Everyone in my house has been regularly sick since September. Everyone except me. I’ve been looking after two toddlers and my husband (when he’s home from work) plus the house and getting Christmas sorted and getting our daughter’s birthday sorted (next week). Oh and just as he was getting better, our son has started teething so all he wants is to breastfeed and lay in my lap and shout “off!” at his sister if she tries to snuggle.

But this morning it has caught up with me… I woke up with a sandpaper throat, a cough, and severe sinus congestion along with a headache. I have no medicine for me. I don’t even have honey to make honey and ginger tea. I don’t have cough drops or even peppermints. My husband has to work so he can’t help. With being sick and being out of my asthma meds I don’t think I should be pushing the twin pram uphill into town in the cold.

So I’ll just get on with my day and try to pretend like I’m not miserable and exhausted.

I am a completely single mom. My son will be three this month. His father has zero parenting time. I work full time. And I keep a healthy routine for my son. It is so nuch to manage and we just got over Halloween, suddenly it's Thanksgiving, soon it is his birthday, and then Christmas and New Years and about half a dozen cousin birthdays in between. This week I put off laundry until Sunday.

My son and I go to the laundromat most weekends to do our laundry. So I loaded up the car and drove down there. It was so crowded I couldn't stand it. The table where he could sit and color was surrounded. I just couldn't do it.

I told them to do a wash and fold this time. Best $70 I ever spent. I took my son shopping for good sales on Christmas stuff. We decorated our house. Our tree is up. We cleaned.

And then all our fresh sheets and towels and laundry came back all folded and nice!

I would have hardly got anything done if I had to deal with that laundromat yesterday!

I think I will do this every holiday weekend! My new tradition!

I figured if anyone understood it would be fellow moms.

I feel like no one really sees or understands who I am as a person.

For example, a while ago my husband came out of the store and handed me a drumstick ice cream cone. Very nice! Especially because he doesn't do things like that very often. But I'm lactose intolerant and have never once eaten ice cream during our 10 year marriage. I can tell you what his favorite cake is, his favorite color, his favorite musician, on and on. I do not think he could do the same.

It's like people don't see me.

Receiving well-meaning gifts from my mom, husband or the occasional friend is painful. They just have no clue. I know, I sound ungrateful. I guess I am. I tell them what I like, but they don't listen.

Some days I feel like an appliance that earns a salary and cooks dinner.

SPOILERS

I am 4 seasons into this godforsaken show. The way the craster wildlings left the babies in the snow makes my toes clench. The crying effect they used sounded like my own babies when they were newborns.

Also WHY with the Cersei and Jaime Lannister storyline???????

And honestly? I’m tired of it. Kid wanted to play hockey and take drum lessons but dicks around during team practice and only touches his drumsticks and drum pad when I make him. Puts forth the bare minimum in school, despite his map scores being in the top 5%. DH is about ready to pull him from activities and honestly? I’d be totally on board except he’d just want unlimited screen time, which I’m not Ok with. Especially since he and his best friend just wind each other up online. Then comes the mom guilt because my current job has me working until 6:00 some nights and I’m not always there to supervise him after school (dad works from home, but that’s just it-he works and can’t actively supervise). Just needed to scream into the void. And tighten up restrictions on his iPad and hide the PS5 controller.

Then how about you stop throwing it away, because you’re doing just that every time you stop at the liquor store and every time you speak to me disrespectfully.

Ugh. Men!

I have adhd and autism. Husband stayed home to cook a brisket. Played video games while I worked, did a little DIY on the kids room...

I did laundry, filled humidifiers (I and kid have colds), worked, forgot lunch, and I ended the day over stimulated.

I asked for permission/requested to go upstairs to stare into the void while I tried to listen to a club meeting. Not 10 minutes in, he's coming up the stairs with Little

She's making noises. Noises. I needed not noises. Why the fuck are they here??

I'm so close to a meltdown but I can't because it's almost bed time.

Fuck fuck fuck.

Eta: he decided to take her when I started crying. Fuck.

My daughter came into our bed last night and husband went to her bed. He came back in and told me it was 7am and I freaked out and got up thinking I was late. It was 5.50 (don’t have to be up till 6.45) and he got into my side of the bed and went to sleep.

We’ve been messaging all morning, me asking for a proper apology and him saying he didn’t think it was a big deal, that he couldn’t sleep all night, that he thought he was being nice letting her sleep there instead of putting her back in bed…

He says it’s no big deal as if the day before he didn’t take 4 Valium ‘by accident’ so he couldn’t take her to school, making me late for work. He only has to do drop-offs this week after a total of 6 drop-offs/ pick-ups since the start of school in January. He also missed the school inclusion meeting yesterday afternoon because of the Valium, even though he was sitting on his computer working when we got home.

I’m so annoyed. But maybe I’m too annoyed because his dad passed away 6 weeks ago. But it’s a pattern of behaviour that far exceeds that timeframe. I don’t know, maybe I’m being the crazy one.

We couldn’t pay November’s mortgage or my car payment, the only two things we’re keeping.. the bank emailed our lawyer today asking us to handle it.

I asked him what to do, said my husband’s business isn’t doing well (it’s not) and then screenshotted his response to send to my husband, as he wasn’t home.

He saw the comment about his business and is upset with me. Bromos it fucking isn’t doing well. I’m talking maybe $2k all month, that’s not including taxes & expenses.

I literally don’t know what more to do. I’ve got to call the bank tomorrow to make arrangements but I’m so fucking over him pretending this is sunshine and rainbows. Your business is drowning, we’re drowning. Fucking FIGURE it out.

Hi friends, I’m F(22) with a 3 month old baby, unfortunately months ago I found out my boyfriend was talking to only fans girls. So I’m in a position to either leave or stay. Some context though, I used to be a SW back then when I met my boyfriend then we found out we were pregnant I deleted all of my SW content/websites etc because he didn’t agree with me doing it at all, so I thought about our family first now that I found out he was doing that to me it makes me feel like I deleted my “career” if you wanna call it that. He says “making content and watching are two different things.”

Am I in the wrong here? I truly need advice.

Because it was really fucking bad.

It started Sunday. We invited friends out to the Zoo and we're trying to meet them there because we were running late. 3.5 year old (we'll call her L) was super whiny and overstimulating me like crazy. Finally she let loose in a meltdown over nothing and cried so hard she threw up all over herself. Naturally I had just removed extra shirts from the diaper bag to make room so now I have to text our friends that we won't make it. My DH handles the clean up while I have my worst possible parenting moment ever. We get home and luckily L still wants to cuddle with me so we get her in clothes and lay her down on the couch to watch Spidey.

She then pops a fever so meds are given.

A couple hours later I go from "I'm not feeling so great" to "fuck I'm really sick".

Couple hours after that my husband pops a fever and goes down.

The only one left standing is the 18-month-old (we'll call her C).

L had a fever every day from Sunday to this past Saturday. She started to get better Wednesday and then got worse Thursday. Naturally the urgent care trip showed nothing wrong, all her vitals were perfect. Even her lungs were clear! She spent most of the week screaming every time her nose ran, eating next to nothing, only drinking water and chocolate milk, and insisting that we lay with her for naps and bedtime. Anytime we didn't resulted in a total meltdown.

Mind you DH and I are also sick. We took Monday off and sent C to my Mails. Tuesday I went in and left at noon with only 2.5 hours left (I work in the schools and my day is 730 to 230). I luckily didn't have a fever at all. Both my husband and daughter did. Because my symptoms were less I also had to do some of the shopping and errands which used up so many spoons.

Meanwhile C didn't even have a sniffle. Perfectly healthy the whole time. Though she was the most recent one to have a flu shot. L and DH didn't and mine was at the beginning of November.

There was no Thanksgiving. There was no family get together, no turkey, no friendsgiving with our friend group and their kids. There was only snot, tissues, bottles of meds, and lots of tears and screaming.

As the week went on L began to refuse meds more and more (mind you we're only doing Tylenol and Motrin) to the point that DH and I had to hold her down like a feral cat which resulted in more screaming and meltdowns. I love her so much but she is absolutely insufferable when she's sick. She just cries and whines constantly about her nose running even with the tissues RIGHT THERE.

I lost my cool Friday and cried on the way to take both cats to the vet solo because I got better quicker than everyone else. Sleep was minimal as we're naps. Self care? Don't know her. It got to the point that I spent most of Saturday in a vertigo like state because of the lack of water and taking my meds. Also the lack of sleep. Even when I managed to lie down L would come to lie with me and then she turned over and oh yay, she pooped in our bed and it soaked down to the mattress!

Sunday was the first day L didn't have a fever about 102. My parents smoked and brought over a turkey and my in-laws brought over stuffing and sweet potatoes and we finally had a thanksgiving dinner. I made Mac and cheese and delivered it to our friends house for friendsgiving because I had already bought the stuff for it and didn't want it to go bad.

So there you have it, our worst thanksgiving yet. I know others have most likely had it much worse but damn, this one fucking sucked.

0/10, would not recommend. looking forward to my kids' immune systems jacking up so this stops happening.

Appreciate the space to get it all out, please delete if not allowed.

I just need to vent. He does so much for me and the kids, so it's not like he's a lazy man who just plays games all the time. If anything, he does more around the house than I do, while the majority of child care falls to me. We both work full time, except right now I'm on paid mat leave.

We have a baby and a toddler. My husband has taken up playing chess, live, on his phone. It's timed, so he can't just walk away from a game without it affecting his player rating.

He often chooses really stupid (imo) times to start a game, and then gets really mad if someone distracts him. It doesn't help that he doesn't tell anyone he's going to play and asks to have some time to himself, he'll just disappear into another room, or sit on the couch, but for all anyone knows, he's scrolling his phone.

I don't want to be an asshole to him. It's a good activity, and his mental health has been less than ideal, so an escape like that I'm sure is good for him, but fuck me, surely your chess game isn't so important that you're going to start multiple fights with your wife and yell at your toddler over?

It's really starting to piss me off.

Thank you for reading my rant.

I need advice from bromos. I’m an adult child of emotionally unintelligent parents and I have a child of my own, their grandkid. Long story, but we moved during covid to be closer to them and now it’s been a few years and my husband and I are ready to move back to where we once lived (about 30 minutes away, as opposed to where we live now which is only slightly closer). For some reason though, this short distance to my parents seems like an ocean away.

They flipped out on me and idk what is an appropriate reaction on my part or if any of this is normal or on what scale of dysfunction this is on because I’ve grown up with them acting this way my entire life so my “normal” is not normal if that makes sense.

We are moving in a few weeks and I have been going through the most busy time of my life EVER lately so I haven’t had a chance to have a proper visit with them in a while. My preference was to tell them in person rather than over text or email to be considerate. Now that it was just a holiday week I finally was able to have a proper “visit” with them that wasn’t thanksgiving with other family members or a holiday party with a bunch of their friends. I could have told them sooner, I realize that would be ideal, but I don’t think it was the timing that was the issue, so I don’t want to focus on that aspect but I’m always questioning what I might have done wrong or done differently my entire life to gain acceptance from my parents but I think it’s just them.

Ok back to the story - sorry this is all over the place. I told my mom we were moving yesterday when we made a time to bake cookies with my kiddo. It was finally a quiet “good” time to tell her and I have been EXTREMELY nervous leading up to this I could have a panic attack just thinking about it. I am an adult mind you, a mom, and this is stupid I feel this way. But I told her we were moving.

She knew we wanted to move since over the summer when I had my house listed for sale. I de-listed it because I got overwhelmed and they kind of just forgot about it I guess. Anyway I am under contract and have a closing date and a new house we will be moving into that we LOVE. It’s in our old neighborhood that we should never have left. It’s a long story but they guilt tripped us into moving closer to them when we had a kid. We didn’t want to initially, we thought about selling our old house and buying a bigger one in our old neighborhood. Instead we moved to be closer to them. We hate it here. It’s more rural here and not our vibe. Our neighbors are wacky people with too much time on their hands, busybodies who like to stir up drama and we are bored quite frankly and miss the city center our old house/neighborhood was in.

Let me back up a bit to provide some backstory and let me say I have nothing against religion and I respect peoples beliefs, and we used to attend the same church as them but things took a weird turn. We went on vacation with them a few years ago and we ALL missed church as a result one week. Then I got covid coming home and missed church the second week. Week three I wasn’t feeling well either and that is when my dad positively FLIPPED out. Lots happened but main thing is that he screamed at me a bunch in front of my little child about how we “are not going to church.” I explained the reasons why, aka valid reasons, but still he was set on being mad no matter what. It messed up our relationship for a while and it was ongoing for months with many blow ups until it finally calmed down.

Ok now fast forward to yesterday: my mom was explaining the various church youth groups my kid could attend when older, telling me about the church service earlier that day and how great it was, blah blah.

Obviously I have been delaying this so I was like okay there’s never going to be a perfect time so just tell her today, so I did. She immediately teared up and her face turned red and she was about to cry. I explained how we missed our old neighborhood and we were over the moon about the new house etc. I asked what’s wrong? And she said “I won’t see you guys as much” (meaning me and my kid, they don’t really care for my husband that much). And I assured her that the extra 15 mins wouldn’t affect visitation and pointed out that me and my kid used to spend the night at her house more frequently when we lived a bit farther away.

Also, as a side note, my parents would not even notice the difference if I moved away and didn’t tell them. I’m serious! They never come over, never drop off my kid, have picked him up from my house two times only. So why does it matter where we live IN THE SAME CITY?

Anyway the pattern with them is this: I have to tell my mom any “upsetting” news first as my dad will immediately start yelling at me. She then will tell him and he may yell but at least I’m not present during the initial anger because it really is awful. My mom will seem fine at first but then she will turn passive aggressive and then maybe blow up at me a few days or months later.

Ok so we are at phase 1: she told my dad this morning I guess, because I got a text from him that was just this:

“😭😭😭😭😭”

Then I saw the typing dots for a while and then nothing for several hours. I could feel my heart rate elevate immediately.

Several hours later he texts me this:

“Woke up to your mom in hysterical crying thanks for the heads up. Have a great day and give (inset child name) a hug for me”

I KNOW this is bad. These texts and the radio silence from my mom today means they are PISSED. I can just imagine the conversations they’re having, the bitchy stories they’re telling their friends, and the great excuse to drink wine this is for my dad. It will probably get worse before this is all said and done. They probably think I ruined Christmas and my life or something just horrible like that.

I have NO IDEA what to even do at this point given our history of blow ups. The church attendance example was just a recent example, there are MANY over the years and it’s what explains all my mental health problems over my life. It has been excruciating being me since I was a child. I walk around on eggshells and I am not able to be myself and live my life the way I want. I have actually moved to another state before bc they are so controlling.

I am successful, I have a great career, I have my sh*t together but it’s NEVER enough. What do you make of all this and what should I do now? Does his text warrant a response? Do I let them cool off and be the first to reach out? Do I bend over backwards to placate them? What is normal?

I have GOT to break this pattern somehow and I don’t want to live like this under their conditional love situation. Thanks to anyone who made it this far!

I just found out that he won't be moving out until at least January and I'm about to have a meltdown.

We've been waiting on our current condo tenants to find a new place so he can move back in there. They told us they had applied for a place and I'd really been hoping they would get it and GTFO, but he just told me they paid the full December rent check.

He has been so fucking awful since getting back from his monthlong tour. Mean to me, cranky, way more absentminded than usual. And for some reason we're still going through the motions which just makes it worse, like eating dinner with the kid and making Costco runs. But we're also not really speaking to each other because he's so angry with me for refusing to "work on things" (dude it's been five years of "working on it," I'm done). For fuck's sake I'm not even sure why he's so hell bent on staying together, because he's making it pretty clear he hates my guts.

I have been sleeping in the sewing room on a cheap IKEA futon for over a year and I am SICK. OF. IT. I want to sleep in the new bed I ordered for myself, in a warm part of the house, near a bathroom that's not infested with spiders.

Bromos I am exhausted. How the fuck do I do this for another month? Or two? Oh my god.

He met this girl playing Gorilla Tag on the oculus. I didn't know about her for a couple of months, then I randomly started getting his chat messages and I could see them messaging each other. Its mostly stuff like "meet me in this game", but there was a short conversation telling each other that they like each other. So there's that.

Fast forward to about two weeks ago. He got a new phone and starting talking to this girl using some app. His room is on the first floor off the living room and we make him keep his door open when he's playing video games so I could hear pretty much everything, and she sounded like a preteen girl and acted like one. But we all know that might not be true. This past weekend somehow my youngest got invited to these chat sessions I had him show me the texts between him, this girl and my oldest, and he showed me a pic f this girl and and she looked like a nerdy (my son is a nerd lol) 12 yo girl.

So what's my next step? I've talked to 12 yo about this and reiterated how to stay safe online. Should I see if I can speak to this girls parent? Or is that going too far? If it was an adult, id he able to find out if they're real just by using a free database but I don't know how to find a child. Should I have my son ask her her parents name?

What should my next step be? Or should I leave it be?

I have had two abortions in the past two years. Before these took place our sex life was relatively normal. Now its not. He isnt happy. I have anxiety around sex because I dont want to have to endure that pain and trauma over again. It fucked me up. I feel like he is failing to realize that despite having no other option I still mourn and grieve the loss of those pregnancies. I don't know how to fix it or make it better. I try to explain this to him and he doesnt understand. He just assumes it has something to do with him. I feel like him getting a vsectomy would ease my anxiety, but he doesnt want to do it because I think he is holding out hope that maybe one day we will have a son, but I have no desire to have another child Has anyone else dealt with this experience? Any advice?

I'm 30 years old and have three kids, ages 7, 3, and 1. I love being a mom and support other new mommies when they ask for help. I have two people that still talk to me since I started having kids. One of them had their first child last year and since then, she has always reached out to me for some advice/help when she asked for it. Before her child, we only ever hung out once in a blue moon but we have gotten closer since I'm one of her only friends that has kids and she would honestly message me a whole lot whenever she felt lost. I was trying to be as supportive as I can while I go through my own post partum woes. I listened to her rant and cry about the struggles she had. I also showed a lot of love and care for her child. This friendship was going great until one day she asked my husband and I if her daughter can stay at our place for one night. We were a bit hesitant because she just turned one and this was the first time she ever asked to babysit, so we were worried about how distressed her child might be for staying a whole night (not to mention taking care of our own three kids). However, my friend explained how she really needed a sitter because for some reason her husband and her were not at good terms atm(?) and she needed to assist her sick family that night. While my husband and I were a bit suspicious at first, we decided to do it anyway because we understood her family's current health condition and took it as an emergency. It was a little rough, but we made it through the night. What was kind of annoying is how she didn't pack her diaper bag well enough with clothes (she left two onesies that dont even fit the poor girl), but my husband and i just thought she's probably under a lot of stress. On the same day, I was looking at recent instagram stories and came across a mutual friend's story that was interesting. For context, my friend (we'll call her sam), was once a popular streamer/cosplayer and has a circle of friends from this. Sam hangs out with this group a lot and was much closer to them than me before having a baby. For further context, we have always been good friends since my husband and I knew her since high school, but as I mentioned we only got closer when she had her kid. However, we never really got to know/meet her other friends since she always hung out with them separately (and it was never a problem for my husband and I). One of her friends from her circle is also a mutual friend, or person I just happen to also follow on Instagram. He had posted a photo collage of a birthday celebration for Sam and another friend in their circle. I don't think he knew that we were watching Sam's kid over night, nor did Sam knew we were mutual followers. Now I understand that we mommies need a break here and there, and it's especially difficult the first years but what hurts me from this whole thing is how she felt the need to lie. I was infuriated. I was hurt. I couldn't believe she would even think to use her family's terminal illness as an excuse to go out to party with her other friends. My husband and I would maybe have considered watching her child if she was honest about her friends wanting to celebrate her birthday. It might have been weird since we were not invited, but it's kind of weird how her husband couldn't watch her or any of her other family members. I didn't confront her about this since she still talked to me the same after the event as if everything was normal, but I've been giving less responses and interactions since then. She's been hanging out with her streaming circle a lot more lately, almost every weekend. It's really not my business anymore and my husband and I just decided to not help this much again, but I'm still feeling kind of torn about this event. I might seem a bit selfish and whiney here, but I didn't have this kind of support when I had all three of my kids. I rarely reached out to anyone about my struggles and always had to just learn on my own. As I mentioned, I only had two people I talked to but I never burdened them with my life as a mother. I cannot comprehend how anyone would just use others for their own fun, while knowing the people who help them have struggles of their own!
I'm really here to just rant about how uncomfortable I've been feeling since then. I should let it go, but she's moving on like it doesn't even bother her that she used my husband and I as some sort of backup. There was even a time when we wanted to try to hang out again, but she's been too busy every time we ask. I guess I just feel so used and wish I could confront her about it. I would like to do it in person and not through text, since it's so easy to avoid. Thank you for reading this far if you have.

My husband says all the time (to me) that he doesn’t relate with our 12 year old son. He constantly compares him to my side of the family which he doesn’t get along with. Just the other day, he was comparing him to my family and my son asks “Dad, why are you always mean to me? Why are you insulting me?” I said something in return to my husband who responds that he’s tired of us “ganging up on him”.

I let it go. Next day, my son is talking back to me and I raised my voice. My husband speaks up and tells him as well that he needs to stop talking back… but then he keeps on to say “I don’t like your personality.” To our son!! That enraged me. My son left the room and I told my husband off.

Today, I asked him if he apologized to our son. The answer “no… no one apologized to me either.” He thinks I’m being ridiculously. I feel like I’m being gaslit but not sure…

Just need to shout out to universe how badly this sucks. We’ve been trying for a year, first positive on tgiving. Tests started getting lighter yesterday and we’re negative this morning.

I called my obgyn 4 hours ago to see if I could get a beta done and no call back. I started bleeding 30 minutes ago, so definitely not pregnant anymore. The front office worker just kept acting very dismissive, so I don’t plan on calling back or going in now, even if they do end up calling back. I have an infertility appointment on December 30th. So I’ll talk to them then.

Anyway glad I have my 2 yo. We’re snuggling and watching the grinch.

I’m a FTM with an 11 week old. She has been fussy and mad since birth. And I’m at my wits end. I feel like I’ve done everything I can to comfort and troubleshoot but nothing lasts and a lot of things just piss her off more. Rocking, bouncing, pacing, she spits out her binkie, refuses her bottle often, she’s on an expensive ass formula for reflux and gas, probiotics to help her constipation, startles herself into a screaming cry on her back, hates being on her tummy, loses her mind in a swaddle, refuses to be put down but also screams and throws herself around when I hold her, doesn’t tolerate baby wearing or baby swings, won’t sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time during the day, it’s a constant battle to even get her to go down so when she’s wakes up it makes me so frustrated. Pediatrician says she’s perfectly healthy. I’ve just accepted that she hates being alive and I’m a shitty mom who doesn’t have enough patience to deal with her. My MIL mom shamed me for being frustrated. She said I wanted my daughter so I shouldn’t get upset. I used to at least want to be around her but now whenever I see her my anxiety spikes and I wish I never had her. I’m so stupid for wanting to become a mom.

I'm having trouble keeping it together. Thanksgiving itself was lovely, low stress, everything I'd want it to be. Love, family, great food. Then Friday happened. My 14 year old dog had a seizure or stroke, and didn't make it. As my family is handling that, on Saturday my brother calls. My mom, who has been in a memory care near him for a year, passed away.

I don't know how to anything right now. I'm writing an obituary, and it's never going to be enough to capture my mom. My kids are grieving both their grandma and their dog, and I can't be as strong for them as I want to be because I'm broken.

So I'm crying into the void, trying to make travel plans for an out of state memorial, trying to find at least adequate words to memorialize my mom's life, and just trying to take one breath at a time.

Just found out I was pregnant. Super unsure about it. Even posted yesterday about wanting an abortion but I had just found out and was just in shock. I’m taking a little time to process it and I’m thinking maybe I do want it, but I’m so nervous. My first two are just shy of 13 months apart. And when this baby would be due, my first would be 3y3m and my second 2y2m. I loved having the 1 year age gap and am super nervous to have two toddlers and a newborn. Can anyone tell me your stories of how it’s gone for you? 3 is my absolute cutoff but I’m so nervous because I hear 3 is the hardest age and I mean my 1.5yo I feel will be a difficult toddler. 🙃

DAE’s partner do the thing where they decide they’re the only one who does housework so they stop doing it and stop asking the kids to do their share and then get mad at you when you refuse to play the passive aggressive game?

During the few weeks he was away for work, the (older teen) child and I were able to get our chores done regularly. Yes, I had to remind the offspring, because teenagers have brains made of cheese. But then spouse comes home and for a few weeks things are fine.

Then all of a sudden he just…goes on strike. He used to do this years ago. He’s be convince he’s the only one doing chores and when he quit, the self-fulfilling prophecy of stuff piling up happened. So this week he had time off work and no weekend commitments. Older child and I had school, work, and community activities so we weren’t at home a lot.

Spouse did some yard work yesterday, as did I (I used the blower/vacuum to clear leaves from the yard and boulevard), and did the laundry. Rather than let anyone know their laundry was done and folded (thank you, spouse, for doing the washing and folding!), he has left it in the bin on the dining table (granted, including his own). But we’re supposed to guess that he’s finished it and it’s ready to take downstairs to put away?

One of the kids’ chores is clearing the dishes when the wash cycle is done. Children had commitments this weekend, yet when they were home, Spouse didn’t mention the wash was done and needed to be put away. He chose instead to just keep piling more dirty dishes in the sink.

This is a thing I can’t stand. After years of living with roommates and quarrels over whose turn it is to do dishes, if there are dirty dishes in the sink with any water at all, I won’t touch it. I won’t even do dishes at my mother’s house if she’s left water in the sink.

So now we have a bin full of (clean) laundry sitting in the middle of the den, a sink full of dirty dishes with more dirty dishes piled on the counter, a dishwasher full of clean dishes, a compost bin overflowing, and I’m 100% positive I’ll be given the gears for being such a shitty housekeeper.

Which isn’t untrue; my degrees are in biology and philosophy, not home economics. His are in geology and public policy.

I’m responsible for getting the children to school and work. He is responsible for much of the yard work, paying most of the bills (I pay insurance and mortgage; he pays the rest), and is primary pet carer. We split most of the chores fairly evenly; we both do laundry and cooking - he prefers a cleaner and more orderly environment and I’m more comfortable with some clutter and chaos.

We both work. We’re both tired. We’re both looking forward to retirement. It’s just so tiresome when he gets like this. So I’ve done what I learned to do in Uni, living with roommates: I’ve done my own dishes, I’ve done and put away my own laundry, I’ve done my share of pet chores, yard work, and housekeeping. I’ve talked to the kids (again) about getting their chores done without being asked.

My job is done.

I have 7.5-year-old twin boys and I know this is a time for lots of big emotions and a brief regression to toddler state, but honestly, I'm losing my grip.

Every single day one or the other or both of them has a complete meltdown. One of them gets angry and yells terrible things at me and can go on for hours, even if I send him to have some private time or ignore him (the only way to get him to calm down is for me to physically leave the premises for about 30 minutes, and I don't always have someone that can watch him), the other one gets incredibly sensitive and melts down in sadness at any perceived criticism, even if what I just said was something really nice.

Please, please tell me this phase will end. I cannot take feeling horrible and crying every day because they're so miserable.

Im not a theater girly. I was a chior girly but plays and stuff never were my thing. as stupid as it is i never knew wicked was even apart of the wizard of oz world. (Which ironically was my favorite movie as a kid) but i saw the movie for the first time last night and i know everyone wants to be galinda, shes awesome whatever. No. I am fully Elphaba. It hit home on almost ever single fucking aspect of my existsnce. Her story. Constantly bullied for being different, being forced to take care of others, never considered, needs never met, forgotten about, not seen, not being listened too, having to fight for any sort of recognition, being used, ect. Even when i was born... like her whole story is totally my story.

And watching it, crying, sobbing, laughing, it healed apart of my inner child that i cant explain.

And idk im glad i have therapy today lol.

Holidays. Great in theory. Suck in practice.

I invited my SIL and MIL up for Thanksgiving. They live in FL. We’re in the Carolinas. It’s a solid 8 hr drive.

Tell me why the fuck they leave at goddamned 3 pm? Get here at 1 am. One in the fucking morning.

They bring their fucking dogs. Dogs that are NOT house broken. Dogs that snap and growl at my kids and my dogs. I hate their dogs. Also dogs that they didn’t ask if it was okay to bring. Just showed up with them. Dogs that shit and pissed and are fucking food on my new carpet. 🤬

Then there’s the mess in the kitchen. My SIL does catering and went to culinary school. She is a good cook. My kitchen always looks like a damned disaster when she’s here. She likes to use my good kitchen knives to open plastic shit. Loads my dishwasher like a heathen. I don’t want to be ungrateful, truly, but gtfo. Get out!

And then there’s the moving things around. Every fucking time they’re here. Shit gets rearranged to suit them. It’s my fucking house. Stop. I don’t get that impulse. Just leave it be. You’re a guest here. Stop touching my shit.

My MIL is a Facebook grandma. She’s here for a handful of days, spends 5 minutes engaging with my kids then retreats to her stupid phone or iPad. Stay home! The kids deserve better than this. And the snide fucking comments. Lady, you remember I’m married to your son, yeah? I live with the product of your parenting skills. And, yeah, thanks but no thanks.

I’m going to tell myself never again until next year when I’ve forgotten how much I hate having them visit and do it all over in the name of fostering a relationship with my kids.

For the last couple of weeks, my 2 year old has been stripping naked and taking off her nappy at night, and then complaining that she’s woken up in a big puddle of pee. We’ve tried putting her sleepsuits on backwards, putting an extra reusable shell on her, and we’ve just got some waterproof mattress protectors. She manages to Houdini out of all of it. What else can we do except duct taping the nappy on?

I feel guilty even saying it, but I’m tired. I don’t have PPD, but right before my period, I get really down. My period is supposed to come in 3 days. Baby is four months today, and I love her more than anything in the world, but I just feel worn out.

I breastfeed and I also pump because I overproduce and that’s hard enough by itself. My partner works and I don’t, so I’m supposed to take care of things at home…right? Easier said than done. I feel like such a failure when I don’t get to finish all the dishes because baby is crying and he’s not home to help or he can’t soothe her and I have to stop what I’m doing to step in (we usually just switch. So I’ll take baby, he’ll finish whatever I just stopped doing) or when I don’t have the energy to make breakfast because she randomly decided that she wouldn’t sleep through the night. Now her dad is eating cereal before work, but I know he probably wants an actual meal. Sometimes I don’t finish dinner until 10pm or later because I have to keep stopping. I’m trying to create new routines, but it seems to be unrealistic because of the baby. It feels like I can’t get anything done when I want/need to.

She sleeps through the night most nights, but she has her days. On the other hand, nearly every night, she won’t sleep unless I allow her to be latched on. So I lay her down facing me, stomach to stomach, but I can’t fall asleep because I’m sleeping in an awkward position and every time I try to move her once I think she’s in a deep sleep, she pops back up.

She just started crying 10 minutes ago, I thought she was sleep for the night, and I just couldn’t deal with it. My partner is currently rocking her to sleep, and I just wanna ball up and cry. I’m just tired, and I don’t even want to tell him or anyone else because it just makes me feel like a bad parent when I say it out loud.

He has to work later on today and I don’t know how I’m going to manage while he’s gone, I really don’t.

Going through the motion of divorce, my ex decided to take our 6 yo daughter for the entire week. So I have not seen her ar all and barely hear from her. I am terrified that she will start choosing dad's new girlfriend over me. My therapist said that won't happen because "I'm mom". I want to scream at her and tell you don't know that! My daughter could very well replace me because the woman dad is dating (which he won't admit to, but who moves in a member of the opposite sex) is younger, more fun etc with no kids of her own. All my daughter has seen lately how mom is upset and she cries. She knows my ex is largely the cause, she's asked. But I always tell her no. I can't do this! I don't want to feel like I have to beg her to choose me. I don't want to be replaced! Now my family is even playing into it that she wont love them anymore either. That my ex has somehow bad mouthed them and she'll turn on them. I just want my baby girl back. I want to feel normal and like my kid won't actually hate me; that she doesn't hate me and it's ok.

I'm looking for mittens for my toddler and yet again saw a bunch of products that you can't put in the washing machine. Mittens. To be used by toddlers. In parks and streets with dogs and dirt and rocks. Spot-treat only. MY TODDLER IS A SPOT after any time outside!!! Or inside, tbh 🤦‍♀️🤬😂

My head is going to explode, who are all these people designing baby/toddler stuff that is hand wash/air dry only, omg. Like, I'm a sleep deprived zombie parent, I put a load of bottles into my washing machine once, WHAT DO YOU MEAN I can't zombie-wash my kid's crib sheets without getting a doll-sized make up bag? Looking at you, early Cradlewise. Or orrrrrr let's manufacture frickin' potty training underwear that has to be cold washed and air fried or it shrinks four sizes 🤬🤬🤬 Or, orrrr, you know, the sneaky a** companies that make handwash-only toddler water bottles/sippy cups and then DON'T PUT IT ON THE LABEL, just onto these sneaky little pieces of paper they drop inside the bottles. I can't see through solid objects, my guy?!

Whoever designs these things, ARE YOU OKAY, MFkr?! Reach out, we'll GoFundMe some therapy for you.

There seriously should be a licensing body for kids stuff. Hand wash only? Air dry? You'd like to include BRUSHES?! Straight to jail.

I just want manufacturers who don't make me move any extra muscles and don't make me think any extra thoughts. I don't want to keep track of what can be washed in what way, I just don't. Like, I feel like I stopped developing because my brain is constantly clogged by objects and their needs.