I wonder if he should be aware. Would you say something or leave it alone?

Hello, I am trying to get some perspective that is other then mine for a situation that’s going on in my household. I have a 2 year old toddler, who I WFH part time and would say I am the primary/default parent, which I love, would not change that for the world. And “don’t need a break”. Recently I had to take an unexpected trip which turned into almost a month away from my husband while he did work on our house, and due to the nature of the work we needed to vacate the house for toxins. During this time I was able to visit my side of the family, which live across the US and I don’t see quite often.
Situation, my husband the day after we returned from that trip said that he’s going to be taking my toddler while he drives his mom to another state while she stays for the winter, and will be returning after he does some work at her house.I was surprised by this as I wasn’t aware he was doing this. And now I am feeling a certain way because this will be the first time away from my toddler. We cosleep, and I am feeling a bit left out that it’s expected I stay home away from her. I am not able to go with them as we have two dogs that we have that I will watch, but I am already dreading this. I feel a bit hypocrital voicing my opinion especially when I just returned from time away from him. On one hand having her on a road trip for 4 days sounds like torture for her, but again just feeling a certain way. It’s my husband but would that be wrong to tell him not this time? Interested to hear other opinions.

I (NB 18) watch my baby sister (F 4 months). She falls asleep fine when mom or dad is around but can not fall asleep when they aren't home. This many times ends up with me crying not to cry and walk with her as she cries because shes tired but won't fall asleep without them. I've tried bottles, tv, books, tiring her out, stroller rides. We WILL NOT just let her sit and cry at this young as many people have said. If anyone had any tips please let me know I just want to take care of my sister.

I’m a single mom. My son’s second birthday is November 29th (Sunday). My partner (not my son’s father) has a work Christmas party on November 27th, it’s a 5 hour drive away. He’s invited me to stay with him for the weekend, potentially come back the night of the 28th so I could be home on my sons birthday, but I think the original plan was to come home on the 29th.

I feel bad making him come back a night early, especially where his work would be paying for the hotel.

My options are:
• go & come home on the 29th (my sons birthday)
• go and come home the night of the 28th (be home on the morning of my sons birthday)
• not go at all

My son would be staying with his grandparents. I already planned on having his party the weekend before, so that’s a non issue. What would you do in this situation?

How many people on here have a 6 year old that’s still under 40lbs and in a car seat? My daughter is still just 37lbs (she’s always been small) and still in a car seat.

my sister asked my daughter to be her junior bridesmaid and the dress came today. she put it on and just started spinning around the living room, didnt stop grinning the whole time. now shes been practising walking super slow down the hallway like its the aisle, very serious face and everything. its a tiny bit long right now but the wedding's not till march so she'll grow into it probably

Daughter is 11 years old. Custody is split evenly. So one week with me (Dad) and the other week (Mom). Mother wants me to punish daughter even though she is great with me.

When my daughter is at her moms house she acts horrible. She is mean to her siblings, mean to her mom and other family members. Mostly verbal screaming and name calling. Some physical but nothing to concerning beyond typical sibling fights. Biggest thing right now is her taking her sisters clothes to wear to school. Her mom isn't really there much so they are all being raised by their Aunt more then anything.

At school no issues. Grades are so so but their mom just moved their school 1 hour further away from me. So I'm waiting to find out how that goes.

At my house my daughter is fine. She follows my rules or if she doesn't she will after I tell her once. Their are no confrontations between her and her siblings and none between her and me. All my kids listen to me when a rule is in place.

So the issue is that their mom punishes over there and expects me to continue the punishments over here. If she is grounded there then she shouldn't come here and be free from punishments. I have no issue talking to my daughter about her behavior my issue comes in continuing a punishment here when she listens and doesn't act out here.

Extra info.

-I work from home so I'm always around

-My daughter has hurt herself, while being at her moms place, with a razor.

-She has been with a therapist for 3 years now and there hasn't been a change in behavior

-My daughter wants to live with me full time. I have offered this to her mother and it gets turned down. I even offered it after she hurt herself so I could watch her nonstop but their mother tried drugs instead.

My biggest issue is that if I started making my daughter hate it at my house then she will not have a safe place anymore. She could try to act out more and hurt herself or even run away.

My 2 yr old has somewhat wavy/curly hair. (Curly as in she gets these huge bouncy curls that blend together to make a big bouncy curl). What are some hair products that are safe for little ones that I can use on her so it doesn’t frizz as much. Especially when she gets in her car seat, it ends up frizzy and knotted.

So HFMD is running rampant though and around our hometown. My 14 year old caught it and he got it so bad. He is over 10 days now and is better, but after my son’s blisters showed up 3 days later my 12 year old daughter came down with it. My daughter is now on day 9, her blisters almost seem to be gone and her finger has started to peel. What advice on cleaning their bathroom and the carpet in my daughter’s room….do I worry about it as much as I am panicking for? I am germaphobic and freaking about cleaning correctly. Should I just wash her bedding, towels, etc. and then spray Lysol in her room?

Am I overreacting by being deeply offended?

Long story short:

• My mom had been living with us for a while. She has some personal issues & conflicts with my dad, and we thought it would be nice for her to live with us and spend time with her granddaughter.
• One morning, my husband and I had an argument about money (our daughter is autistic, we have higher-than-average child-related expenses, and I cover ALL of them, I am tired; husband suddenly suggested something like "Why don't we go to Mexico" and I got mad because I just spent $8K on a summer camp!!!!!! who will pay for the trip??? my income is higher than husband's and we agreed that he pays rent and I pay everything else, but "everything else" is growing and growing)
• My mom interfered and told me "You're inadequate!" without knowing or understanding the full context, the root cause of the conflict (she does not know who of us pays for what), or anything else behind it. She literally only overheard bits and pieces of our conversation, during which I mentioned my high child-related expenses, and saw that I was mad.
• My husband is pretty calm person even in conflicts (that's why we happily coexist: I am fire, he is water), so of course I looked more inadequate because I was angry and loud, despite the fact that the root cause of my anger was totally adequate & reasonable.
• I told her that anyone who thinks I'm inadequate is more than welcome to live somewhere else, and I will see how adequate they will be when they will be paying all the bills that I pay, themselves!
• She responded, "I can take your daughter to [her_country] and raise her myself, within my means!" (her means is $120/month pension)
• My husband and I resolved our disagreement by the end of same day (we created a special account and send there % of each paycheck to accumulate amount for the vacation + similar account to save for the kid's education), but the conflict with my mom remains because in my opinion she was:
  • threatening me to take my kid from me (to another country!!!)
  • saying that SHE alone can handle special needs kid parenting, if we TWO are incapable
  • diminishing the fact that YES special need kids need a lot of money for therapies (we had issues with kid's teeth and spent 10K on dentistry only; speech therapy is $160/session; etc etc....)

She says "I was not threatening, it was an offer". I say: if I say "I can cut off your leg" - does it sound like an offer or a threat?

How would you react? I sent her back to her country and do not talk to her for 1,5 months.

For the context: I have never heard a good word from her, and it's not the first time when in case of the conflict she does not even TRY to understand my side and takes the side of the man (it happened long ago, too). Reminds me a "pick me" girl - hey man, my daughter is just inadequate, I am the capable one.

I am currently 20F and my whole life i never wanted children. I talk to my coworker about her family of four children and she said when she was my age she said the same thing and that “ill change my mind when i get married”.. The reason im so iffy about having children is: I dont want to spend money on something other than me or my boyfriend, i dont want to have to go through pregnancy (as it can be fatal for both baby and i) and lastly, i was never around babies growing up. Never babysat or had family who had small children/babies growing up. And i know im still very young but even looking in the future i dont know if i would hate my life if i had children.

So the main question of this post is,
if anyone had the same thought process as me and has a children, what made you change your mind?

Any body elses baby have loud stomach gurgling/popping sounds? It can happen during her bottle, straight after or even two hours later. It seems to be causing her pain and discomfort. Any insight would be great. Thanks so much