Looking to but a trampoline for my kids/stepkids aged from 4-14 years old. Is there a certain preferred brand or make that is the norm?

My older daughter will be 5 in a few months. For most of the year, my husband has been hounding my daughter to eat her meals "neater". For example, she often uses her fingers to pick up some food and either eat it straight or put on her utensil. When eating pancakes, she likes to eat with both hands holding the pancake, and will often stick her fingers in the maple syrup to sop up extra syrup. She'll also use her fingers to sop up extra sauces at other meals.

Another example: when she eats a bagel with cream cheese, sometimes she'll eat it at an angle parallel with her face and get maximum cream cheese all over her face.

My husband is constantly berating her to use her utensils, stop using fingers and says "you have food all over your face! You are making a mess".

I think she's still at an age where messes are common. While I still want her to learn how to eat neatly I don't like the constant barrage of complaints on her saying she needs to do better or punish her if she isn't being neat.

For anyone wondering, she has no issues holding utensils properly. She can use a fork and spoon well and hold pencils well for writing. I think it's just an age appropriate thing where she will be messy for a bit, we need to continue to try and teach and correct, but not in an angry way as my husband usually does.

My newly 3 year old has a paci addiction. We usually limit use to nap/bedtime. 6 months ago, we tried to poke holes in the tip, and eventually cutting the tip. She started sticking her finger through to regain suction. So that method failed.

I’m worried about cold turkey. I just don’t have it in me to let her scream all night. We’ve been reading books about giving up the paci, and talking about the paci fairy for months. She even picked out her toy that the fairy gives her when she gives her pacis away, which has been sitting in the garage for months. I’m just so terrified to pull the plug. Literally. Help!!

I'm been wondering recently about how other people go about things like watching more adult content during the day time hours when kids are around. I obviously don't mean anything seriously inappropriate, but I find it's soooo hard to sit down and watch a movie in the evening around bedtime. My kid is 9 now, so I feel like i should be able to put on certain R-rated movies and have the space to do so as long as it isn't something too crazy. The example i have right now is something like the first two godfather movies, I dont exactly have the luxury of three hours of downtime in the evening to watch a single movie.

Maybe it's because I was very much a "bedroom kid" growing up in the sense that when the adults were watching something not for kids, the kids were expected to scram. I also did see a lot that wasn't kid friendly (I still remember seeing parts of Army of Darkness when I was super young), but I don’t necessarily think it was too big of a deal.

How strongly do you moderate what's on tv during the daytime?

My husband has suggested taking my 3.5yo son to visit my BIL once a week for BIL to take son on an excursion (my husband would drop my son off).

I've blocked it - it would involve crossing busy roads and going to a beach with a busy parking lot. My son can be defiant/erratic sometimes and might bolt. My BIL sees my son maybe once every three weeks or so for a couple of hours so doesn't know him or his behaviour (as well as he think he does). I'm all for my BIL and son bonding but would prefer that they do it in a controlled environment where I know my son can't get hurt.

Am I being unreasonable?

Where to start- my husband and l have four and six year old boys and every day feels like a battlefield and l can’t stand it.

My husband and l have always been very calm peaceful people. We have been together 14 years, have warm relationships with our parents and friends, have stable jobs, and very rarely argue. I would describe us as very empathic, deeply thinking people who spend a lot of time ruminating about ethics, kindness, joy, peace, and meaning. We’re very into spending time enjoying nature, cooking good food from scratch, reading novels, having friends over for gatherings, going on adventures and roadtrips. Before we had kids, any day the sun was shining was usually a good one

Now? Our children are… wild. So wild. Alone, they are clever, charming, funny, loveable boys. As a family unit? They are constantly squabbling, pushing, howling, wrestling, whining, arguing, screeching. l thought we’d have kids, not howler monkeys! The house is SO LOUD, from 6 AM to 7 PM. I would say that someone is being reprimanded, on a bad day, every twenty minutes. I hate it.

l feel like our parenting is… fine. We hold boundaries, have timeouts and loss of privileges for unacceptable behavior. Our kids can politely eat in restaurants, fly on airplanes, and get rave reviews at school. It’s more that my emotional health (and my husband’s) feels under assault at home. l can’t seem to move past a tantrum at the pace they can and these (normal, probably) arguments and brother battles leave me so drained and sad.

l feel too much- how can l bounce back to my normal happy peaceful self faster?? I really can’t practice yoga with hotwheels cars flying through the air but l don’t want to remember these years as just volatile and difficult.

Little back story, we're currently living with boyfriend parents until house is done. The house is almost done!🎉

Currently i have an 18mo boy but he's very active! This kid would stay up 24/7 if it was his choice. I currently have him in a crib but we're considering to start potty training when we get into the new place. I've read that kids are best in s crib until they climb out or are ready for potty training. He hasn't figured out how to climb out of his crib but he's slowly accomplishing shaking it apart 🤣

He can climb everything though so it's just a matter of time. My boyfriends mother got him a nice toddler bed and I was thinking of using the change to put the new bed into action (look! It's your own room and big boy bed!) But how much he moves, even in his sleep, I feel like he may not be ready.. or maybe im just over thinking this?

Any thoughts, tips or tricks out there?

We have a 4 month old boy, our first baby. My husband works from home, I’m with the baby all day. He does once in awhile take him and hold him to let me use the bathroom etc. while he’s working which I do appreciate. He has also been doing a full gut job bathroom renovation in our house so the majority of the weekend I’m with the baby as well.

I feel like he puts on almost this…. Naive positivity about this stage of parenthood and it’s a little annoying. It’s like every time I try to vent or discuss how exhausted or burnt out I am he just doesn’t want to hear it, he’ll ignore me or change the subject. He acts like really over the top positive when he’s around the baby. Including not listening to me when I tell him that he needs to go to sleep, instead he’ll sing and talk to him (Sometimes). Or I feel like if he senses I’m not in a great mood he’ll say something like “I’m so glad we had him!” In a really upbeat voice. Like I’m not allowed to feel overwhelmed.

I’ve told him that I only want to have two kids total, and he’s talked about how he wants three at least. He’ll go on these rants about how family is the most important thing and he doesn’t want to regret not having enough kids. Or he’ll say “if the next one is also a boy, we pretty much have to have a third to try for a girl…” I don’t want three kids. If we have two boys I am fine with stopping. One has been difficult on me, hard on my body, everything. We also waited until our 30s to start a family so we aren’t spring chickens anymore. I feel like he doesn’t understand because he’s not the one doing the primary caregiving. I am the one doing the middle of the night wake ups, not him. He also tries to sleep in on the weekends and I have to ask him to get up to take the baby for a couple hours so I can sleep a bit longer. He does do it without complaint, but I can tell he wants to sleep in and never offers.

I have another mom friend who has two under two and we discuss the challenges of motherhood. Of course we love our kids but there’s no doubt babies are extremely draining and difficult. She used to want like 4 or 5 kids but she’s now thinking she may stop at 2. We were all hanging out one day and discussing kids and family and he was saying he wants a big family with at least three kids. She was telling him that it’s really about whatever the mom’s capacity is and if I don’t think I can handle three then we shouldn’t. He was like “I love being (the baby’s) dad, it’s the best thing I’ve done,” etc. As if this is reason enough to have multiple kids. It was just kind of cringey and out of touch. I do know that he would stop at 2 if that’s what I really wanted, so it’s not like he would force me into having a third or anything. It’s just kind of annoying that he doesn’t understand WHY I only want two.

I’m just getting kind of irritated, I feel like he’s in his own world.

My son is 8.5 and overall a good kid but man some days he’s just bouncing off the walls. And no matter what we do to redirect him it’s almost like he can’t help himself. If you have seen a change for better or worse what did you do?

Is it just me or is this the hardest shit ever? We’ve got 4 kids all under the age of 8 and we are getting our asses kicked. My wife and I really wanted a family and we planned for it. We took parenting classes together, we read all the books in preparation before starting our family…still, nothing could have prepared us for how mentally and emotionally exhausting it is to keep up with our boys.

How are you all surviving?

Maybe it's just me but, Ive been single since my oldest was less than a year old. As such, I have slept with one or both of my kids for going on 12 years. I don't like to sleep alone and they don't either so we've always slept together. It's convenient too because I have a two bedroom apartment but only one air conditioner for upstairs so we all are comfortable in the summer!

My youngest sleeps on a full size mattress with me and my oldest has a twin like a foot away with a table between us. We have the tv on my oldests side and the fan and air conditioner and all the plushies on our side.

When school started I asked my oldest if she wanted her room to herself and she said no. My youngest will probably sleep with me as long as I let her 🤣

They both have normal social lives and have sleepovers here and other places, and are capable of sleeping on their own, but we prefer to sleep together.

Anyone else?

My daughter is turning 10 and I want to surprise her with 10 gifts, 1 a day leading up to her birthday. She is an amazing kid and I would love to surprise her with this to hype her bday up! What are some ideas 10 yr old girls like? Yes, I know, just buy her things she likes but sometimes I need crowd sourcing to help me think outside of "my" box.

If your elementary age child came home on a Friday with a poor behavior report from their teacher for not one but multiple rules broken, would you allow them to spend the weekend as scheduled, attending play dates and a bday party? Or would you say sorry you’ve lost those privileges this weekend? For me it’d be the latter. Otherwise how will they learn, if there are no consequences for their behavior. Especially at school where the teachers need parents support in creating a positive learning environment.

I have two kids (4yo and 6yo) and every year I do this same dance with school shoes and might be lowkey starting to dread it now.

Buy now and chances are my 6yo scuffs them into oblivion or grows out of them by November and then I'm buying twice anyway. On the other hand, I am really not up for the week before school buy rush I swore I wouldn't do again. Is there a science to the timing of this? Any more seasoned parents who got the cheat code especially when buying for multiple kids? Not sure holding on for a maybe deal is even worth it anymore.

Our toddlers bedroom leads to the loft. The railing is taller than him but we have a desk against it. We typically never have furniture against the railing for obvious climbing hazard reasons but we have been moving everything out of one room to create a nursery for our daughter. Soon there will be no furniture against the loft railing.

Our toddler has never opened his own door and doesn’t know how to. But given ample time in the opportunity, he could probably figure it out soon. He is on a floor bed that he doesn’t leave until we come into the room. He COULD leave the bed - it’s just a mattress on the ground - but he’s had it for a year and still has never left it when he wakes up.

I am thinking locking his door from the outside is a good idea now that he’s getting bigger and will be able to open the door soon. He is 28 months. But I’m wondering once we remove the furniture from against the railing if that’s really necessary?

What would you do? He has never shown any interest in climbing over the railing and doesn’t even throw toys off the loft or anything like that. He is what most would call an “easy toddler” but I’m still nervous. Is locking the door from the outside weird? Once he’s old enough to fully understand the concept of the loft and falling, I of course wouldn’t lock him in there because of the fire hazard.

So I have 2 boys, a 2 year old and 3 year old,they are 14 months apart. They have the typical sibling rivalry and sometimes won't share or fight over toys etc. The youngest one still has trouble sharing and sometimes pushes or hits when brother takes toys or gets in his space.

We have had play dates with a couple that are our friends and we are their daughter's godparents, they have a 3 year old son and their daughter who is 1. Sometimes my 2 year has pushed or hit the boy and sometimes he doesn't want to share his toys with my son which is okay since they are his toys. His dad becomes visubly upset that our son has either hit him or made him cry. One time my son picked up a stick and tossed it in the air and it landed on his son's head. He cried and his dad obviously was upset. His mom understood it was an accident and she said he didn't mean to. We apologized and took stick away. Another time our sons were jumping in the trampoline with his son and my 3 year old got too close and they bumped into each other and his son landed close to the edge and he started crying. His dad got upset because his wife was supposed to be supervising and his song got hurt because we were not watching our son and making sure he wasn't too close.

Whenever our sons are misbehaving we tell them no and try to correct the behavior and tell them what is wrong and why. The dad is constantly watching out kid's' every move and at every play date he starts asking if we give our son enough attention and maybe we are not correcting his behavior. He told my husband that he gives his son a lot of attention when he gets home and tries to be the best father he can be and always talks to him about what is correct behavior, etc and that maybe we aren't having conversations with our son about these behaviors.

He tells us his son only gets triggered when other kids misbehave. That his son does so well with other children he plays with because they "do behave." He tells us that as a parent he watches his children closely and that he is always ready to act before something bad happens in order to prevent accidents or injuries (bringing up the inciden with the stick). I always respond that every kid is different and do through phases and that I correct my child like 1000 times a day and he is going through his terrible twos and that we do our best to correct his behavior. There have been times where his son has snatched our son's toy and they tell him to give it back.

He goes on with this lecture for the entire time we are there. His wife is sweet but mostly stays quiet, she only comments here or there that kids fo through phases but she never says anything to him. He always apologizes after saying that he is just being honest and trying to give good advice. Most play dates have been ay their home and we have invited them at our place but after these incidents he has suggested the park instead.

I believe he is showing off his parenting in a way and judging our child and our parenting at every single visit. He prefers the park because he sees it as a controlled environment where his son doesn't have to be placed in a situation where he will be hurt or cry over a toy. You can tell he gets very upset if another child hurts his son even if by accident.

I have lost my desire to do play dates with them and after speaking to my husband we want to have a talk with them. He seems like a helicopter parent? And he doesn't want anyone to hurt his son or another child to make him cry, sometimes its unavoidable and can't protect your child every second. His wife even said older kids at a park have taken a toy and he has hit them back. I don't know what to say to them anymore. Seems like dad believes he is right and is protecting his son, which I understand but its always a huge lecture on parenting, discipline and our misbehaving child. I know we are not perfect parents and our child isn't either but I don't know how he can have high expectations from our child who is 2. No matter what we say in terms of our methods and child behavior/psychology seems like he thinks he is right.

What would you do? Am I wrong for feeling so upset that we are getting judged this way and it always ends in us leaving like someone just scolded us and told us to do better. What would you do?

What can we do with a baby that will cry all day, all the time not being held/touched by mom (my wife). My wife can’t sit in the couch with me because the kid will scream and cry. Being in sight isn’t enough. She needs my wife on the floor with her, touching. She won’t play independently. She is not learning independence. If I take her to the room by myself she can be fine but the minute my wife walks in she screams and cries. We are tired of it. If I hug my wife while she is on the floor the kid comes to push me away and cry. If my wife is nursing the sister (twins), she comes and tries to push her and cry. The baby won’t let ANYONE else be or breathe. We are tired. My wife and I can’t spend time together. My wife can’t walk. The baby crawls and we thought when she could move it would be better because she could follow, but no. Now it’s worse than ever. She starts crying while crawling demanding to be picked up. She is one year old! It’s been like this for a whole year, I would say this is the worse it has ever been. She goes to the pediatrician for every well check, her doctor didn’t say much when we brought it up. She is physically healthy. She does OT with early intervention, OT has been dismissive (she’s too young I think). Wearing her all day is not feasible. We are at a loss. It’s affecting our relationship. This is not sustainable. We do not know what to do or who to ask. She has always been very hard but this is beyond everything else.

My almost 9 year old refused to learn how to tie his shoes (so we buy shoes that don’t require a tie of laces). Ok, whatever, not a big deal in the scheme of things. However, he also refused to memorize my phone number, his father’s phone number, and his address. I’ve tried all sorts of methods and nothing. He won’t even attempt. So opposite of his older sibling. Any suggestions?

We’ve had an unexpected death in the family and currently live in another country. Due to our visa application we were unable to travel for a while but now we’re all clear and will be the first time travelling with our 19 month old daughter. It’s going to be an 11 hour flight or 17+ hours if we do a layover. We’re opting for the longer flight but shorter travel time. Any advice for parents having made a long trip as well as the first time flying with a little one.

So our 16 week old has been rolling from tummy to back for probably 4-5 weeks but in the last 2 days has been getting better and better at rolling back to tummy. Shes got about 50% success rate on going back onto her back without help, just depends on her arm placement when she rolls onto her tummy.

However, our 2x a night wakes has turned into 4x a night wakes (about 2-3 hours apart) and we’re always finding her frustrated on her tummy. We rock her to sleep typically but this was not working.

What do we do to get her back to sleep?Just offer her a small snack for comfort/reset (I assume she’s also burning more calories with all this movement)? Also, how long does this last? She room shares with us and she’s too young for sleep training.

My freshly 1 year old has a string bottle sleep association.

We’ve been trying to break it but he will literally cry until I give him a bottle for bedtime. He once cried for 2 hours. We did hold him and Rock at points but at 9pm we gave in.

I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to break this. Please help.

Have a meeting for a 504/IEP tomorrow and have no idea what accommodations to ask for.

Can you share what you asked for with your kiddo if you’ve done it?

ETA ADHD Combined

Thanks in advance!

School starts in a few weeks and my daughter still isn't confident with division facts. She froze up on me last week and I panicked a little. started using mathhero to practice specifically division. she thinks she's just playing a game but she's actually drilling. We've only been at it for 2 weeks but she's getting faster. Fingers crossed this helps when school starts.

Anyone else doing last-minute skill building before school? What are you guys using to help with it?

I feel so guilty right now. We have a 6 week old newborn and a very high energy and loud almost 5 year old.

The 5 year old has been challenging since she turned about 4. Just huge emotions, battling for control, no impulse control and very short temper. It has gotten a lot better the past few months but it still pops up, especially when she’s tired. She has nothing but amazing reports from school but then she gets home and falls apart.

This weekend I have felt so guilty about being overstimulated. I am wishing for my 5 year old to go to pre-k so I can go back into my quiet newborn bubble. My older daughter is a big mommy’s girl and it’s been hard finding the energy to not just make sure I give her a little of my time each day, but to gather enough energy to make it good time together.

I used to have so much patience for her but right now I just don’t. My husband is doing so much to help support me and help with the kids but mentally I’m struggling with the noise and her wanting to be attached to me and the baby.

Please tell me this gets better. I feel like such a bad mom.

My 15 year old and 12 year old escalated their teenage antics recently. So I confiscated both of their phones for a week, tied the phones inseparably together with nylon rope, and duct taped them to the corner of my home office desk.

Is it too much? Or about right?

It's not the first time we've had to do the phone confiscation routine.